The liberal media loves to accuse President Trump and Republicans at large of pushing conspiracy theories. But it was Morning Joe today that pushed a huge one itself: nothing less than that Republicans would steal the 2024 presidential election by altering the electoral vote count.
Mika Brzezinski kicked things off by reading at length from a column by Yale professor Timothy Snyder, wherein he spun the conspiracy theory. The Snyder scenario [emphasis added]:
"The Republican candidate in 2024 loses the popular vote by several million and the electoral vote by the margin of a few states. State legislatures, claiming fraud, alter the electoral count vote. The House and Senate accept that altered count. The losing candidate becomes the president. We no longer have democratically-elected government."
Snyder is the same guy who in 2017 predicted that Trump would stage the equivalent of the Nazi Reichstag fire by declaring a state of emergency and taking full control of the government. That of course never happened, but Snyder's poor powers of prognostication didn't deter the Morning Joe crew from buying into his latest scaremongering theory.
Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough both declared it "chilling." and Charlie Sykes, Morning Joe's resident Never Trumper, naturally concurred. Here's the exchange for context:
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: State legislatures, claiming fraud, alter the electoral count vote. The House and Senate accept that altered count. The losing candidate becomes the president. We no longer have democratically-elected government. The big lie is designed not to win an election, but to discredit one.
. . .
Joe, I — this is chilling to me. What do you make of that?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I think it should be chilling to everybody.
. . .
CHARLIE SYKES: You know, I would really very much like to say that these concerns are paranoid and hysterical, but in fact I don’t think, I don't think that’s the case.
Note: In his column, Snyder foresees nothing short of "the collapse of the United States." He says he wrote his column upon awakening from a nightmare in which he was visiting the Empire State Building when a plane crashed into it. He knew the building was going to collapse, but people wouldn't listen to him and instead just go about their business.
You know, professor, when awakening from a nightmare, sometimes it's better to just drink a warm mug of cocoa, rather than rushing your fevered thoughts into print and so badly scaring your poor fellow liberals!
Keep all of this in mind the next time MSNBC rants about nutty GOP conspiracy theories.
Morning Joe pushing the conspiracy theory of Yale professor Timothy Snyder that Republicans will steal the 2024 election by altering the electoral vote count was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual and Uber.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read more.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
6/7/21
6:25 am EDTMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Professor of history at Yale, Timothy Snyder, puts forth this scenario about the 2022 and 2024 elections. Quote, I have the Cassandra feeling this spring, because it is so obvious where all of this is heading. President Trump tells a big lie that elections are rigged. This authorizes him and others to seek power in extra-democratic ways.
The lie is institutionalized by state legislation that suppresses voting, and that gives state legislatures themselves the right to decide how to allocate the electoral vote in presidential elections. The scenario then goes like this. The Republicans win back the House and Senate in 2022, in part thanks to voter suppression.
The Republican candidate in 2024 loses the popular vote by several million and the electoral vote by the margin of a few states. State legislatures, claiming fraud, alter the electoral count vote. The House and Senate accept that altered count. The losing candidate becomes the president. We no longer have democratically-elected government. The big lie is designed not to win an election, but to discredit one.
. . .
Joe, I — this is chilling to me. What do you make of that?
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, I think it should be chilling to everybody.
. . .
CHARLIE SYKES: You know, I would really very much like to say that these concerns are paranoid and hysterical, but in fact I don’t think, I don't think that’s the case.
