From Biden to Blackburn, from CNN to Fox, just stop with election fraud nonsense | Opinion

Here’s a way to tell if someone is being dishonest about election fraud claims: it’s if their “concerns” disappear if they get the most votes.

The greatest danger to our election system may well be national leaders complaining or insisting — when they or their side loses — that it’s only because of cheating.

On that basis, this is a request to President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Sen. Bill Hagerty and others: until or unless you have evidence of election fraud, don’t claim election fraud occurred. This isn’t to say that no election can be questioned; rather, it’s how it’s questioned, particularly by the nation’s leaders, that matters.

If there is proof of wrongdoing, find it. Expose it. Punish it. But spare the nation the editorial comments for your political partisans. Please don’t talk about how an election was stolen unless: You. Can. Back. It. Up. With. Evidence.

With respect, your “feeling,” your “belief,” your “concerns” or your accusations that cheating occurred are ultimately worthless and useful only for political posturing. Worse, they’re harmful. Every unsupportable claim is like an ocean tide washing up against a beach house: eventually the structure is undermined and damages the house, perhaps irreparably.

The 'Big Lie'

The election integrity focus since November 2020 is on what many in the media have dubbed the “Big Lie,” or Trump’s claim the election was rigged. It’s easy to understand his frustration: he goes to bed on election night neck-and-neck with Biden and the next morning finds himself behind, in some cases (such as in Georgia) by a relatively miniscule number of votes.

The all-Trump, all the time drumbeat is the byproduct of the “we love to hate him” tactics of too many in the media who’ve replaced journalistic principles with ideological or personal animus. But Trump’s actions since the election have emboldened millions of Americans to assume he’s right without having a clue whether he is. They want it to be true, so it’s true. Which means, of course, the election was a lie. And if elections are lies, then the country’s government itself, to a degree, must be seen as illegitimate.

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Biden and Clinton questioned results

But it’s a big lie to say that this is Trump’s issue alone: A month before the election, Biden was setting himself up if he lost to make similar claims. A Reuters story from Oct. 10, 2020, lays it out: “Biden says 'chicanery' at polls is the only way he could lose U.S. election.”

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Reuters reported: “Biden encouraged potential voters at a campaign stop in the must-win battleground of Pennsylvania, telling them ‘make sure to vote because the only way we lose this is by the chicanery going on relative to polling places.’ ” He later “clarified” to say he’d accept the results of the election.

A few months earlier, Biden had gone farther. In June 2020 he said in an interview on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” “This president's going to try to steal this election.” How can you say that you can’t lose except if you’re cheated, but then say you’ll respect the outcome of the crooked election? That can’t be true. They are irreconcilable positions.

But neither Trump nor Biden is alone in this type of big lie. On Oct. 9, 2020, almost four years after losing the 2016 presidential election to Trump, Hillary Clinton continued her claim that some sort of fraud had occurred, as the National Review reported from an interview Clinton gave the Atlantic’s political podcast: "Hillary Clinton Maintains 2016 Election ‘Was Not on the Level’: ‘We Still Don’t Know What Really Happened.’ "

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Yes, we do. She lost. Just as Trump lost. But saying something isn’t what it is doesn’t make it what we want it to be.

So did Blackburn and Hagerty

On Jan. 2, 2021, Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reported about Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and now-Sen. Bill Hagerty’s stand on the 2020 presidential election outcome: “Tenn. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Sen.-elect Bill Hagerty say they will oppose election results.”

Said NewsChannel 5’s story: “ 'On behalf of Tennesseans, we are taking a united stand against the tainted electoral results from the recent Presidential election,’ Blackburn and Hagerty said in a statement. ‘American democracy relies on the consent of the governed. Allegations of voter fraud, irregularities and unconstitutional actions diminish public confidence in what should be a free, fair and transparent process. Protecting the integrity of the electoral process is paramount to preserving trust and legitimacy in the final outcome.’”

If allegations of voter fraud diminish public confidence, didn’t this statement do the same thing? Yes, it did.

For major elections to be tainted, unjust or to have been won on the basis of cheating, it would require active participation and collusion among dozens, perhaps hundreds, of conspirators, among them election workers, election officials, judges and others. Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.”

So here’s an appeal to our leaders — and anyone else — from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans and wherever you are: watch your language. If half the people believe every election is fraught with fraud, there’s no reason to have any respect for the system — or when your side wins. This has nothing to do with opposing policies or decisions. That’s an entirely separate issue. Opposition to policies and decisions is the right of a free people.

But if you’re a leader and you don’t have evidence, don’t come to a conclusion. Offer an honest basis for your concern apart from disliking the outcome. If you don’t have evidence, respect the system. If you don’t have evidence, don’t talk about having been cheated.

That’s the difference between politics and principles. And that’s no lie.

George Korda is a political analyst for WATE-TV, hosts “State Your Case” from noon to 2 p.m. Sundays on WOKI-FM Newstalk 98.7 and is president of Korda Communications, a public relations and communications consulting firm.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: National leaders need to put up or shut up about election fraud