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Not sure who needs to hear this, but if you're continuing to baselessly argue that there was widespread fraud and/or that the election was somehow "stolen" from Trump, you're encouraging people to attack again.
It's time to stop lying to your audiences, to your constituents.
It's time to stop lying to your audiences, to your constituents.
Fox News host Mark Levin on January 3:
"Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are being destroyed by the Democrat Party and the media. ... We're standing at the precipice and we're looking into the abyss." https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-host-lashes-out-republicans-who-are-speaking-out-against-trumps-coup
"Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are being destroyed by the Democrat Party and the media. ... We're standing at the precipice and we're looking into the abyss." https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-host-lashes-out-republicans-who-are-speaking-out-against-trumps-coup
Seriously, watch this.
What I'm saying is I want them to stop lying to people about the election. Trump lost. That's not an opinion. He lost. He got his ass handed to him. https://twitter.com/ebplais/status/1347587346452115456
Over the summer, right-wing media created an absurd caricature of what protests were like. They tried to make it seem like entire cities had become uninhabitable https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-fuels-trumps-dangerous-portland-law-and-order-strategy
In August, Fox's prime time shows alone aired 3 full hours of footage of fires, often obscuring the fact that a lot of what they were airing was weeks or months old, leaving the impression that it was new. https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-prime-time-shows-spent-over-3-hours-displaying-violent-imagery-august
In the run-up to the election, right-wing media pushed this idea that if Trump won that the left would launch some sort of violent war. This, in turn, put militia groups even more on edge https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/some-pro-gun-facebook-pages-are-fearmongering-about-mass-violence-left-after-election
(Even though experts said that the threat of violence was more likely from the right in the event of a Trump loss) https://www.npr.org/2020/10/22/926339006/heres-where-the-threat-of-militia-activity-around-the-elections-is-the-highest
They've been pounding the table and screaming about an "impending race war" https://www.mediamatters.org/sebastian-gorka/sebastian-gorka-vote-donald-trump-and-gop-because-other-side-complicit-insanity
There were militia leaders openly talking about murdering Democrats on election day https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/militia-leader-stewart-rhodes-says-his-group-will-be-polling-locations-and-ready-kill
Steve Bannon called for executing two government officials back in November https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-and-his-co-host-discuss-beheading-dr-anthony-fauci-and-fbi-director
And of course, whenever they're confronted with it... https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-host-dismisses-violence-right-wing-movements-lie-and-easily-disprovable
Either that, or they'll respond to a story about white supremacist groups/militias preparing to carry out violence by going, "oh yeah? well, uh, we heard that antifa was doing that too" https://www.mediamatters.org/black-lives-matter/fox-news-hypes-baseless-fears-violent-antifa-protesters-amid-reports-white
And there were even cases where police would make a claim, retract it, and them Fox would "report" on it as though the retraction never happened https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/fox-news-still-pushing-false-police-claim-seattle-protester-violence-even
Or, as was the case earlier this year, Laura Ingraham was going on and on about some imminent plot on the left to overthrow the government? It was nonsense. https://www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingraham/laura-ingraham-these-wanton-acts-violence-are-part-coordinated-effort-eventually
So take all of this together.
You have the right telling you that Trump actually won the election (he did not), and that him losing will result in roving bands of violent left-wing gangs putting everyone's lives in danger (utter nonsense).
You have the right telling you that Trump actually won the election (he did not), and that him losing will result in roving bands of violent left-wing gangs putting everyone's lives in danger (utter nonsense).
They could easily have covered the protests during the summer and made points about vandalism and violence being bad, advocating for arrests, etc. Denouncing looting, whatever.
But instead, they created a boogeyman, a threat to everyone and to the country itself
But instead, they created a boogeyman, a threat to everyone and to the country itself
On Tuesday, just a day before the attack, Newt Gingrich went on Sean Hannity's radio show. There, he called Biden's win "the most dangerous assault on the very nature of America, certainly in our lifetime, and maybe since the previous Civil War."
(note the use of "previous")
(note the use of "previous")
See, he says "previous civil war" because he's trying to suggest that we're in one right now. It's just dangerously, horribly irresponsible rhetoric.
Gingrich knows damn well that Biden won the election. He parrots the "fraud" nonsense because he thinks it's good politically.
Gingrich knows damn well that Biden won the election. He parrots the "fraud" nonsense because he thinks it's good politically.
Here's a link to that, btw: https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/fox-news-contributor-newt-gingrich-calls-bidens-election-worst-assault
"bUt ThiS iS jUsT liKe DeMs aNd RuSsiA!"
Except it's not. Drawing goofy false equivalences doesn't help anyone. Most people upset about interference in 2016 were. upset about the influence campaign waged as the result of leaked emails. That's a thing that really happened.
Except it's not. Drawing goofy false equivalences doesn't help anyone. Most people upset about interference in 2016 were. upset about the influence campaign waged as the result of leaked emails. That's a thing that really happened.
It wasn't a "hoax" or whatever else some on the right want to call it. The investigation was legitimate. Trump and his campaign had a lot of really questionable contacts during the campaign. The question was whether those contacts rose to the level of conspiracy or not.
So I get that some on the right look at this like, "ha ha ha people tried to delegitimize Trump's presidency for 4 years, now we're going to do the same to Biden!"
But there wasn't some massive effort to block Trump from taking office.
But there wasn't some massive effort to block Trump from taking office.
In 2016, people were mad that the guy who received millions fewer votes ended up winning because our system is archaic. That's fair. They were mad that one of the two major campaigns was the target of a massive foreign influence campaign.
It's fair to be mad about results. Trump supporters can absolutely be mad about how things went in 2020. That's fine. You can be mad that the pandemic derailed his reelection. You can be mad that millions of people lost jobs. Fine. Whatever.
But you can't be mad about the actual outcome somehow being unfair. There's no democratic country on the planet where Trump would have won an election where he finished millions of votes behind Biden and/or didn't win needed states.
There was not widespread fraud.
It was not "stolen" from him.
He did not, in any possible way, "win."
And the people on TV telling people otherwise know this. And it's time for them to stop. Because they've convinced their audiences that these delusions are real.
It was not "stolen" from him.
He did not, in any possible way, "win."
And the people on TV telling people otherwise know this. And it's time for them to stop. Because they've convinced their audiences that these delusions are real.
and those delusions now have a body count.
