OPINION:
The New York Times published over the weekend an op-ed questioning whether President-elect Donald Trump was a threat to our democracy.
The piece concluded: “Mr. Trump tests positive. In the campaign, he encouraged violence among supporters; pledged to prosecute Hillary Clinton; threatened legal action against unfriendly media; and suggested that he might not accept the election results.”
Moreover: “This anti-democratic behavior has continued since the election. With the false claim that he lost the popular vote because of ’millions of people who voted illegally,’ Mr. Trump openly challenged the legitimacy of the electoral process. At the same time, he has been remarkably dismissive of United States intelligence agencies’ reports of Russian hacking to tilt the election in his favor.”
What the op-ed conveniently turns a blind-eye to is the left’s behavior since the election — and how they’ve been focused on delegitimizing our free and fair contest, because they lost.
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman refused to say whether the election was “free and fair.”
Asked by Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” if he believed “this was a free and fair election,” John Podesta deflected by complaining about Russia.
“Well, look, I think the Russians clearly intervened in the election, and I think that now we know that the CIA, the director of national intelligence, the FBI, all agree on that the Russians intervened to help Trump,” Mr. Podesta said.
Let’s be clear — there is zero evidence that the Russians hacked any voting machines to alter the results of the election. Mr. Podesta’s emails were leaked — but there’s been no dispute on their authenticity.
The anti-Trump’s harassment against the states’ electors is also undermining our democracy.
Today, the Electoral College will meet, and Mr. Trump will formally win the presidency — but that doesn’t come without death threats, thousands of harassing emails, and for some electors, police protection, because the left is trying to coerce them into switching their vote.
Mr. Trump was 100 percent correct when he tweeted on Sunday: “If my many supporters acted and threatened people like those who lost the election are doing, they would be scorned & called terrible names!”
The mainstream media has largely downplayed the threats, and at times, has even given legitimacy to the effort. President Obama and Mrs. Clinton have not condemned the effort or told their supporters to stand down. The Department of Justice is sitting on the sidelines as threatening cases have been documented.
It’s hypocrisy at its finest.
Four electors told The Arizona Republic they’ve been hit with thousands of emails, phone calls and letters sent to their work and homes. Bruce Ash, Arizona’s GOP national committeeman, told the Arizona Republic the emails, “demonize me, they call me a homophobic, an isolationist, a bigot, a misogynist, and an anti-Semite, which is interesting because I’m Jewish.”
Mr. Ash added, “They are hateful. And for a couple of days I answered them by thanking them and then explaining to them that I felt I had an obligation to the majority of the voters in Arizona who voted for him … and honoring their vote.”
Pennsylvania’s electors are getting police protection because of the harassment.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Thousands of emails land in [the electors] inboxes every day. Copies of the Federalist Papers and other books urging political courage are being mailed to their homes. They are even getting phone calls in the middle of the night.”
Elector Ash Khare, who estimates he receives 3,000 to 5,000 emails, letters, and phone calls a day from as far away as France, Germany, and Australia, told the paper: “I’m a big boy. But this is stupid. Nobody is standing up and telling these people, ’Enough, knock it off.’”
And a Michigan elector has received a death threat, if he didn’t switch his vote.
Elector Michael Banerian told the Detroit News of the anti-Trump left: “You have people saying ’you’re a hateful bigot, I hope you die.’ I’ve had people talk about shoving a gun in my mouth and blowing my brains out. And I’ve received dozens and dozens of those emails. Even the non-threatening-my-life emails are very aggressive.”
It is the left who are not accepting the election results. It is the left who is encouraging violence and undermining our institutions, by not condemning the harassment of the electors. It is the anti-Trump left that refuses to say if our election was free and fair because Russia may have leaked a few emails.
Yet, they still have the gall to call Mr. Trump anti-democratic. They need to take a cold, hard look in the mirror.
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