In this particular case, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX02) finds himself explaining the obvious to the “election was stolen” true believers without much success.
The Washington Post breaks down the play-by-play action:
But at a GOP fundraiser in Illinois on Wednesday night, the Texan clashed with a fellow Republican after Crenshaw told the crowd the 2020 election was not stolen and the results would not be overturned. Trump falsely claimed he won the race long after the electoral college backed the winner, President Biden, and dozens of judges rejected claims of election fraud.
“Don’t kid yourself into believing that’s why we lost. It’s not,” Crenshaw told the crowd.
Bobby Piton, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, disagreed. In a 54-second clip posted to his campaign’s YouTube account, Piton can be seen interrupting Crenshaw, saying he has “plenty of proof” the presidential election was stolen and the outcome would be reversed.
“You’re wrong,” Piton said repeatedly, talking over Crenshaw. “You watch … you’re going to see firsthand.”
“I’m not wrong,” the congressman responded. “Five different states? Hundreds of thousands of votes? You’re kidding yourself.”
Crenshaw’s office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday night about the exchange.
The heart of Piton’s campaign are the baseless claims that the presidency was stolen from Trump in a rigged election. After losing, the former president spent weeks attacking the results, leading to the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally and riot at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
Get used to these sorts of spectacles.
There are going to be a plethora of candidates ranging from viable to fringe running in the upcoming 2022 midterms solely on Trump-style politics and style. And the initiation to carrying the Trump banner into electoral battle is reciting the catechism that the election was stolen. Or at least, it is to the most devoted and hardcore of the former president’s followers. Republicans like Dan Crenshaw, who both in rhetoric and record was firmly supportive of the Trump Administration, are not sufficiently down for the truth if they don’t play along.
There are going to be more and more of these videos, and elected Republicans better just prepare now, and work out Kyle Reese Doctrine to deal with them:
Listen, and understand! Those “election was stolen” folks are out there! They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop… ever, until they are proven right!
There is no incentive for any of them to change their minds. These candidates pushing “election was stolen” as a strategy get a built-in audience and money eco-system to operate in. The folks that believe that the election was stolen enough to wrap their entire political outlook around it can forever continue in their own lost cause victimhood of having been cheated as opposed to any reflection on what might have gone wrong. The grifter set can keep making money off both candidates and supporters and keep the MAGA money train rolling just a little bit longer.
Such folks as the “election was stolen” true believers are going to get louder as they sense their relevance sliding away. So get used to it, Republican candidates, office holders, and officials; the future of the “election was stolen” movement is demanding not only whether or not you agree with them, but why you didn’t make their version of reality come true.
Good luck with that.
What did he expect would happen?
Once you let the demons out they usually don’t go back willingly.Report
The worlds tiniest violin is playing in my heart for Republican candidates trying to thread that needle. Indeed I suspect the violin is subatomic in size.Report
Yeah, the party needs to come down hard on the stolen crowd, and it doesn’t want to, so this will continue and it’s their own sh*t they are swimming in.Report
It cannot and will not because, they either:
1. Quake in fear of being primaried from the right over this stuff;
2. Believe this stuff themselves; and/or
3. Believe that it reflects a “deeper truth” that any election of a Democratic politician is inherently illegitimate because the people that vote Democratic do not deserve the right to vote generally.Report
Route for injuries!!!!Report
I don’t find this situation amusing at all. The Republicans and the rightist media spent decades tellng lies big and small to their listeners. We are now dealing with tens of millions of deluded citizens who do thinks like attempt a Freikorp coup or kill their kids because of Qanon. This isn’t going to end well at all.Report
I’m not sure who’s killing their kids because of Qanon. But a free society is not without horrors. I bet the CRT and gender lies are doing more damage to the next generation. And then there are non-political parents messing with their kids in ways that don’t fit any classification. It’s unfortunate all around.Report
I see you missed this story:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-dad-killed-his-kids-over-qanon-serpent-dna-conspiracy-n1276611Report
I must have missed the other tens of millions of stories of Qanon related murders too. The important thing is that we’re not nutpicking here, that the average Republican can be represented by this example. Or was it only one of those, and tens of millions of people who stormed the Capitol?Report
The Republicans continue to believe that they can ride the whirlwind.Report
This presents an interesting dilemma. Much as with Democrats and the “gimme gimme gimme” voters, Republican candidates can either insincerely pander to these people, or they can lose their primaries to true believers. A fish may rot from the head down, but democracy rots from the voters up.Report
Elections are routinely “stolen”. There’s always some voter fraud. There is always “voter irregularities”. Whatever. Tell me how, substantially having Donald in the office vs Biden would make a material difference to the vast majority of Americans. Trump didn’t do much in his four years, certainly not much that he campaigned for. There is very little difference between the two. The us is still doing 90% of what it was doing before the election.Report
They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop… ever,
And there was no way to predict that Trump would lead to this.Report