There was an interesting moment on Monday as the hosts and guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” were discussing the coverage of the election. Willie Geist raised the possibility that President Trump could declare victory on election night before all the votes have been counted. Joe Scarborough responded that NBC would simply make a Twitter-like determination and not carry the speech. It would not be treated as obvious news but rather “disinformation” . . . regardless of what has transpired on election day.
What is ironic is the Geist had just slammed Trump for making plans to send in lawyers “no matter what happens.” Without missing a beat, Scarborough then announced that no matter what happens on the election (like a surprise victory), Trump’s speech would be blocked for NBC viewers.
“We’ll be doing coverage on Peacock and we can assure you if Trump declares victory we’ll say, don’t take the feed. It’s not going to happen. We won’t be part of any disinformation campaign, we’ll be doing election coverage until midnight or whenever is over.”
The point tracked a statement from Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon who declared that “[u]nder no scenario will Donald Trump be declared a victor on election night, and that’s fundamentally how we want to approach tomorrow.” I can understand the mathematical point but the Biden campaign does not make such decision. Moreover, this appears only a bar on a Trump victory speech. Some Democrats like James Carville are predicting that they will know by 10 pm. I would find it difficult to see a scenario where an election night victory could be declared but we do not know what will occur today in terms of any surges or landslide. More importantly, the issue raised on Morning Joe goes to the coverage not the claims on election night.
I happen to like and respect Scarborough. I have defended him and his co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski after personal attacks from President Trump. However, this statement was unnerving. I understand what he and Geist are saying about the need to count many votes sent in by mail. The problem is that they are in the news business and NBC viewers tune in for news. This would be, by any measure, news. Indeed, if premature or completely baseless, a victory speech would be even more significant news.
What concerns me is the relative ease with which news figures now state their role in protecting viewers from what they consider “disinformation.” It is precisely the slippery slope that took us to the expanding private censorship on sites like Twitter and Facebook, where a well-founded story in the New York Post is blocked for weeks. Despite the tech companies admitting that the move was a mistake, Democratic Senators demanded more censorship from the companies in the recent hearing. What is missing is the original clarity of the free and open forum of the Internet.
Now a news program is pledging in advance to block its viewers from hearing the President directly if he claims victory on Tuesday night. Instead, they can expect the same formulaic, approved coverage that we now expect in the age of echo chamber journalism. NBC recently was criticized for a bait-and-switch story on Hunter Biden where they debunked an obscure document rather than address the confirmed emails found on Biden’s laptop.
Obviously, viewers on NBC can switch over to Fox or another network to watch any presidential speech on election night. However, Scarborough was assuring the viewers that they would be protected from such news. Clearly he viewed promising to censor the President as a draw for NBC’s viewers — assuring viewers that they would be protected from the news like some journalistic safe space. Protecting viewers from news was not a goal of NBC when I worked for the company many years ago. This would be news any way you cut it. It can be immediately followed by commentary pointing out that such a claim may be premature. However, we do not know “what will happen” on Tuesday night anymore than President Trump does beyond one guarantee . . . it will be news.
I loathe Trump.
He is so unpatriotic and so dishonest.
He says things like “This is a fraud on the American public.” and “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.” All voting has already stopped. What’s happening now is counting the votes, and that must NOT stop. They are not “finding” ballots; they’re counting ballots. There is no fraud here. Any patriotic American should want all votes counted.
F*** Trump.
It’s worth remembering that the reason the vote counting is taking so long is that in many of these states the Republicans blocked laws that would have allowed the counting to start earlier. Election officials in MI, WI & PA begged GOP state legislatures to allow them to start counting the mail-in votes before Election Day like many other states. Republicans refused.
They didn’t want mail-in votes counted prior to Election Day, and now Trump doesn’t want them counted after Election Day.
Trump called it a fraud because it is fraud. There is no doubt about voter fraud going on overnight. Open your eyes, man.
Open your own eyes, Anon. @ 8:35AM. You claim fraud but don’t identify any fraudulent votes.
How do you equate counting the votes that have already been cast with fraud?!?
Comments like this: At 9.30pm local time Philadelphia based reporter Max Marin tweeted: “No more mail ballot results tonight”. Voting will resume at 9am the next morning.’
Why weren’t they counting through the night? Why stop counting? It raises doubts and undermines the integrity of the vote.
The answer to “why stop counting?” is “so they can get some sleep”.
Why should they stay up all night?
Look at how you moved the goalposts from saying “it is fraud” to “It raises doubts”.
Do you have evidence of fraud or don’t you??
If you don’t have evidence of fraud, why on earth would you say “it is fraud” as if that’s a fact??
Either identify fraudulent votes or admit you can’t.
Dems have been shouting “Trump cheated to win!” in 2016 with no evidence of fraud. Right now it looks like Biden is going to win this by a slim margin. At that point we will declare that they did it through cheating, fraud, censorship, voter suppression. Prove us wrong.
dont be so sure Biden will win the electoral vote. looks to me like Trump has the votes in four swing states that would put him over 270
it’s very close
Identify the fraudulent votes from 2016. You can’t.
“Why should they stay up all night?”
To count the dam votes and preserve the integrity, or at least the appearance of integrity and transparency. There is no reason for them to not count through the night. None.
If you think that getting some sleep isn’t a reason, then why didn’t you volunteer to stay up all night counting?
If you think “getting some sleep” is a remotely acceptable reason for multiple key states to just randomly stop counting votes on election night, then you must be a Democrat.
The hatred for Trump — and Trump voters– is duly noted
Win or lose, the lines are ever clearer
Yes they are. Let’s get down with it.
There was no hate expressed for Trump voters. When you see hate that wasn’t expressed, you may be the one with a problem.
Anon: “Any patriotic American should want all votes counted.”
I think what you mean is all *authentic* votes counted. But then your side has always had a strained relationship with the word “authentic.”
I would have thought it obvious, Sam, that I meant “all legal votes”. I don’t have a strained relationship with that at all.
Thanks for the early morning commentary, Mr. Turley. Much appreciated.
Turley tweets: “Trump just said “we did win this election.” He is suggesting that any change in the status quo is de facto fraud. That dog won’t hunt in courts. Many votes remain to be counted. He is certainly ahead in key states and has arguments to make but this will be neither easy nor quick.”
“Clearly Trump has not won these states under any legal construction. He may still prevail but this is a point where inflammatory rhetoric can alienate courts and inflame voters.”
Agreed. Pence skillfully walked the President’s rhetoric back and that helped a lot but we’ll have to see what Trump says later in the day.
Turley tweets: “This could end up with a split with neither at 270 with Pennsylvania outstanding. That is precisely the scenario I said days ago was my greatest fear. It could make us long for the days of hanging chads.”
ACB must be steeling herself for intense months ahead.
Rick Santorum on CNN (2:50 AM EST) thinks PA will hold for Trump despite the large number of mail-in ballots yet to be counted. John King admits the road for Biden in PA is steep. Biden’s got to win ~75% of the mail-in ballots to catch up. Mathematically possible but a steep hill.
Sweet.
GOP’s Maria Elvira Salazar defeats Democrat Donna Shalala | Miami Herald
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article246867257.html
Hysterical. The liberal news media were trashing Freitas nonstop for months.
https://results.elections.virginia.gov/vaelections/2020%20November%20General/Site/Congress.html
Member House of Representatives (07)Results by Locality
231 precincts of 232 reporting
For information on absentee returned statistics click here: Absentee Return Statistics
Candidate Votes Percent
Abigail A. Spanberger
Democratic 199,513 49.89%
Nick J. Freitas
Republican 199,786 49.95%
Write In
Write-In 637 0.16%
Last Modified on 11/04/2020 04:13 AM
On CNN Jocelyn Benson, SOS Michigan, says “hundreds of thousands” of ballots remain to be counted. 7:49 AM EST. But when asked to be more precise about the number, she deflected. A little bit odd.
Benson on Twitter around 7 AM EST:
https://twitter.com/JocelynBenson/status/1323959740091826176
“Hundreds of thousands of ballots in our largest jurisdictions are still being counted, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Warren & Sterling Heights. Every vote will count.”
Well, how many? Two hundred, four hundred or six hundred thousand?
Paraphrasing Newt Gingrich on CNN at 8:18 AM EST: You can’t look at the overall picture without thinking that the Democrats are trying to steal the election.
Michigan results with 91% reporting:
Trump 49.5% 2,420,821
Biden 49% 2,396,573
~280,000 Remaining? Most for Biden?
Pre-election prediction for Michigan from 538:
Biden 51.2%
Trump 43.2%
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/michigan/
Jonathan, Trump spent the entire election season discouraging his base from using mail-in ballots, so it should be no surprise that most mail in ballots in MI will be for Biden
maybe so but can anyone explain a dump of 138,000 found ballets that are 100% for Biden? total fraud
the most clueless high schooler busy faking votes for student counsel would know to salt them with a few Trump votes or anyone will see the batch as a fake. because they are
that’s one’s not going to stand
”
Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley
If you have any doubt where this is heading: Trump-Pence just sent out a call for donations for the election challenges. As Einstein noted “you cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time.” ”
So 3 hours ago certain states’ polecats/old media just stopped counting votes when it was headed for a clear Trump win.
“Those who make peaceful revolution guarantee violent revolution.”
And thus the Biden family has repaid his/B family’s debt to the Chicoms & more.
It’s almost 2 a.m. East Coast and Prof Turley is live on Fox. He said this has the feeling of 2000.
I can taste victory already. Will I be right or wrong? I been smelling it all week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4Gni803ArQ
Just a got a sweet drop of Florida orange juice — for TRUMP!
You are right! It’s game time. We’ve got a game. Joe Biden’s team is nervous as well they should be.
Spotted in front of the White House tonight: a group of Black men wading through the crowd wearing red MAGA hats. Yeah baby.
Chinese yuan tanking. Which means…??
MAGA!
Lol!!
Call Florida for Trump already!! What’s the delay??
Wrong.
TRUMP CRUSHING BIDEN IN FLORIDA 90% IN, TRUMP AHEAD BY 300,000
Not important, but just wondering: Who did Dana Perino’s makeup tonight? Stormy Daniels!??? Yikes.😊
Is it the Katherine Harris applied-with-a-trowel look?
Art Deco…..LOL……eyes that would make a racoon envious….and those lips! That lip brush took a wild ride………Dark lip color above and below lip line.
Someone should put Ulta on her speed dial.
(I haven’t been catty since 12th grade……this is fun😊)
P..S. My readers know that I don’t give a damn about how someone looks……but this relieves the stress of the election drama and not knowing our fate. I just watched The Women, too….LOL
So what. No one watches this imbecile anyway
Since when is this up to the former Congress man who had a dead female staffer found in his office?
She worked in a field office in Fort Walton Beach, not in Washington or in Pensacola. Only two people worked in that office. She fainted and hit her head on the edge of a desk. It was a week-end, no one else was in the office at the time and she bled out. Scarborough was in Washington at the time.
It is just sickening to me, what “journalism” has become. It should be to ALL OF YOU, regardless of your political persuasion. It may have been going on for 50 years, and I for one suppose it has, but the News as reported by any and all mainstream outlets is 100% totally fake, and has been since AT LEAST NOVEMBER 22, 1963. In case you’re not old enough to remember, that is the day that JFK was executed and all of the news and the MSM fell right “in-line” with the fake news of the time.
Thank God for our current President, who is finally going to expose it ALL with his draining of the SWAMP! I’ve never felt more love for my country as I DO NOW, thanks to this President DJT! He is trying to right the wrongs, sing the songs and expose the Dongs! Haha! Did you get it? Well, keep on watching because it will get even better! Peace!!!!
Why would anyone go to his channel anyway? What would he have instead? a pity party? He behaves like a child.
I want to see him cry his eyes out, flood the studio with his tears, rip his clothes (well maybe not that part).
They used to be reporters and commentators. Now they are announcing that they are censors. Is that consistent with the broadcast licensing?
src=”//embed.crooksandliars.com/embed/d9aHM33I”
https://twitter.com/koan4u/status/1323560745095712769
Great Trump video, I love it!
I suggest that we file complaints against all local broadcast licenses for all network owned stations for NBC, CBS and ABC on the grounds that they have failed in their responsibility to inform the public. After every network has lost a few billion dollars, the remaining stockholders can fire everyone in their news divisions and they can start over. And they might save a lot of money salaries. I remember an accused rapist from a network news show making $25 million a year to lie to us.
Horse, should Fox be included? Or are they the ‘good guys’?
By the way, Horse, we’ve never seen you before. Just popped out of nowhere??
Says the one that goes by “Anonymous” Xi is that you??
Wow! That’s a shame, Joe. Guess all 10 of your viewers will need to switch the channel to CNN.