Since Democrats have coined the ‘election denier’ catchphrase, applying it exclusively to Republicans who cast doubts on election integrity in 2020 and 2022, we’d like to refresh their memory on those in their own party who have denied election results over the years.
They’d like you to forget most of these instances, but fortunately, today’s information technology makes it easy to point out what absolute hypocrites these people are.
2000
Al Gore
What better place to start this list than with the godfather of election denialism, former Vice President Al Gore?
After the 2000 contest against George W. Bush, Gore refused to accept the free and fair election results and would not concede defeat. He instead tied up the election process through litigation in the courts for months.
Gore consistently lost his bid to overturn the election results in the lower courts and kept fighting in the Florida Supreme Court. He would not concede until mid-December of that year, a month and a half after Election Day.
And yet, in August of 2017, Gore again suggested he actually won the 2000 election.
“When the sea levels rise, we could lose Venice, we could lose Florida. And who would know better about losing Florida?” #BeInconvenient pic.twitter.com/WwaAkVK3i7
— Real Time with Bill Maher (@RealTimers) August 5, 2017
Jimmy Carter
In 2014, former President Jimmy Carter insisted that Bush did not win the election over Gore in 2000.
“I don’t think that George W. Bush won the election in 2000 against Al Gore because I think that he probably lost Florida, and also nationwide,” he said in an interview.
Joe Biden
President Biden in 2013 claimed Al Gore actually won the election but stepped aside for the good of the nation. He didn’t.
“This man was elected president of the United States of America,” a pool report at the time stated.
“But for the good of the nation, when the bad decision, in my view, was made, he did the right thing for the nation.”
Here’s Biden in 2013:
“This man was elected president of the United States of America,” Biden said at a fundraiser that Gore also attended.
Weird how Gore never corrects anyone doing this years and years after allegedly conceding.https://t.co/yHAKfpXhDN
— InTheRightColumn (@TheRightColumn) February 13, 2022
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton in 2001 said, “The only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida.”
Terry McAuliffe
The former Governor of Virginia in 2004 claimed Democrats “won that election.”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
“The Supreme Court elected the president,” Schultz argued, stating that Florida was a blue state in 2000. “Al Gore won the state of Florida in 2000, although not the presidency.”
In all, 15 Democrats would go on to object to counting Florida’s electoral votes.
2004
Just one presidential election later, Democrats ran the same exact playbook in trying to delegitimize President George W. Bush, despite the fact that he won the electoral count by a wider margin and the popular vote count over John Kerry.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton began her career in election denialism in 2004, arguing that “there are many legitimate questions about [the election’s] accuracy.”
Howard Dean
Howard Dean told Rolling Stone that he was “not confident that the election in Ohio was fairly decided” and ‘couldn’t rule out’ that the election was stolen.
Sheila Jackson Lee
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said, “We cannot declare that the election of November 2nd, 2004 was free and clear and transparent and real for all of those who attempted to vote.”
John Kerry
New York University professor and author Mark Crispin Miller claimed in 2005 that John Kerry told him “he now thinks the election was stolen.”
In all, 31 Democrats voted in favor of rejecting electoral votes from Ohio.
2016
Oddly enough, Democrats didn’t object to election results in 2008 and 2012. But they suddenly kicked up the election denialism to 11 once again in 2016.
Karine Jean-Pierre
The White House’s chief propagandist, in a tweet from December 2016, claimed Hillary Clinton’s emails were “stolen,” as was the presidential election.
“Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election … welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump,” she wrote.
Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election …..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump https://t.co/NI7vqPV6cu
— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) December 18, 2016
Hillary Clinton
Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, spent years claiming the election was stolen from her by the Russians and anybody else she could point a finger at.
“I was the candidate that they basically stole an election from,” she said.
Hillary tells @karaswisher “So there is an air of illegitimacy that surrounds Trump’s presidency, and that just infuriates them….Because I was the candidate that they basically stole an election from.” https://t.co/NovSU9xxyo
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 26, 2020
Joe Biden
President Biden cast his own doubts on the 2016 presidential election, agreeing with a woman at a campaign rally who said Trump was an “illegitimate president in my mind.”
“I absolutely agree,” Biden replied.
“During a May 2019 campaign stop in New Hampshire a woman came up to Biden and said Trump was “an illegitimate president in my mind.” Biden’s response? “I absolutely agree.” @wjmcgurn
Biden says he wants to end the “era of demonization.” what a charlatanhttps://t.co/3ITwzTXCja
— steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) November 10, 2020
Jimmy Carter
Former President Jimmy Carter believed Trump lost saying, “I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016.”
Former President Jimmy Carter: If fully investigated, it would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put in office because the Russians interfered …on his behalf.
? https://t.co/CYSBIK3qHF pic.twitter.com/o71Z4InVxB— CSPAN (@cspan) June 28, 2019
John Lewis and Barbara Lee
The late congressman John Lewis said he did not believe President Trump is a “legitimate president,” with Representative Barbara Lee applauding the comment and saying he was “right on target.”
Jerry Nadler
“He was legally elected,” Nadler said in 2017. “But the Russians weighing in on the election, the Russian attempt to hack the election and, frankly, the FBI’s weighing in on the election make his election illegitimate.”
In all, seven different Democrats objected 11 times to certifying the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Additionally, 67 Democrats boycotted Trump’s inauguration, with many claiming “his election was illegitimate.”
This is hardly an exhaustive list but rather, a starting point when reminding Democrats that they were election deniers years, if not decades before they suddenly began pointing the finger at everybody else.
The GOP has compiled a list of over 150 examples of the resistance party casting doubts on previous elections. Try as they might, Democrats can not simply rewrite history.
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