{"id":2612316,"date":"2026-06-09T08:11:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kristen-welkers-delusional-defense-of-brazen-california-election-is-why-everyone-hates-the-media\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T08:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:17:10","slug":"kristen-welkers-delusional-defense-of-brazen-california-election-is-why-everyone-hates-the-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kristen-welkers-delusional-defense-of-brazen-california-election-is-why-everyone-hates-the-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Welker Mocks Americans Who Don&#8217;t Share Her Faith In CA Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkristen-welkers-delusional-defense-of-brazen-california-election-is-why-everyone-hates-the-media%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2612316&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dozens-of-house-republicans-demand-mitch-mcconnell-stop-stalling-the-save-act-19\/\" title=\"Dozens of House Republicans Demand Mitch McConnell &#039;Stop Stalling the SAVE Act&#039;\">political piece argues<\/a> that the Los Angeles mayoral race outcome-where socialist City Councilwoman Nithya Raman appeared to fall short on election night but later surged ahead of Spencer Pratt-has raised legitimate questions about California\u2019s vote-counting process. It contrasts this with NBC\u2019s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker\u2019s repeated dismissal of concerns, framing Welker\u2019s stance as overly dismissive and compared to how she treated Trump\u2019s claims in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The article notes the large post-election shifts in vote totals (tens of thousands) and points to past allegations and cases involving voter-registration and voting irregularities tied to homeless voters in California. It cites examples such as a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >guilty plea involving paying people<\/a> on Skid Row to obtain signatures and help qualify measures for the ballot, and also earlier charges alleging fraudulent voter registrations submitted on behalf of homeless people.<\/p>\n<p>It further claims California\u2019s election rules themselves can contribute to suspicion by allowing ballots to be accepted after Election Day (up to a week), enabling delays that extend counting, and allowing registration with limited forms of identification. The piece argues that these features, combined with documented prior misconduct, mean skepticism should not be dismissed simply as \u201cthat\u2019s how California does elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>the writer broadens the argument by claiming that election integrity complaints-like those raised in Georgia after 2020-were often not fully adjudicated on the merits, and uses that to argue that \u201cno evidence\u201d dismissals overlook the barriers that prevented scrutiny from occurring.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Socialist Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman appeared to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/campaign-2026\/los-angeles-mayoral-candidate-nithya-raman-election-night-concession-speech\/680316\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concede<\/a> defeat Tuesday night after it looked like Spencer Pratt would advance to the November runoff election against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. But then votes kept pouring in days after the Tuesday election, and by Sunday evening, Raman had taken the lead over Pratt.<\/p>\n<p>The 180-degree-turn has left many scratching their heads: How does a candidate who was down by roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/06\/nithya-raman-spencer-pratt-la-mayor-race-latest-vote-count-1236949341\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">40,000<\/a> votes suddenly jump to second place <em>after<\/em> she herself publicly signaled her path to victory had all but disappeared? (Raman currently <a href=\"https:\/\/results.lavote.gov\/#year=2026&#038;election=4338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leads<\/a> Pratt by more than 20,000 votes, after post-election ballot dumps have gone <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/robbystarbuck\/status\/2063602942637158423?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overwhelmingly<\/a> in her favor.)<\/p>\n<p>For NBC\u2019s <em>Meet the Press<\/em> host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/donald-trump\/read-transcript-president-donald-trump-interviewed-nbc-news-meet-press-rcna348508\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kristen Welker<\/a>, however, questions about such outcomes are apparently evidence of nothing more than public ignorance. During a Sunday interview, President Donald Trump said the 2020 election was \u201crigged\u201d (and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/29\/7-insane-things-i-just-learned-about-how-u-s-elections-are-rigged\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he\u2019s right<\/a> \u2014 but more on that later) and that the same rigging is happening in California. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019s the evidence to that?\u201d Welker asked, repeatedly claiming the days-long vote counting is just how California does elections. But in Welker\u2019s eager dismissal she glossed over some glaring flaws in California\u2019s electoral system that raise the concerns of any American capable of critical thinking.<\/p>\n<p>As of Sunday, Raman had seen a swing of roughly 43,000 votes since election night. Pratt <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/spencerpratt\/status\/2063784193688056310?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">questioned<\/a> the ballot dump on X: \u201c43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before\u2026? Probably nothing.\u201d Below that message, he included a screenshot from a March article stating there are roughly 43,000 homeless people in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of whether the two numbers are related, California has a history of irregularities when it comes to homeless persons voting or registering to vote.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, 64-year-old Brenda Lee Brown pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of paying a person to register to vote after she allegedly paid homeless people on Skid Row to \u201chelp get initiatives on the ballot,\u201d the Los Angeles Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-05-18\/skid-row-voter-charges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>. According to her plea deal, Brown \u201cwould give people on Skid Row two to three dollars \u2014 or, sometimes, a cigarette or a phone cord \u2014 in exchange for their signature to help qualify a measure for the ballot,\u201d the Times reported. Armstrong \u201cwould also register neighborhood residents to vote, sometimes using her former home address, according to court records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2020 two people were charged for allegedly submitting thousands of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pa-county-voter-application-fraud-tied-to-large-scale-operation\/\" title=\"PA County: Voter Application Fraud Tied To &#039;Large-Scale&#039; Operation\">fraudulent voter registration applications<\/a> on behalf of homeless persons in Los Angeles County, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/local\/pair-charged-with-voter-fraud-allegedly-submitted-thousands-of-fraudulent-applications-on-behalf-of-homeless-people\/2464168\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NBC 4 Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While none of that means it\u2019s happened now in this race, it does prove that concerns about election administration and integrity shouldn\u2019t be automatically dismissed \u2014 unless, of course, you\u2019re Welker.<\/p>\n<p>As a whole, California\u2019s own election rules raise skepticism by design. The state allows all ballots postmarked by Election Day to be accepted up to seven days <em>after<\/em> the election, creating an election process in which counting can go on for days long after Americans believe an election is over. If a ballot is missing a postmark or if the postmark is disputed, officials can \u201cjust go by whatever date the voter wrote inside the envelope,\u201d election expert Hans Von Spakovsky told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/california-election-limbo-fueled-4-pressure-points-dragging-out-vote-count-expert-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>California has also allegedly blocked federal prosecutors from accessing voter registration records that the Department of Justice said were necessary to audit the state\u2019s voter rolls to ensure the state is complying with federal law, <a href=\"https:\/\/ktla.com\/news\/california\/u-s-attorney-accuses-california-of-blocking-voter-roll-audit-amid-legal-battle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">KTLA reported<\/a>. Notably, California\u2019s loose election laws permit individuals missing a driver\u2019s license or Social Security number to register to vote using something as simple as a gym membership for identification, which does not allow the state to check for citizenship or residency.<\/p>\n<p>Late arriving ballots, long counting times, and dramatic shifts in margins create curiosity, to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>There may be reasonable explanations for how Raman \u2014 who has trailed Pratt in the polls and barely had name recognition in the campaign <em>and<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/story\/2026-06-04\/primary-election-2026-map-mayor-neighborhood-results-precincts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">underperformed<\/a> in her own city council district \u2014 suddenly is No. 2 in the race. But Welker\u2019s \u201cthat\u2019s how they count the votes in California\u201d argument is hardly compelling. Reasonable people can observe a candidate who was trailing by tens of thousands of votes suddenly see that deficit disappear and ask questions without becoming conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n<p>Welker\u2019s dismissive attitude is the same attitude Welker had when Trump brought up how the 2020 election was \u201crigged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere\u2019s the evidence to that?\u201d Welker asked. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dd90bb\">The evidence \u201cto that\u201d was in <em>Trump v. Raffensperger<\/em>, to give just one example. In that <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/11\/courts-repeatedly-refused-to-consider-trumps-election-claims-on-the-merits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suit<\/a> filed in Georgia, Trump alleged specific violations of state election law and the casting of ballots by ineligible voters, such as 66,247 underage voters, 2,423 persons not registered, more than 1,000 voters who illegally listed a P.O. Box address as their address, more than 8,000 voters who died <em>before<\/em> their votes were cast, amongst other irregularities. Notably, Georgia\u2019s presidential race was decided by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/vote-2020\/2020\/12\/04\/recount-finds-biden-wins-georgia-by-slightly-smaller-margin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fewer than 12,000 votes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dd90bb\">But the merits of the case were never actually heard. As election integrity activists like <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/17\/jan-6-committee-ignores-clear-evidence-of-mass-illegal-voting-systematically-broken-election-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cleta Mitchell pointed<\/a> out, \u201cWe never were able to present our evidence to the court, however, because the chief judge of Fulton County, Chris Brasher, failed to appoint a judge eligible to hear the election contest for a month.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dd90bb\">Another difficulty, as described in these <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/03\/11\/courts-repeatedly-refused-to-consider-trumps-election-claims-on-the-merits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pages<\/a> by Bob Anderson, was that the counsel for the state \u201cdemanded in a Jan. 3 letter that all lawsuits against [Gov. Brian] Kemp, [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger, and the State Elections Board be dropped in order to \u2018cooperatively share information.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump\u2019s counsel accepted the offer of dismissal to get information they had requested, but it came as the timeframe to use it ended on Jan. 6. The suit <a href=\"https:\/\/unamericanbar.com\/filings\/GA\/still-v-raffensperger-decertification\/GA_-_Still_v._Raffensperger_-_Not_of_Di_OD4NSPE.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was withdrawn on Jan. 7<\/a>,\u201d Anderson wrote. <\/p>\n<p>The 2020 election also saw Mark Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/20\/trump-calls-for-special-prosecutor-to-investigate-rigged-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pour<\/a> hundreds of millions into turning out the vote in Democrat-heavy areas, brazen left-wing <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/04\/01\/fbi-gagged-agents-in-2020-to-prevent-voters-from-ever-learning-the-truth-about-hunters-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">censorship<\/a>, unlawful <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/11\/05\/the-u-s-supreme-court-should-act-on-pennsylvanias-vote-count\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">changes<\/a> to election law, weakening of election procedures, and the proliferation of mail-in balloting, among things.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-357b98\">Given California\u2019s extremely questionable election processes, documented cases of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/inside-one-gop-firms-secret-fight-to-protect-the-seminole-tribes-gambling-monopoly\/\" title=\"Inside One GOP Firm\u2019s Secret Fight to Protect The Seminole Tribe\u2019s Gambling Monopoly\">voter-registration fraud<\/a>, and the fact that many 2020 election challenges never received full hearings on the merits despite having good cause, Americans \u2014 and Trump \u2014 don\u2019t need to be lectured by Welker and other \u201cjournalists\u201d about the questioning of those races and their outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>If anything, Trump\u2019s (and the public\u2019s) skepticism about the California races is far more understandable and justified than Welker\u2019s (and the media\u2019s) insistence that every concern can be dismissed with a shrug because it\u2019s just \u201chow they count the votes in California\u201d or because there\u2019s not enough \u201cevidence\u201d to suit Welker.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nithya Raman seemed to concede Tuesday, but days of counting left her leading Pratt Sunday-a 180-degree shift<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2612317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-08-at-4.27.42-PM-scaled-e1780950570807-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4045,5695,3728,5894,10248],"class_list":["post-2612316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-california","tag-christianity","tag-election","tag-politics","tag-religion"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-08-at-4.27.42-PM-scaled-e1780950570807-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2612316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2612320,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612316\/revisions\/2612320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2612317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2612316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2612316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2612316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}