Journalists were caught in the fierce crossfire after the election, with the president and his team accused of ignoring or overlooking a huge wave of voter fraud.
“The media is as corrupt as the election itself,” Trump tweeted over the weekend.
But news organizations that insist on communicating the facts are justified, as Trump’s campaign arguments have so far failed in court and his legal team is going through upheaval. This includes Fox News, which, along with other networks, announced the election of Joe Biden and aroused the president’s anger because he appreciated the high-level support of some opinion leaders.
There may still be ample evidence of fraud on the President’s side, but in the wake of the Pennsylvania judge’s opinion, this seems increasingly unlikely.
TRUMP QUESTIONS HOW THE CABINET WAS ESTABLISHED WITH THEIR LEGAL TEAM CONTINUE VOTER FRAUD
Chris Christie, Trump’s longtime ally, called the president’s legal team “nationally embarrassed” on ABC. Pat Republican Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey says Trump lost the election and it’s time to move on. The National Review breaks “Trump’s disgraceful gambit,” saying it “turns a narrow election defeat into a bid for fame”. So it’s not just the liberal media.
On Sunday night, the campaign threw Trump’s campaign attorney, Sidney Powell, under the bus and announced he was “exercising the right alone”. Not only was Powell, representing Michael Flynn, announced as part of the legal team, but last week Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis were in the much-criticized press to issue a statement of disapproval.
Powell woven a conspiracy theory there about the late Hugo Chavez and Dominion voting machines, despite not offering any evidence and putting these allegations in court. Fox Tucker Carlson said Powell did not provide him with a dose of evidence and then told him to stop contacting him.
Over the weekend, Powell went on to Newsmax, saying Georgian Republicans (Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger) paid for it as part of the alleged scandal – again without evidence. And Powell claimed at Fox Business that “dead” voted “massively” for Biden.
A federal judge, by tossing the campaign lawsuit, which he said will be depriving nearly 7 million voters in Pennsylvania, said the Trump campaign put together a “Frankenstein monster” “using tense legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations”. The campaign plans to appeal, but Biden’s leadership in the state has up to 81,000 votes.
What annoyed Washington the most is that the president is trying to persuade Republican lawmakers to turn their states around by nominating Electoral College Trumpet delegates. That’s why the leader of the Michigan Republicans was in the White House, though they made a statement saying they had no plans to intervene in the vote count, which would precede Biden by 150,000. This seems to be an attempt to overthrow elections with raw political muscles rather than a legitimate legal tactic. But the tactics failed in Michigan, which justified Biden’s victory yesterday.
The media is now in complete opposition to the incumbent. In “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd accused Trump of “attacking our democracy”. On the ‘state of the Union’, Jake Tapper said Trump was trying to undermine democracy through a ‘coup’ called a ‘coup’.
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Naturally, the press that spent four years portraying this president as a dangerous, norm-destroying liar now feels justified as he tries to retain power with allegations that judges reject.
But it is also true that the media has lost its credibility because it has too often taken on the role of an opposition party, especially those who ruthlessly proclaimed the Russian collusion narrative as a way to delegate the presidency. Much of the country no longer sees the press as a fair arbiter.
Trump’s insistence on the stolen election may be much more related to laying the groundwork for the four-year leg of the Republican king-maker and possibly another 2024 race.
But while his most loyal supporters blame the media for underestimating corruption, the facts at this point all point to Biden’s inauguration in two months. The suggestion that Trump suddenly discovers enough deceptive votes to reverse three states may be good for political cheerleaders, but it’s not journalism.
