CNN’s Jake Tapper has some thoughts on accepting the results of a presidential election.
“I truly sympathize with those dealing with losing — it’s not easy — but at a certain point one has to think not only about what’s best for the nation (peaceful transfer of power) but how any future employers might see your character defined during adversity,” Tapper wrote on Twitter.
It’s a bizarre statement.
It’s particularly bizarre given that Tapper, CNN’s 4 p.m. EST anchor, spent the last four years leading the media crusade to delegitimize the Trump presidency by perpetuating conspiracy after conspiracy for Trump’s crime of winning the 2016 election. Yet Tapper, with seemingly no self-awareness, has the audacity to characterize conservatives as conspiracy-ridden rivals of democracy for raising concerns over voter fraud in key states.
From alleging Trump is an agent of the Russian government operating to subvert American interests, to hyping claims that Justice Brett Kavanaugh was a “serial gang-rapist,” Tapper has some self-reflection to do before demonizing how others might conduct themselves during “adversity.”
Meanwhile, it is far from an assault on the democratic process to acknowledge the probability of widespread voter fraud in an election year with historic turnout in the form of mail-in ballots, the ripest method of fraud, even according to the New York Times. There’s a reason most nations today ban mail-in voting.
While the courts will ultimately determine the validity of Republican claims alleging fraud, the Trump campaign deserves the space to make its case using institutions built for this exact moment, just as former Vice President Al Gore had 37 days in 2000 before he officially conceded.
Recounts and litigation are getting underway in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
In Michigan, Republican election observers were reportedly kicked out of polling locations, and a software glitch in one county reportedly tallied 6,000 Republican votes for Democrats. Complicating things further, the same software was used across 47 different counties. Outlets have currently called the state’s 16 electoral votes for Democratic candidate Joe Biden by fewer than 150,000 votes.
