OPINION:
The Babylon Bee headline was perfect.
“‘Trump Might Not Accept The Results Of The 2020 Election,’ Says Movement That Still Hasn’t Accepted Results Of 2016 Election.”
“Leftists are warning that President Donald Trump might not accept the results of the 2020 election,” the satirical website wrote. “These same leftists have spent the last four years declaring that Trump is not their president, that Hillary Clinton actually won because she won the popular vote, and that Trump only won because of Russian interference.”
As the old saying goes, it’s funny because it’s true.
Really true.
After Mrs. Clinton’s humiliating loss in 2016 (she got crushed in the Electoral College vote, 304-227), the Democratic nominee went on an international tour to explain what happened.
For months — which turned into years — she blamed FBI Director James Comey, Russia, computer bots, WikiLeaks, Bernie Sanders, Facebook, Joe Biden, fake news, Twitter, voter ID laws, the vast right-wing conspiracy, sexism, Barack Obama, ageism, child sex pervert Anthony Weiner, white women, xenophobia, black people, the Electoral College, the Democratic National Committee, misogyny, women cowed by their husbands, and even former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (we never could figure out a former mayor of New York City caused Mrs. Clinton to lose Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Florida and … you get the point).
Now the new talking point is that Mr. Trump won’t leave the White House if he loses on Nov. 3 — and Hillary’s pushing it.
“Well, I think it is a fair point to raise as to whether or not, if he loses, he’s going to go quietly or not. And we have to be ready for that,” the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee said on “The Daily Show.”
Mrs. Clinton appeared on the show to push mail-in ballots — and claim that Mr. Trump is trying to disenfranchise Americans. “There have been so many academic studies and other analyses, which point out that it’s just an inaccurate, fraudulent claim,” she said.
“There isn’t that problem. All the games that are played … to try and keep the vote down — that’s the real danger to the integrity of our election, that combined with disinformation and misinformation and all the online shenanigans we saw in 2016,” Mrs. Clinton said.
The sore loser has spent nearly four years objecting to the outcome of the 2016 election — and made a fortune in the process. She wrote a book, aptly named “What Happened,” and hawked it endlessly in public appearances, always pushing the conspiracy theory that the election was influenced by outside forces — and thus Mr. Trump is not truly president.
With Hillary leading the charge, others have been making the same claim, too.
“Whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, said July 20. “Just because he might not want to move out of the White House doesn’t mean we won’t have an inauguration ceremony to inaugurate a duly elected president of the United States.”
The claim that Mr. Trump will refuse to leave the White House made its way to the hallowed halls of the Capitol on Tuesday.
“Mr. Attorney General,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, asked Bill Barr in a House hearing, “what will you do if Donald Trump loses the election on Nov. 3 but refuses to leave office on Jan. 20?”
Mr. Barr answered: “If the results are clear, I would leave office.”
Pretty simple.
The conspiracy theory — as well as others far more nefarious — has made its way to Hollywood.
Alec Baldwin, the former “30 Rock” actor, last week tossed out a theory that Mr. Trump will deploy the military to stop the general election in November. The actor’s comments came as federal agents descended on Portland, Oregon, amid weeks of protests sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd while in police custody.
“The ‘police’ activity in Portland, and lack of outrage over/resistance to it tells us how Trump could stop the election in November,” Mr. Baldwin wrote on Twitter. “It’s his only hope.”
The Babylon Bee joke article was perfect because liberals claim Mr. Trump is planning to do just what they’ve been doing since Nov. 7, 2016 — ignore the outcome of the election and claim victory. And while it’s funny, it’s also sad — and scary. But it illustrates just how much Democrats fear Mr. Trump, and they’re already setting up the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election won’t be fair — at least if Mr. Trump wins.
Mrs. Clinton has steadfastly refused to accept the election’s outcome, and now she has the audacity to claim that Mr. Trump might not accept the tally this time around? Losers like Mrs. Clinton never blame themselves, and now, the two-time loser is laying the groundwork to reject the outcome of the 2020 election.
That’s what losers do.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at josephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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