Outside the Beltway

Because it was Always a Lie

Trump’s voter fraud allegations have melted away.

Steven L. Taylor
14

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[Voter Fraud Graphic]

Via MSNBC: The right-wing claims about voter fraud have suddenly vanished.

On Election Day, Trump further amplified those claims and suggested that there was voter fraud in Philadelphia and Detroit, two major cities in battleground states. Elon Musk’s “Election Integrity Community” discussion page on X was also rife with conspiracy theories about Democrats cheating.

Yet on election night, as the results looked to be in Trump’s favor, the claims tapered off. Instead of dark warnings about election fraud, posts on X’s “election integrity” page grew self-congratulatory and “the urgency to investigate wrongdoing subsided,” The Washington Post reported. Far-right channels on the Telegram platform, where voter fraud claims were widespread in recent days, suddenly grew quiet as well, according to The New York Times.

And, most significantly, there was no more talk of voter fraud from Trump, who spent months sowing doubt about the integrity of the 2024 presidential election — and who, to this day, refuses to concede the 2020 election.

It would be nice if Trump supporters would see this for what it is. Instead, they will simply ignore it or shrug it off while maintaining that 2020 was fraudulent, but 2024 wasn’t. Indeed, just like they somehow accepted the Republican congressional seats generated via elections in 2020 while rejecting Biden’s victory.

I will gently note the propagandistic unreality of it all, but won’t dwell on it. We seem stuck with “alternative facts” at the core of much of our politics.

And yes, I have seen some Harris-supporting randos on Twitter muse about fraud against them. Just stop it. But for anyone who wants to point to such persons, may I point directly to the concession by Harris and the graceful behavior of Biden? The leaders of the Democratic Party are acting democratically.

I have also gotten the hint that maybe there is a conspiracy theory that the number of votes Harris won this year versus Biden in 2020 proves that 2020 was rigged. Stop that as well (although I expect many will take it as an article of faith). First, the tallies aren’t done, but the bottom line will be because of turnout. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

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14 responses to “Because it was Always a Lie”

  1. Assad K Avatar
    Assad K

    When Republicans want to prove ‘Democrats are crazy/evil/violent’ they have to point to randos on the internet.
    When Democrats want to prove ‘Republicans are crazy/evil/violent’ they can point to actual legislators, officials and thought leaders (because there ain’t no equivalent to Tucker et al on the left).

    9
  2. steve Avatar
    steve

    Hate to contradict the article but I am taking the long drive from PA to visit my daughter in Nashville. On every right wing talk station they were talking about voter fraud, that this election proved he did win in 2020. Of note, I did think it was funny that several talkers proposed that Trump should form a fraud commission forgetting the Trump did that before when he put Kobach from Kansas in charge and as usual they found nothing.

    Steve

    7
  3. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    Indeed, just like they somehow accepted the Republican House generated via elections in 2020 while rejecting Biden’s victory.

    The House resulting from the 2020 elections was not Republiqan, though they made gains. It didn’t switch until the 2022 midterms.

    They still did not repudiate those gains from a fraudulent election.

    2
  4. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @steve: You mean they are talking about fraud in 2020?

  5. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Kathy: You are correct. Thanks for the correction.

    1
  6. wr Avatar
    wr

    @steve: “On every right wing talk station they were talking about voter fraud, that this election proved he did win in 2020.”

    Does that mean that Nixon’s win in 68 meant he also won in 60?

    2
  7. Kathy Avatar
    Kathy

    @steve:
    @wr:

    I refer you to Carl Sagan’s invisible dragon. Besides the point Sagan makes, the lesson is that people who make claims against evidence can and will rationalize and/or move the goal posts when presented with real facts and reasonable alternatives.

    4
  8. Jc Avatar
    Jc

    Registered voter turnout in VA definitely down. Somewhat surprising. Amazing 30% of registered voters just don’t care? The normalization of Trump’s behavior, and by normalization, I mean even if he does or says something strange every day, after time people just normalize it. I think that just leaves most undecided folks unmotivated and indifferent. They just don’t care. Of course on the other side it energizes that base, as it appears GOP leaning counties did see some higher turnout.

    2
  9. Jc Avatar
    Jc

    And just a statical note for our right leaning community on the topic at hand.

    In Texas, for example, Heritage found 103 cases of confirmed election fraud between 2005 and 2022, in a period where 107 million ballots were cast, or 0.000096% of all ballots cast.Heritage has stated that the database is only a “sampling” and not comprehensive.

    That’s from Heritage Foundation. In Texas, the state with so many illegals running to the ballot box. Rampant I tell you. Out of control!

    Again. Anyone aggressively stating massive voter fraud in the United States exists…Not a serious person. Any serious right leaning folks here care to dispute that?

    2
  10. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @Jc:

    Not a serious person

    I think I know what you meant. But…

    They must be taken seriously. Not taking them seriously is part of the problem. They have gaslighted 45% of the country to the point that another double digit percentage have internalized that it may be true.

    The latter is arguably a bigger problem, because humans are often capricious and there is no way to know what they think one day to the next about a topic like this.

    But they are bombarded with the message daily by liars, cynical pols, greedy media, and partisans cheering for their team.

    2
  11. steve Avatar
    steve

    Steve- Yes, they are claiming this election proves the 2020 election was won through fraud.

    Steve

    1
  12. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @Jc: I would be surprised, but not shocked, if we were to discover a lot of right wing voter fraud.

    There’s a mindset of “everyone cheats, and you’re a chump if you don’t” that is more present on the right than the left (at present), and that comes from constant contact with Grifter Culture.

    I could definitely believe that some people didn’t want to be chumps.

    There’s no evidence, mind you, so I don’t believe it, but if someone claimed to have evidence I wouldn’t immediately dismiss them as a crank.

    1
  13. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    @Gustopher:

    To be clear, I require strong evidence before accepting that a fraud scheme is taking place. But:

    With the current party alignment, it actually would make sense that if one were to look, they would find quite a bit of GOP schemes–whether it is what we understand as fraud, or under-handed tactics that do not meet a strict definition, but are nonetheless unsavory enough to be borderline cheating.

    Small towns are quite often wired by a few pairs of hands. And those towns do not have press as a check at all, certainly not well-funded media outlets.

    But I also suspect that the ones being cheated are more likely co-partisan rivals rather than general contests.

    Politics is often a dirty game. The mistake some people make is thinking that business is any different. Usually via some pie-in-the-sky market mechanism that is at best, questionable in theory, and demonstrably untrue in practice.

  14. Gavin Avatar
    Gavin

    Here’s to in 6 years discovering someone Let Slip On Joe Rogan’s Podcast the reality that Democrats had actually been winning Texas, Kansas, and Florida for the last 4 presidential elections but the SoS’s were intentionally flipping tens of millions of votes. But the statute of limitations had expired and he is/was a Republican, so haha nothing matters suckitlibz!
    I for one welcome the end of all of Neoliberalism, Regulations, Pax Americana, and rights for those pesky human entities known as women.
    Joe Biden ended neoliberalism, and Trump ended the Biden return to actual regulation on monopolies and mergers. The theory of neoliberalism was [“markets”] if you give all the money to CEO’s, of course they will invest in infrastructure, training, and efficient production of goods and services. Needless to say, the reality was a 50-year period of IGMFY at local, state, national, and international levels.. because none of the CEO’s were as beneficent as the theory took for granted that they’d be. Well, except the Costco CEO, but he was by far the exception.

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