Following the recent annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, CNN released a video with the following headline: “Election negotiators take over CPAC after primary.” During a recent appearance on CBS, Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and serves on the House committee on Jan. 6, said: “The only thing we need for democracy to survive is for people to know that they can vote that this vote counts and that we live among winners and losers. If half the country thinks it’s not true, you can’t expect democracy to survive.”
Where was this concern about “election deniers” when Democrats were complaining about a “stolen” election?
In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams claimed that she lost the Georgia governor’s race due to “voter suppression”. In her speech after calling for the election of her opponent, she refused to concede. Three years later, she told CNN that her opponent “won according to the rules of the game at the time, but the game was rigged against Georgia voters.” A USA Today fact-check found: “There is little empirical evidence (Georgia opponent, then-Secretary of State Brian) Kemp stole the election.
Former Vice President Al Gore, in an interview with The Washington Post two years after his presidential loss to George W. Bush, said: “I believe that if every vote in Florida that tried to vote had been counted properly, I would have won.”
In January 2001, several Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against certifying the 2000 election results. Representative Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told a joint session of Congress: “The objection is in writing, and I don’t care if it’s not signed by a member of the Senate (in to the extent necessary to force a Senate vote on the complaint).
If Ohio had gone to Democrat John Kerry in 2004, he would have become president. President George W. Bush carried it 51% to 49%, a margin of about 100,000 votes. However, January 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson of Missouri, on January 6, 2005, joined 30 other House Democrats and Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California in refusing to certify the results of the Ohio presidential election, claiming “voter suppression,” and argued, also without factual basis, that Diebold’s voting machines were manipulated to re-elect Bush. The Senate voted 74-1 against the Democratic challenge. Although Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois voted against the challenge, in 2005 he praised Boxer for taking it on: “I thank her for doing so because it gives members another bipartisan opportunity to look at the challenge we face not just in the last election in one state, but in many states.”
Hillary Clinton has consistently called the 2016 presidential election “stolen” and described then-President Trump as “illegal.” Former President Jimmy Carter said in 2019: “I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the 2016 election. He lost the election and took office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” New York Attorney General Letitia James said she “will never hesitate to challenge this illegitimate president.”
About the 2016 election, former Obama Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson testified under oath that while Russians tried to manipulate voting machines, there was no evidence that the number of individual votes was changed. As for the effects of Russian interference, Johnson said there was no way to know whether the interference influenced public opinion or the outcome of the election.
Nevertheless, a 2018 YouGov poll found that 66% of Democrats believed Russia changed the vote to elect Trump in 2016. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 78% of Democrats believed Russian interference in 2016, she “swung the election result” in Trump’s favor.
On the 2020 election, CNN politics editor Chris Cillizza wrote: “76% self-identified Republicans in recent national Quinnipiac University poll. That’s how many Republicans said they believed there was “widespread fraud” in the 2020 election. It noted that a larger percentage of Democrats – 78% – believe the 2016 presidential election was “stolen” compared to 76% of Republicans who feel the same way about 2020.
What now?
Larry Elder is a best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. To learn more about Larry Elder or to become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @larryelder. To read articles by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
