One can hint former President Donald Trump‘s indictment by Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg again to the media/Democrat perception that Trump’s 2016 election was illegitimate.
Positive, some, like Hillary Clinton, questioned former President Barack Obama’s birthplace. And, after the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Courtroom resolution, some, for a time, groused and known as George W. Bush “president choose.” However by no means in fashionable instances has a president been so extensively and persistently described as “illegitimate” as has candidate, president, and now former President Donald Trump.
It by no means stopped.
I write because the son of a lifelong Democrat mom, and because the youthful brother of a lifelong Democrat, a Navy vet who was my finest buddy. My Marine vet father was a registered Republican with whom my mom and brother disagreed in spirited however by no means hateful debate throughout the kitchen desk.
When John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960, my father by no means cried “foul!” regardless of credible allegations of vote-stealing, particularly in Illinois. Nixon knew about this, however selected to not protest and filed no lawsuit, maybe fearing counter-allegations in opposition to his marketing campaign.
Final yr, The New York Occasions revealed a evaluate of a Nixon-friendly biography. In keeping with the ebook, Nixon, at his Christmas celebration after Kennedy’s slender victory, instructed his visitors, “We received, however they stole it from us.” The Occasions evaluate dismissed Nixon’s criticism: “The weak spot of the case didn’t cease Nixon’s males from pushing their allegations. However six many years therefore—within the absence of latest proof, at a time when false claims of a stolen election pose a mounting risk to our system of self-government—historians should assume twice earlier than endorsing them.”
“Historians should assume twice” about “endorsing” allegations of stolen elections. Sound recommendation. And the recommendation applies to non-historians, notably media pundits and politicians.
This brings us to the 2016 election, through which the upstart Trump, not taken severely by Democrats and many of the media, defeated the heavy favourite Clinton, whose probability of profitable The New York Occasions on Election Day pegged at 85%.
Obama’s Homeland Safety Secretary Jeh Johnson testified earlier than Congress that the Russians, regardless of their efforts, failed to alter a single vote tally. As to the Russian election interference, largely by means of advertisements and posts on Fb, Johnson known as it unknowable whether or not this altered public opinion or the end result of the election.
But two years later, a 2018 YouGov ballot discovered 66% of Democrats imagine that Russia in 2016 modified vote tallies. And a 2018 Gallup ballot discovered 78% of Democrats imagine that the Russian 2016 interference “modified the end result of the election.” This implies a higher proportion of Democrats imagine the 2016 election was stolen than Republicans who felt that manner about 2020.
Practically 25% of the Democrats‘ congressional delegation refused to attend Trump’s inauguration. Then-Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., one of the vital revered members of the Home, known as Trump’s election “illegitimate,” a cost Lewis reiterated months earlier than he died. Former President Jimmy Carter mentioned: “I feel a full investigation would present that Trump didn’t really win the election in 2016. He misplaced the election, and he was put into workplace as a result of the Russians interfered on his behalf.” Clinton herself routinely known as the election “stolen” and President Trump “illegitimate.”
But Republicans—and the mainstream media—didn’t name Clinton, Carter, Lewis, and the Democrats who boycotted Trump’s inauguration “election deniers.” The First Modification offers losers, with or with out proof, the fitting to complain with out worry of prosecution, not to mention persecution.
Notably, Clinton has been silent about Trump’s indictment. Why? She seemingly doesn’t wish to remind the nation that she clearly violated the Espionage Act along with her basement server, however skated as a result of the FBI’s James Comey mentioned she lacked the “intent” to violate the statute—although her violation doesn’t require intent.
About Trump’s indictment over “hush cash” funds, two can play the rogue prosecutor recreation. There are Republican DAs and attorneys common, too. Within the film “Tora! Tora! Tora!” concerning the shock assault on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto mentioned, “I worry all we have now finished is to awaken a sleeping large and fill him with a horrible resolve.”
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