This all starts with a Washington Examiner piece published Tuesday by Timothy P. Carney called, “Being a Democrat means never having to accept an election loss.” The piece was inspired by Terry McAuliffe and revisits Bush v. Gore. Carney writes:
The previous time the Republicans won, George W. Bush in 2004, Sen. Barbara Boxer and dozens of House members objected to Ohio’s electoral votes going for Bush, even though he won the state by more than 100,000 votes.
Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, promoted a conspiracy theory whereby enough votes were switched from Kerry to Bush by voting machines and enough voters were wrongly purged from voter rolls that it “could have been” determinative of the result in Ohio and, thus, the whole presidential election.
And the time before that? Well, famously, Al Gore sued in Florida and in the Supreme Court to overturn George W. Bush’s insanely narrow victory in that state. Democratic congressmen, even after the lawsuits ended, called the result a “coup d’etat.” They also challenged the electoral votes.
Carney then links to Jonathan Chait’s piece in New York magazine last month, saying Bush never won the election fairly. Chait jumped in to make the claim again.
So! This entire arguments rests on a highly technical but clearly wrong interpretation of Florida vote-counting law. I'll explain the error in a short thread. https://t.co/3YQ5su3TDJ
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
It references my argument, which is that the post-9/11 atmosphere caused the media to heavily downplay the results of its recount, which were that Gore won the most votes by the likely standard https://t.co/twxWy2Nrqn
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
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“… caused the media to heavily downplay the results of its recount”?
Gore's winning margin came from ballots in which voters punched his name and also wrote in his name. The prevailing "will of the voter" hand recount standard would have allowed that clear choice to be registered, giving Gore the state.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
In rebuttal, @TPCarney insists Florida law would not permit recounting ballots with the same candidate's name voted for and written in: pic.twitter.com/rNr94xKs7N
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
Of course it makes sense to discount a ballot with "more names than there are persons to be elected to an office." You can't determine which of the two names they'd have chosen!
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
But these were ballots in which voters picked *the same name* for the same office. "Al Gore" and "Al Gore" aren't two different names. They're the same name.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
Naturally, the anti-anti-Trumpers like @baseballcrank are piggybacking off Carney's highly technical and clearly wrong interpretation to call my position "truther" and use it to play down the right's obvious lies about 2020.
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) October 6, 2021
OK, Q
— Hollowpoint (@Davejb70) October 6, 2021
How dare someone question the media like this https://t.co/CeOJi9kUNK
— Pro-Vax (@aarond23) October 6, 2021
— endemic Beard (@llcthecableguy) October 6, 2021
How many different ways can you try to change history? If you want to pursue theories that weren't in play in 2001, then you open the door to every other state & election as well.
Absolutely ridiculous to try to change history.https://t.co/qWNHyduT4P pic.twitter.com/vcEGP8Yc8n
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) October 6, 2021
Nope… the Miami Herald, University of Florida and The Tampa Bay Times (I think) recounted the ballots in every way possible. It only changed the size of the win, not the outcome.
— endemic Beard (@llcthecableguy) October 6, 2021
Gore lost, Jon.
— Steven 🇺🇸🇮🇹🇻🇦 (@SFlipp) October 6, 2021
You sound like an insurrectionist right now bro.
— adam c ❁ (@well_ya_know_) October 6, 2021
That’s completely false, and that was made clear years ago.
— Taro Tsujimoto (@RCannon74) October 6, 2021
🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥
This is an outright lie and proven false— antony (@skiesout420) October 6, 2021
Blue Anon
— k.adams (@kadams190) October 6, 2021
You're a liar. Gore never was ahead in the Florida count so there was no "winning margin".
— Cindy Cooper (@CindyCoops) October 6, 2021
This is Jeffrey Toobin behavior.
— Skip Intro (@ZOZOZOZZYZZYZIG) October 6, 2021
Gross.
Let. it. go. People bitch about Trump not accepting the outcome of the election…these are the same people debating whether or not Gore won, whether or not Hillary won. Move on man.
— KW (@kwallcan) October 6, 2021
A reminder that Democrats still haven’t accepted that they lost an election 21 years ago. No matter what multiple recounts, independent counts, and the Supreme Court said https://t.co/wPK8Nu63IS
— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) October 6, 2021
Related:
This should be good: Jonathan Chait explains ‘why the media is worse for Biden than Trump’ https://t.co/CtHUdNyImg
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 26, 2021
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