Just as the poll that predicted Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton released its newest poll results showing Biden and Trump statistically tied in the key swing state of Michigan, the news media pulls out its secret weapon -- Trump is stealing the election! On MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday, co-host Mika Brzezinski and Associated Press correspondent Jonathan Lemire began this narrative in earnest, accusing President Trump of not playing fair in the upcoming November election, with Brzezinski implying that the only way Trump could win would be to cheat.
Jonathan Lemire, look, he's losing in swing states. He has nothing to say about Joe Biden, except he's sleepy. And the show is tired and the seats won't fill. This is the next battleground for this president. Somehow, whether it be asking for foreign help or tampering with the election or just trying to undermine the process, would that be fair to argue that his focus might be on how to win a different way?
Now this is quite the accusation coming from Mika, made without evidence but not uncommon coming from her and the news media in general. MSNBC and other media organizations clamored and promoted allegations of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia for two years, but the fact that it was disproven has not convinced them to relent. These accusations are rather familiar to the American public, as they have heard them ever since Hillary lost in 2016, with Democrats and their media allies still not having coped with her defeat.
But MSNBC so badly wanted to paint all Republicans in this light that Lemire followed up on Mika’s question, laying into Republicans and parroting Democratic talking points about the GOP stopping people from voting:
I think we've seen disturbing scenes in Georgia, there are real concerns about the election in Kentucky. The one in Wisconsin that was held during the height of the pandemic in that state about restrictions to access to voting. I think there is a sense here that is one of the plays that the Republican Party is trying to use. Trying to simply make it harder for people to vote. They'll have their arguments why they're trying to do that but Democrats say they're simply trying to take away one of the fundamental rights of the American people because they believe that Republicans think and everyone agrees that a lower turnout race probably helps Donald Trump.
It’s important to remember that all of these accusations were given without evidence. In the end, the narrative trumps everything, including the truth.
Here is a transcript of the June 23 exchange:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
6-23-20
6:38 AM ET
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Jonathan Lemire, look, he's losing in swing states. He has nothing to say about Joe Biden, except he's sleepy. And the show is tired and the seats won't fill. This is the next battleground for this president. Somehow, whether it be asking for foreign help or tampering with the election or just trying to undermine the process, would that be fair to argue that his focus might be on how to win a different way?
JONATHAN LEMIRE: I think Mika that certainly what you're spelling out here is causing rising alarm among Democrats and government groups wondering where the president is going with all of this. We have seen him for weeks now really rail against the idea of mail-in voting,
suggesting without evidence that it could lead to widespread voter fraud. Let’s remember that in 2016 he claimed there was voter fraud then. He thought there would be about 3 or 4 million illegal votes cast. Coincidentally, that was about the margin of his defeat in the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. He assigned a commission to study that. There was no evidence any of that happened either. I think we've seen disturbing scenes in Georgia, there are real concerns about the election in Kentucky. The one in Wisconsin that was held during the height of the pandemic in that state about restrictions to access to voting. I think there is a sense here that is one of the plays that the Republican party is trying to use. Trying to simply make it harder for people to vote. They'll have their arguments why they're trying to do that but Democrats say they're simply trying to take away one of the fundamental rights of the American people because they believe that Republicans think and everyone agrees that a lower turnout race probably helps Donald Trump.
