NORMALIZATION(S): Was the 2020 election stolen?

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2024

CNN's Brown never asked: We're not sure that Andrew Gold of the New York Times should have begun his news report this way (headline included):

At News Conference, Donald Trump Says He’s ‘Entitled to Personal Attacks’ Against Kamala Harris

Toward the end of a meandering news conference, former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday insisted he was “entitled” to continue his barrage of personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, even as Republican allies are pushing him to shift his tone and emphasize policy issues.

Saying he was “very angry” at Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump told reporters outside the clubhouse of his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., that “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” and that he had little respect for his Democratic opponent.

Was yesterday's meandering event accurately described as a "news conference?" In our view, an intelligent person could teach it flat or round.

In his report for the Times, Gold later described it as a "nearly 80-minute [event]." He said the candidate "sp[oke] for nearly 45 minutes before taking questions." 

For whatever it may be worth, it's clear from the C-Span videotape that the event lasted 84 or 85 minutes. Also, the first question was taken after 47 minutes of preliminary remarks by the candidate, who did meander a bit.

Even when the questions started, the questions were few and far between, given the length of the candidate's meandering responses. In some ways, yesterday's event was more a "public address" with reporters allowed to be present.

Also, who were some of these alleged reporters? As recorded in this CNN transcript—as checked against the C-Span tape—the second question did in fact go exactly like this:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (8/15/24): Thank you, President Trump. You've spoken very passionately about how God saved your life. And I'm wondering, have you put much thought into why God saved your life? As in, for what purpose has he been shielding and protecting you?

After fifty minutes of meandering, that was the second question asked! So it went at this latest imitation of (journalistic) life, performed within the journalistic culture of our badly faltering nation.

As a matter of basic journalism, should this lengthy event have been described as a "news conference?" You could teach it flat or round.

For ourselves, we might have been inclined to include some information the Times report omitted. We might have been inclined to take note of this remark by the candidate at the 83-minute mark:

CANDIDATE TRUMP (8/15/24): I have some people at ABC that don't like me too much. I find it to be about the worst. George Slopadopoulos—I have a lot of people at ABC, I find it to be the most unfair of all the networks.

Yes, he name-checked George "Slopadopoulos," as is his current wont. Also, as early as twelve minutes in, he referred to California Governor Gavin Newsom as "Gavin Newscum," another of his current standard practices. 

Just over an hour later, he referred to "Governor Newscum" again. 

Typically, news orgs disappear this conduct by this candidate, presenting the governor's actual name when they transcribe such childish remarks. In such ways, the candidate's extremely unusual conduct gets normalized by our faltering nation's C-minus level press corps.

At any rate, so it went as the candidate engaged in his latest "news conference." That said, what about his persistent claim that the 2020 election was stolen?

At yesterday's event, he hinted at that remarkable claim on several occasions. On July 27, up in Minnesota, he bull-horned that remarkable claim. As we've been noting this week, he blared it loud and clear:

TRUMP (7/27/24): We drove from the airport to here, and practically, the whole way, there were just thousands and thousands of people. It's incredible, right? 

[ROARING CROWD] 

It's incredible. If they don't cheat, we win this state easily, OK? They cheat.

They have no shame. They cheat. 

[WITH SUDDEN ANGER, POINTING AT PRESS CORPS] 

Do you understand that, you crooked people? 

They're the most crooked. 

They cheat. They cheated in the last election, and they're going to cheat in this election, but we're going to get them. 

[...]

TRUMP: The radical left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020, and we're not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024. We're not going to allow it to happen. 

And every time the radical left Democrats, Communists, Marxists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor, because I'm being indicted for you.

[...]

I got indicted more than [Al Capone]—for what? Saying the election was crooked. 

The election was crooked.  What a disgrace...

"The election was crooked," he told his supporters that day. (For the record, we don't reject the possibility that he may really believe it.)

The radical left Democrats "rigged the presidential election in 2020," he told an enthusiastic crowd at that public event. Also, he told his supporters that "the radical left Democrats"—possibly joined by "the Communists, Marxists and fascists"—are going to try to rig this year's election as well.

As we've noted in the course of the week, such startling claims have largely been normalized by a (roughly) C-minus grade level press corps. By now, the candidate has made these inflammatory claims so often that they generally pass without comment.

To her credit, CNN's Pamela Brown tried to question or challenge the remarks which were made in St. Cloud. She tried to do so three days later as she interviewed Senator Lindsey Graham.

In yesterday's report, we posted the transcription of Brown's full attempt. As we showed you, her first question went exactly like this:

BROWN (7/30/24): All right. I want to get your reaction to something Donald Trump just said about winning Minnesota in November—as you well know, something that a Republican has not done since 1972. Let's listen:

TRUMP (videotape): If they don't cheat, we win this state easily, okay? They cheat. They have no shame. They cheat. Do you understand that, you crooked people? They're the most crooked. They cheat. They cheated in the last election and they're going to cheat in this election, but we're going to get them.

BROWN: Election fraud lies are not harmless. We all saw what happened on January 6th. You were right there in the thick of it. Can you publicly call for Trump to stop spreading these baseless lies?

As we showed you yesterday, the solon's answer was somewhat evasive. To her credit, Brown restated her basic question three additional times, finally going to a commercial break after Graham had run out the clock.

Our view? The spirit was willing that day, but the journalistic skills were perhaps a bit weak. As she spoke with Graham, Brown ignored Trump's factual claims about the last elections—factual claims he has never made a serious attempt to document or support.

(Nor is he ever asked to. For example, no one asked him about these poisonous claims at yesterday's public event.)

Brown focused instead on a fuzzier matter. After simply asserting that the candidate's claims about 2020 are "lies," she kept specifically asking if Trump should be making his prediction about what the Democrats are going to do in 2024. This was her second question:

BROWN: But do you call on him to stop setting the stage about the upcoming election and saying that they're going to cheat if I lose Minnesota, something a Republican has not—

That's a vastly fuzzier matter. It seems like the wrong approach to us. 

What should Brown have been asking? If we had been scripting Brown, her palette of question for the reluctant solon would have gone something like this:

BROWN, REWRITTEN: Claims of election fraud are anything but harmless. We all saw what happened on January 6—and you were right there in the thick of the mayhem that day.

Do you know of any reason to believe that the 2020 election was stolen? Has Candidate Trump ever presented any serious evidence in support of that dangerous claim? 

If not, should responsible Republicans call for Candidate Trump to stop making this unfounded factual claim about the last election?

Those questions would have focused on an unfounded factual claim, not on a fuzzy prediction.

Let's be clear! Graham would have dodged and weaved, no matter what Brown had said. But if she had proceeded this way, she would have been pursuing a more direct line of questioning:

Has the candidate ever produced any evidence to support his inflammatory claim? If he hasn't, is there any justification for the way he keeps making this claim?

That's where we would have told the journalist to go. That said, for the most part, other journalists don't visit this terrain at all. Even as Trump keeps making his claim, those questions never get asked.

In that sense, the candidate's claim about the last election has been thoroughly normalized. Even as the candidate continues to make it, our news orgs avert their gaze.

That said, the unusual behavior of Candidate Trump has been normalized in at least one other major way. We refer to the transparently crazy claims he makes—such crazy claims as this:

Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she “A.I.’d” it, and showed a massive “crowd” of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane. She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the “crowd” looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake “crowds” at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING—And they’re even worse at the Ballot Box. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Anyone who does that will cheat at ANYTHING!

So the gentleman recently tweeted—and yes, the conduct is crazy. But in one fairly obvious way, our journalists have thoroughly normalized this, as we've discussed in the past.

Is "something wrong with" Candidate Trump? That's one of the three million euphemistic ways our journalists have been approaching this matter of late.

They normalize his strange behavior that way. As a turning point in history approaches, we've decided to build our reports around this topic next week.

Yesterday, up in New Jersey, George Slopadopoulos was back on the scene. So was Governor Newscum.

Our C-minus collection of journalists pretty much slumbered and snored. The second question, from a plant, asked the candidate to meander about the reason why he's been favored by God.

No one asked the candidate why he keeps making the world's most inflammatory allegation. In fairness, questions were limited to the people the hopeful chose to call on.

Meanwhile, is there any evidence that the 2020 election was stolen? 

It's an extremely basic question. As she spoke with a slippery solon, a CNN scribe never asked!