Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has refused to commit to accepting the 2024 election results. And his logic is based on the bizarre claim that the real election deniers are Democrats, not Republicans.
Asked on NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday whether he would accept the election results no matter who won, Rubio said, “I think you're asking the wrong person. Democrats have opposed every Republican victory since 2000.
Rubio is referring to actual events. But he creates a false equivalency that is indefensible.
Rubio, who is on former President Donald Trump's list of running mates, pointed out that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the 2016 election was “stolen” from her. And she pointed out that there were also Democrats who did not vote to certify the 2004 election results.
Rubio is referring to actual events. But he argues that between the Democratic Party, which questions certain past results, and the modern Republican Party, whose leaders have staged an attempted insurrection and placed lies about the electoral system at the ideological center of the party's policies. It creates a false equivalency that cannot be defended.
Indeed, Clinton said the election was “stolen from her” and called Trump's presidency “illegitimate.” But let's unpack it a little more.
Essentially, Clinton's basis for claiming that the Trump presidency was “stolen” is based primarily on what there is documented evidence: after Trump asked Russia to interfere in the election. It is tied to Russian interference in the election on Trump's behalf. It is debatable whether that intervention, among many other factors behind Clinton's defeat, was decisive or effective. But this stands in contrast to President Trump's claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, which have been found to rely on unsubstantiated and often fabricated claims.
Also importantly, Clinton's comments came years after the 2016 election, when she conceded to Trump and helped ensure a peaceful transfer of power from President Barack Obama to Trump. It was served after that. And Mr. Clinton never advocated overturning the election results or attempting a coup against Mr. Trump. Democratic leaders also did not do so, despite criticizing Russian interference and overseeing investigations into its possible impact on the election.
Rubio also accurately recalled that in 2004, about 30 Democrats objected to the counting of Ohio's 20 electors. These Democrats are responding to a report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee alleging significant election fraud in the state (and other areas). He raised concerns that he may have been deprived of his right to vote. Lawmakers who objected said it was a symbolic act intended to focus on electoral reform, not to overturn the election. In the brief debate in Congress sparked by this challenge, Democrats acknowledged that George W. Bush had won the election, while explaining allegations of voting fraud.
Like Sen. Clinton. John Kerry admitted he lost the election, and the Democratic Party upheld Bush's re-election results. Compare these results to Trump and his Republican Party in 2020. Trump was lying before the election that he believed there was fraud in the election. He has concocted countless unsubstantiated lies about fraud, coerced state officials and pressured the vice president to deceive voters, and summoned a raucous mob to the nation's capital to storm the U.S. Capitol. and encouraged them to interfere with elections. certification. This was not a question of the election results, but an agenda to overturn them.
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Republicans co-signed the measure. The Republican Party supported President Trump's actions rather than rejecting them as the actions of an ambitious dictator. In 2017, nearly 150 House Republicans, including Speaker Kevin McCarthy, voted to overturn the election. Senate Republicans then defended Trump from conviction after the House impeached him for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, refusing to consider sanctions that would prevent the aspiring tyrant from running again.
And since the 2020 election, most Republicans have aligned themselves with President Trump, who has made the lie of election fraud in 2020 and the possibility of election fraud in 2024 central to his campaign message. There is.
Mr. Rubio may be hoping to attract President Trump's attention by promoting this strangely reversed reality. But his suggestion that it is Democrats, not Republicans, who should be reprimanded for not accepting the election results is patently absurd.
