As we woke up Wednesday morning, there was a virtual dead heat in the Republican primary for Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race. Celebrity doctor and Trump endorsee Mehmet Oz held the slimmest of margins over David McCormick in a race that could, ultimately, have a huge impact on the balance of the Senate and the future of the country following the midterms later this year.
What’s interesting — and what many political observers were quick to note — was that no one in Pennsylvania (or anywhere else in the country, for that matter) was complaining about voter fraud or rigged elections or questionable write-in ballots or faulty machines or any of the ridiculous claims that made up the Big Lie of the 2020 presidential election.
Then Donald Trump, of course, couldn’t help himself. He pulled out his old playbook and then took to his Truth Social platform Wednesday afternoon.
Trump wrote, “Dr. Oz should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find.’”
Sound familiar? It’s the same strategy Trump used in 2020 when he falsely declared he had won while legal votes were still being tabulated. To this day, Trump has never conceded that loss to Joe Biden and, disturbingly, Trump’s Big Lie conspiracy has a cult-like stranglehold over many of his supporters and even those holding offices in the Republican Party.
In fact, stay in Pennsylvania where Doug Mastriano, who has strongly backed Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, will be the Republican candidate for governor after easily winning that primary.
As CNN’s Eric Bradner wrote, “The GOP's selection of Mastriano means that if he wins in November, an election denier who attempted to overturn voters’ will in the 2020 election would have power over the election machinery in one of the nation's most important battleground states during the 2024 presidential race. In Pennsylvania, the governor appoints the secretary of state — the person in charge of running Pennsylvania's elections and signing off on its electors.”
And so it would appear that Trump’s insistence about the 2020 election still plays well with many Republicans — as Tuesday’s primaries showed.
The New York Times’ Reid J. Epstein wrote, “The Republican candidates who did best on Tuesday were the ones who have most aggressively cast doubt on the 2020 election results and have campaigned on restricting voting further and overhauling how elections are run.”
Epstein added, “The success of the election deniers comes after a year and a half in which Mr. Trump has continued to fixate on his 2020 loss and, in some places, has called on Republican state legislators to try to decertify their states’ results — something that has no basis in law.”
Two takeaways from all this.
One, Trump’s Big Lie not only hasn’t gone away, it seems to have grown stronger.
And, two, the media must continue to point out that the Big Lie is exactly that — a big lie. Our elections are fair and square and honest and that needs to be pointed out as consistently and as loudly as the other side wrongly screams that it is not. This is a battle over one of the bedrocks of our democracy and those who lie simply because they don’t like the outcomes of certain elections must be exposed.
Yes, the media should look deeply into voting rights, access to voting, voting districts and, of course, should continue to make sure our elections are honest. If there are truly irregularities, they should be examined.
But that’s not the same as simply yelling that an election is rigged because this person won instead of that one — which is what Trump, and those politicians born from his example, are doing.
It’s up to the media to continue to point out that those lies are lies.
Must-read Twitter thread
Be sure to check out this Twitter thread from Will Bunch, national opinion columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Bunch goes into detail about the potential threat posed by Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s candidate for Pennsylvania governor.
Aside from promoting Trump’s election lies, Mastriano also seems to be at war with the press, banning them from a big pre-primary rally last weekend. In a piece for the Inquirer last week, Bunch wrote, “… we should be shocked and alarmed, because what’s happening right here in the state where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were drafted is a huge downward spiral in a war not just over the freedom of the press in America — an important, fundamental right in and of itself — but our very notions of democracy, which doesn’t function without an informed public.”
Bunch added, “What started some seven years ago as a terroristic threat from a future president of the United States — who branded the media with the Stalinist term ‘enemies of the people’ and encouraged a kind of Two Minutes Hate toward penned-in reporters — has now devolved in tandem with an antidemocratic Republican Party. Journalists are blocked and bullied. Debates with potential hard questions are shunned. Basic fact-checking is deflected.”
Sadly, this isn’t a one-off thing from one politician. Bunch wrote, “The nation that was birthed in the spirit of the New England town meeting and a celebration of open political debate is now holding elections in an information vacuum, in a climate in which one political party now sees journalists not as the upholders of our 231-year First Amendment tradition but as enemies of a state eager to enforce a right-wing populist ‘culture war.’”
Read more of Bunch’s Twitter thread, which links to his columns about what’s a stake in Pennsylvania this election season. Because what happens in Pennsylvania could have a great impact on the rest of the country.
Trump’s influence
What did Tuesday’s results in the primaries say about Trump’s influence over the Republican Party?
The New York Times’ Michael C. Bender and Maggie Haberman wrote, “In each of the most contentious primary races this month — including two closely watched contests next week in Alabama and Georgia — nearly every candidate has run a campaign modeled on the former president’s. Their websites and advertisements are filled with his images. They promote his policies, and many repeat his false claims about election fraud in 2020. But Mr. Trump’s power over Republican voters has proved to be less commanding.”
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote, “The primaries so far have been a mixed bag for former president Donald Trump’s endorsements.”
As Blake noted, Trump helped push Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance over the top, but Nebraska governor candidate Charles Herbster lost in his bid. Blake wrote, “Tuesday brought more reason to doubt Trump’s status as a GOP kingmaker, even as Trump-y candidates continue to win plenty.”
Controversial politician voted out