By Dan Murphy
President Joe Biden delivered an address at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2022, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the attack that attempted to stop the counting of electors from the 2020 Presidential election. The speech was by far, the best of Biden’s presidency, which is less than one year old.
In the speech, the President attacked the former President without mentioning him by name. But he levied the attack with common sense, and logic, and at the right time. The American people have had enough of the talk and accusations over election fraud in the 2020 Presidential election, in which Biden narrowly defeated President Donald Trump by less than 45,000 votes in three states to win.
This reporter has listened to the Trump supporters who claim that the election was stolen, and that Trump was the real winner, and their continued promise that eventually, the election will be overturned and Trump will be restored to The White House.
But one of Biden’s remarks in his Jan. 6 speech sealed the deal for me, and for perhaps thousands of other Americans who wondered who really won on Nov. 3, 2020. “Just think about this: The former president and his supporters have never been able to explain how they accept as accurate the other election results that took place on Nov. 3 — the elections for governor, United States Senate, the House of Representatives — elections in which they closed the gap in the House.
“They challenge none of that. The president’s name was first, then we went down the line — governors, senators, House of Representatives. Somehow, those results were accurate on the same ballot, but the presidential race was flawed? And on the same ballot, the same day, cast by the same voters. The only difference: The former president didn’t lose those races; he just lost the one that was his own,” said Biden, who finally confronted Trump, and the timing could not have been any better.
I had heard this explanation once before but it didn’t resonate until I heard it from our President. And it makes sense if you are a non-partisan political observer as i have become, (because I have not voted for Trump or Hillary or Biden in the past two Presidential elections).
Instead of delivering coattails for his fellow republicans, the opposite happened. Voters selected republican candidates for House, Senate and Governor, and then did not vote for Trump. They left the ballot for President blank, or voted for Biden or someone else.
And that it the logical conclusion as to why Trump lost in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by less than 1%. Some voters were turned off by President Trump’s four years in office.
But in 2016, the results were as close, with Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania the four closest states with a margin of less than 1%. Trump won by less than 1% in 2016, and lost by the same margin in 2020. Isn’t it possible that less than 1% of the voters in those swing states voted for Trump in 2016 but did not vote for him in 2020?
Back to President Biden’s point, you can’t have it both ways, and pick up victories in the House and hold onto 50 Senate seats, and win Governor’s races, and accept those results, but balk at the Presidential results.
Now I can tell you what the Steve Bannon’s of the world will say as their answer to Biden, without listening in. That Trump victories and republican victories would have been greater without the fraudulent ballots that were permitted to be counted in those four states, and how republican senate candidates in George and Arizona would have won if every legal ballot only were counted.
Well, I have heard that argument for a year, but never saw the definitive proof needed to overturn a presidential election. I saw a few hundred, even a thousand ballots in which dead people voted, or people who had moved had voted. But the totals of all of those questionable ballots were not enough to give Trump the win.
So as President Biden waited until Jan. 6, 2022 to call out President Trump, it was perfect timing for me. And Joe took Trump behind the stadium at the high school and gave him a beating in this speech.
“But what did we not see? We didn’t see a former president, who had just rallied the mob to attack — sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House, watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours as police were assaulted, lives at risk, and the nation’s Capitol under siege.” and “For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.”
And “And here is the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interests as more important than his country’s interests and America’s interests, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.”
“He can’t accept he lost, even though that’s what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said: He lost. He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president,” said President Biden.
Sean Hannity gave the best advice to President Trump, but it fell on deaf ears. “After the 6th, He should announce will lead the nationwide effort to reform voter integrity. Go to Fl and watch Joe mess up daily. Stay engaged. When he speaks people will listen.”
Game, Set, Match to Joe Biden.
