Ever since news outlets projected that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election on November 7th of that year, Donald Trump has publicly disputed the result, calling the election “rigged”, “stolen” and a “fraud”. His efforts to overturn the election culminated in his second impeachment in January of 2021, for which he was subsequently acquitted.
While I haven’t looked in detail at the allegations that the 2020 election was “stolen”, I have never seen any compelling evidence that they are true. Hence the harsh criticism Trump received for attempting to overturn the election seems justified. Whatever else may be true, it’s entirely improper for a politician to go around calling an election “stolen”.
Which raises the question: shouldn’t Democrats be held to the same standard?
Back in 2022, the Republican National Committee put together a video titled ‘12 Minutes of Democrats Denying Election Results’, with the first three minutes focussed on the 2016 election. It includes clips of Hillary Clinton and various other Democrats referring to Trump as an “illegitimate President”, and describing the election as “not on the level” and indeed “stolen”.
As you’ll recall, Trump’s entire presidency was overshadowed by allegations that his campaign had colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Yet following the much-touted Mueller investigation, “not one single American was charged, indicted or convicted for conspiring with Russia to influence the 2016 election” – to quote the journalist Glenn Greenwald.
In fact, a study published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications found that very few individuals were exposed to the Russian influence campaign on Twitter, and it had zero influence on their attitudes and voting behaviour. (The study did not look at other social media platforms like Facebook.)
Election denial, then, isn’t just a Republican thing. It’s bipartisan – with politicians in both parties disputing the results of elections they lose. And interestingly, their antics seem to have shaped the views of the rank and file.
According to a recent survey, the percentage of Democrat and Republican voters who endorse election conspiracy theories is remarkably similar. Sceptic Research Centre asked 3,000 Americans whether they agreed that the 2016 and 2020 elections were “fraudulent”. Results are shown below.
As you can see, 49% of Democrats agreed that the 2016 election of Donald Trump was fraudulent – which is only nine points less than the percentage of Republicans who agreed that the 2020 election of Joe Biden was fraudulent. Overall, a sizeable chunk of both parties’ voters endorse election conspiracies.
For the last three years, the media have been running with the narrative that it’s Republicans who deny elections. The truth is that partisans on both sides of the aisle play fast and loose with democratic norms when it suits them. And given that 2016 came before 2020, it was arguably the Democrats who started it.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.