Friday's PBS NewsHour featured a discussion with congressional reporter Lisa Desjardins on what Donald Trump is looking for in a vice-presidential running mate (“loyalty….including whether the 2020 election had fraud in it or not”). But it took a turn into PBS’s new pro-Biden campaign angle, protecting American “democracy” from Trump’s potential veep selections.
PBS put together a supercut of four potential Trump picks being pestered by liberal media reporters, showing those Republicans (horrors!) suggesting that the 2020 election had been tilted toward Biden (evidence that includes Big Tech’s censorship of the sordid story of Hunter Biden’s laptop and various election-law shenanigans in Pennsylvania in 2020).
LISA DESJARDINS: And this, in a way -- while this whole thing is speculation, this, in a way, is why we're focusing on this right now, because this isn't just fawning. We know this has very great significance for the future, especially if Trump is reelected. And if you pay attention to what some of these candidates for vice president are saying, they're talking about their loyalty to Trump in ways different with themselves in the past on very important issues, including whether the 2020 election had fraud in it or not.
Desjardins engaged in a bait-and-switch, setting up a conversation about American democracy but actually focusing on the much narrower questions of Republicans accepting a Biden win that hasn't occurred yet, and also whether Donald Trump will get a fair shake in the 2024 rematch, considering the ongoing attempts by Democrats to kneecap him via lawfare.
DESJARDINS: So I want to take us through something unusual, a series of sound bites when some of these candidates were asked about what they think about our democracy and specifically about this coming election, whether they think that it will be secure or, and also the past election.
Sen. J.D. VANCE (R-OH): I think that Donald Trump will be the victory [sic]. And if it's a free and fair election, Dana, I think every Republican will enthusiastically accept the results. And, again, I think those results will show that Donald Trump has been elected president.
KRISTEN WELKER, Moderator, Meet the Press: Will you accept the election results of 2024, no matter what happens, Senator?
Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): No matter what happens? No, if it's an unfair election, I think it's going to be contested by either inside.
WELKER: No matter who wins. Senator, no matter who wins.
RUBIO: Well, why don't you -- I think you're asking the wrong person. The Democrats are the ones that have opposed every Republican victory since 2000, every single one.
JONATHAN KARL, Moderator, This Week: He still hasn't accepted the results of the election.
Sen. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Jon, he says, and I agree, that the election was not fair, that it was rigged in many ways, with Democratic states and cities changing election law and election practices up to the last minute.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN Host: Had you been vice president on January 6, 2021, what would you have done?
Rep. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): I stood up for the Constitution. I believe it was…
COLLINS: No, what would you have done if you were vice president?
STEFANIK: I would not have done what Mike Pence did. I don't think that was the right approach.
DESJARDINS: As they're being vetted behind the scenes, these are very important public signals that they are sending to Trump that we need to watch.
Notice that most of the Republicans pushed back on those leading, loaded questions from the press with how Democrats loosened election laws in 2020 and how Democrats can be "election deniers." These pro-Biden anchors don't ask Democrats about that. This has been a repeated drumbeat from PBS, that the potential Republican veep picks are demonstrating "damaging denialism."
PS: Desjardins weirdly claimed it was abnormal to seek a staunchly loyal vice president, and turned to St. Louis University law professor Joel Goldstein to warn: "And yet, if you have a process that really encourages people to be obsequious, it really undercuts that important purpose of the vice presidency as it's developed and evolved." Do they really think Kamala Harris doesn't appear obsequious in public?
This segment was brought to you in part by Cunard.
