Someone asked me if I’d ever appear on Steve Bannon’s show to discuss election security. I said “not in a million years.” He said “the right seems always willing to debate the left, but not vice versa.” I told him that meaningful debate requires good faith participants. 1/
Otherwise, “debate” is just another platform for bad faith actors to elevate themselves and spread disinformation. 2/
Bannon has bragged about “flooding the zone with shit.” There is no good faith commitment to truth. I would never appear on his show. 3/
To de-program people who’ve been fooled by disinformation, it’s “important that the corrective information be repeated as frequently, and with even greater clarity, than the myth.” 1/ news.northeastern.edu/2018/06/18/tir…
IMO, repeating the mantra that this was “the most secure election ever” does not provide sufficient clarity to debunk baseless claims by TFG and his allies. Krebs must be specific and clearly explain how he knows that vote tallies weren’t changed. 2/
If he can’t or won’t do that, then that is a problem. 3/
The most infamous politically motivated prosecution occurred when the Bush DOJ locked up @DonSiegelman, Alabama’s last Democratic Governor. Eric Holder (Obama/Biden admin) looked the other way, an ominous precedent 4 recent revelations re: Trump’s DOJ. 1/ link.medium.com/9ez6Csyq0gb
Even Republicans thought it was politically motivated. The best guess for Holder’s inaction is that he was too afraid to right an obvious wrong against a fellow Democrat. 2/
“I personally believe that what happened here is that they targeted Don Siegelman because they could not beat him fair and square. This was a Republican state and he was the one Democrat they could never get rid of.” - Grant Woods, Republican (former Arizona AG). 3/
3/ “‘You need to concede,’ Obama told Clinton after his political director had failed to persuade Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, on the point.” theguardian.com/us-news/2017/a…
FFS!!!! In 2018, Trump blocked the bipartisan Secure Elections Act, which wld have required manual election audits for federal elections & incentivized the reduction or elimination of paperless voting machines!!!
The Secure Elections Act did not go nearly far enough in my opinion. That Trump wouldn’t even tolerate this modest election-security bill speaks volumes. That the Democrats have failed to scream this from the rooftops is political messaging malpractice. 2/
That the media has steadfastly failed to remind the public of this is journalistic malpractice. 3/
Yes, there are Democrats who suspect that the GOP has stolen elections from them via hacking. They just won’t say it publicly (at least not until years later) bc they are afraid of being called sore losers or tin foil. As if cheating is a far-fetched concept. 🙄 1/
Max Cleland also had concerns about the unexpected Republican wins in Georgia that followed the state’s switch to paperless Diebold voting machines in 2002. That year, Diebold secretly installed uncertified software patches throughout the state shortly before the election. 2/
But he didn’t say anything until he wrote his book years later. Maybe Democratic Party leadership persuades these “losing” candidates to shut up. I wish I knew. 3/