The media's newest sensationalist story: Election Disaster!
Just stop asking Donald Trump if he will "accept" the results and leave office. It's not his choice.
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None of us should in any way take all the great polls as evidence that we can let our guard down. But for now, Joe Biden is winning the election and it’s impossible — again, for now — for political reporters to pose the election as a horse race.
The Cook Political Report today put Florida in the “lean Democrat” column from the “toss-up” slot. Once Florida’s not a toss-up, the horse race narrative is in big trouble for the media.
And you know they love posing every election that way, because it keeps people clicking and watching. So now they have a new sensational story du jour: Election disaster!
In the last week I’ve read story after story about the possibility of Donald Trump not leaving office if he loses the election — and what would happen. Everything from attacks on mail-in ballots and endless days of counting, to GOP governors certifying the election for him and on and on and on.
More than that, they keep asking Trump if he will “accept” the election and leave office, as Fox News’ Chris Wallace once again did last Sunday. Asking the question — and getting Trump’s “well see” — leads to even more stories, like this one from the Washington Post: “Trump’s assault on election integrity forces question: What would happen if he refused to accept a loss?”
I’m not saying we shouldn’t be prepared for all the possibilities, nor put anything past Donald Trump. But normalizing this discussion only encourages him and emboldens him and normalizes something that is unconstitutional. These stories also present the worst case scenario and by the end of the story they talk about how it’s probably implausible. But they do their job in getting the clicks — and there has been plenty of cable TV news coverage in this regard as well.
As Biden has said, any trespassers will be removed from the White House who don’t belong there. Once the new president is sworn in, the White House needs to be vacated. It won’t get to this, but if it needs to they’ll be escorted out.
Of course we should do everything we can to make sure Joe Biden’s win is as big as possible, thus negating any possibility of Trump contesting it. But the media needs to stop enabling Trump in doing something reckless and unconstitutional.
Something great
Yesterday on my SiriusXM show we played all of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s amazing and powerful speech on the floor of the House, taking on Republican Representative Ted Yoho of Florida for his having called her a “fucking bitch” on the steps of the Capitol.
The way she delivered this speech, and the dots she connected, were masterful. It’s so rare in this society to see a woman delivering a speech calling out the misogynistic actions of men in power in such a setting as the House of Representatives because women haven’t often had the platform to do so in the past, or might have been fearful of the ramifications.
But AOC is fearless. And the fact that she has that platform and could use it to speak for all women who’ve felt the same kind of attack is enormous. It’s why we need more women in office and in positions of power. Everyone — and every man — should watch this speech.
Tim from the UP of Michigan.
I'm also tired of the mainstream media pushing this type of BS. They (MSM) continually try to give the petulant child in our White House ideas to beat the rap on what ever kind of crisis or trouble he is in at the moment. This truly pisses me off. I like how MS lets the New York Times have it when they try to normalize the child's behaviors. I'm no fan of Peter Baker either.
AOC sure ate Rep. Yoho for lunch with her speech on the floor. She is so intelligent and awesome. She has more courage and integrity than any male member of the House on the other side of the aisle.
The mainstream media just continues to pour gas on the narcissistic flames of Trump. Feed the monster so they can increase ratings and add more money to their pockets. They don’t challenge the bs he spews. Instead it’s oh my goodness Trump has a hangnail and then clamor together for a press briefing about what a tremendous and perfect hangnail it is. And now they’re planting seeds to instill the mindset that votes will not matter because he may refuse to leave office. They’re on Team Trump!
I’m VERY proud of AOC and her clap-back at Yoohoo. I hope the public embarrassment of the misogynistic assholes continues until our country takes serious steps to end it. Unfortunately in the corp world, women are still penalized for speaking up and I’ve been threatened and/or terminated for violating mystery policies because I spoke out. I had one male manager who told me surely I was capable of doing something and he wanted to help me figure out what that was after I became aware he was trying to sabotage my work and another male manager who wrote in a review that I was too stupid to address an envelope. Hmmm guess my degree in Computer Science, ability to communicate in another language and years of domestic and international work experience some how made me illiterate.