Republican vice-presidential candidate makes baseless claim that ‘big tech rigged the election’
Republican vice-presidential candidate makes baseless claim that ‘big tech rigged the election’
The Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, told a reporter on Wednesday that there were "serious problems" in the 2020 election and suggested for the first time that the then president Donald Trump did not actually lose the race.
“Did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use,” Vance said in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. “But look, I really couldn’t care less if you agree with me or disagree with me on this issue.”
He was pressed on his response by a reporter later in the day on another campaign stop in Wilmington, North Carolina, saying: "I think that big tech rigged the election in 2020. That's my view. And if you disagree with me, that's fine."
The response comes in the wake of a non-response earlier this month, when during an interview with the New York Times, Vance was reportedly given five opportunities to “acknowledge that Trump did not win in 2020” and he “refused to say so”.
They have to use this language to stay out of legal trouble. Saying things you know aren't true is indeed lying, but you have to prove that they know it's a lie.
Intention to deceive is the key part, and hard to prove. So journalists play it on the safe side and just keep to the facts: they repeated false claims / statements.
Not angry at you because you are accurately stating the position.
However, in this case that position is bullshit. The outcome of the election has been established. We have all seen JD Vance being made aware of that fact during interviews.
HE IS A LIAR AND IT IS LEGAL TO SAY SO.
Also, public figures have an INSANELY high bar to prove liable and defamimation.
Isn’t Vance fully in bed with Musk, Thiel, Andreessen, and a cavalcade of similarly minded fash-brained techbros?
That's the G and the P in GOP. They are literally trying to rig the election with the help of a bunch of billionaire tech bros, but it's totally okay because "Democrats did it first"
And since the last election was over 1,000 news cycles ago, nobody will question whether that's actually what happened.
I get the impulse to push back with this "well then he isn't eligible to run cause he's had two terms" but it just enables their argument. "The election was stolen so he never got to Serve his second term blah blah blah"
The dudes a fucking clown and a crook and has no business in the white house, but saying stuff like this just gives them ammo for their bullshit.
Edit:
I know they're going to find something to bitch about regardless, but my point it let's not make it as easy as this. Let them keep grasping at straws like they have been with Walz.
Edit 2:
Just realized I responded to the post and not the comment that I'm talking about. Edited to add clarity...
No one ever asks them why all the Republicans accepted their own election results and swore in. If the election was so bad, why would you accept winning but claim a lower on the same ballot did not? You should step aside instead.
I think this is too much of a complex thought for them. They'd be lost in the first few words anyway, trying to drown you out with a mountain of shit so as not to have to listen to you.
Election denialism isn't about intelligence, its about propaganda. Keep repeating that any election you lose is illegitimate, and you build a groundswell of popular support for your next attempt to overthrow an election whose results you don't like.
Also, a very real possibility that Trump wins this thing and still insists the elections were rigged. With a six-seat SCOTUS that seems willing to play ball on dismantling democratic institutions, its possible for an incoming Trump regime to force out downballot Dem officials in any state that's remotely contested.
And the best part is that it'll all be "legal" from a purely textualist reading of the actions, because the folks interpreting the law are all Trump cronies.
And the best part is that it’ll all be “legal” from a purely textualist reading of the actions, because the folks interpreting the law are all Trump cronies.
The even "bester" part is that Democrats won't even be able to vociferously complain about the Republicans real theft of the election because the Republicans have so thoroughly poisoned the well on that issue with their false claims of it. So the Democrats will fail to do what is necessary to stop the fascist takeover and America will be screwed forever.