MSNBC White House correspondent Peter Alexander joined Andrea Mitchell on her Wednesday show to discuss the latest election polling. While the two were forced to acknowledge that the race is tightening, especially in the battleground states, they also focused on whether voters will accept the results if their preferred candidate loses and despite the fact that more Biden voters will refuse to accept a Biden loss, the two still blasted Trump for instilling false information in his supporters.
After talking about the state of the race in Pennsylvania, Mitchell cited a USA Today/Suffolk poll saying, "Twenty-eight percent of Biden supporters are not prepared to accept a Trump victory as being fairly won, 19% of Trump supporters say they won't accept a Trump loss."
One would think that this would cause Mitchell to wonder why Biden supporters won't accept the results of the election should he lose, but instead she offered:
Secondly, 83% of Republicans are at least somewhat concerned about mail-in voting leading to fraud, buying into that false Trump narrative. This raises all sorts of concerns about what's going to happen, especially as we all expect that mail-ins, a large number of mail-in voting, because of the pandemic, other concerns, will mean it's not going to be a quick announcement of a winner, necessarily, on Election Night.
Alexander, also missing that 19 is less than 28, chose to condemn Trump for even suggesting the idea that there might be fraud, "Yeah, Andrea, no, you're exactly right. This obviously is a message that's been amplified by the president."
He then touched on a possibility that has gained popularity in recent days:
[T]here have been a lot of election observers who have said this but now specifically a Democratic firm is describing what they call a red mirage where there is the likelihood, certainly the possibility that on election night, that Donald Trump would have the advantage, but over the days and weeks that pass, that advantage could be eroded, even erased as mail-in ballots, largely coming from Democrats, who are more likely expected to vote by mail more often than Republicans as those votes are finally counted
Whether this will happen is unknown, but if it does it is not hard to imagine why a Trump voter might be somewhat--the poll's word--concerned. But even if such concerns are unfounded, Mitchell and Alexander did nothing to condemn Biden and Democrats for fearmongering on the idea of an unfair election to point where more of their voters will refuse to accept the results than Trump voters in the event of a defeat.
This segment was sponsored by Fidelity.
Here is a transcript for the September 2 show:
MSNBC
Andrea Mitchell Reports
12:22 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: Very close races, and obviously speaking of a critical state in Pennsylvania, which was one of the real shockers last time around. I want to also mention another part of the USA Today/Suffolk poll showing that there’s some partisan concerns about the security of the election. A large percentage of voters on both sides not prepared to accept the results. Twenty-eight percent of Biden supporters are not prepared to accept a Trump victory as being fairly won, 19% of Trump supporters say they won't accept a Trump loss. Secondly, 83% of Republicans are at least somewhat concerned about mail-in voting leading to fraud, buying into that false Trump narrative. This raises all sorts of concerns about what's going to happen, especially as we all expect that mail-ins, a large number of mail-in voting, because of the pandemic, other concerns, will mean it's not going to be a quick announcement of a winner, necessarily, on Election Night.
PETER ALEXANDER: Yeah, Andrea, no, you're exactly right. This obviously is a message that's been amplified by the president. Again, this morning, tweeting, "Rigged election," question mark, highlighting, amplifying, reporting now that there have been a lot of election observers who have said this but now specifically a Democratic firm is describing what they call a red mirage where there is the likelihood, certainly the possibility that on election night, that Donald Trump would have the advantage, but over the days and weeks that pass, that advantage could be eroded, even erased as mail-in ballots, largely coming from Democrats, who are more likely expected to vote by mail more often than Republicans as those votes are finally counted, Andrea.
