Top Three Takeaways – November 13th
- Presidential Recounts. They’re not new to South Floridians and inherently they shouldn’t controversial. After all, why would anyone be concerned with super close elections being recounted sufficiently to ensure the final tally has been vetted and is correct? At least if they were interested in insuring there’s an honest final result? While even those who didn’t live in Florida during the 2000 Presidential recount know the story, it’s worth noting that not a single local or state media outlet referred to George W. Bush as President-Elect, though there was never a time he trailed in that race. Same was true of national news media. George W. Bush wasn’t referred to as President-Elect until the conclusion of the entire recount process had been completed. No media outlets, local or national called on Gore to concede. There were no stories as to why Bush was denied access to an official transition team in the White House. Related...
- Local Recounts. In 2018 Republican Mike Carusso won the closest election in the state of Florida with what turned out to be a 32-vote margin over Democrat Jim Bonfiglio in House District 89 after two recounts (hand and machine). Until that final recount no one in local or state news media anointed Carusso the elected one or called on Bonfiglio to concede. This cycle the closest race is in Senate District 37 where Republican Ileana Garcia beat Democrat Jose Rodriguez by 34 votes – after two recounts. Have you heard any news media suggesting Rodriguez should have bounced? But maybe the excuse is simply a matter of the size of the vote difference. Right? Not exactly, back to that 2018 Florida election. Know when news media outlets recognized Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott as Governor and Senator-elect? After the final recount. And what were the margins in those races? 32,463 votes for DeSantis and 10,033 votes for Rick Scott. Notice a trend? If a Republican leads a race locally, for state office or for federal office and it’s close – we must count all of the votes and we must conduct machine and hand recounts before declaring a winner. Notice what happens as soon as a Democrat is in the lead? Which takes me to...
- President Trump’s recounts. Here are a few nonrandom numbers for you. 11,000. 14,000. 36,000. 53,000. Know what those numbers represent? The difference separating Trump from Biden in four states. But we had to wait until after recounts to call Florida’s Governor’s race and Senate race in 2018 with similar margins, right? Yet three of those four for the office of the Presidency have been called by at least one of the major news agencies and every state and local news outlet recognizes those network decisions prior to any recounts? But lest you still have any doubt about how biased and dishonest your local, state and national news media outlets are consider this number. 73,000. Notice how that’s the largest of any number yet? Know what that margin is? The lead Trump currently shows over Biden in North Carolina. Notice how North Carolina hasn't been called by these same news media outlets for Trump? So, here’s the thing. President Trump won a meaningful legal challenge in Pennsylvania yesterday where a court ruled the Secretary of State unlawfully extended a ballot deadline for curing ballots and no ballots received past the lawful deadline should be counted. This isn’t over, this was always about attempting to pressure Trump into conceding and going away as fast as possible and to pressure judges into a position where they wouldn’t want to be responsible for holding up election outcomes already deemed resolved by news media and their anointed President-Elect. Make no mistake, the odds are long for President Trump to say the least, if you’re a Trump supporter don’t get your hopes up, but it’s not over yet either and that’s the point. The same dishonest politicians and news media outlets who say every vote should be counted and that we should ensure proper counts didn’t wait for every vote to be counted to call the election and aren’t desirous of any assurances for a proper accounting of votes. Based on a legal ruling in PA yesterday, votes which have already been tabulated were done so illegally. Will there be more to come? Don’t know. Will it change the outcome? Unlikely. Is Joe Biden President-Elect of the United States as of Saturday November 7th? Hell no. He’s also not as of Friday the 13th either. Speaking of dates that conjure thoughts of horror and superstition. The real freak show is the dishonest state of the news media. But this is the most recent teachable moment. If you’re wondering who you can and can’t trust for info. It’s real easy right now. Find someone who refers to Joe Biden as President-Elect. You can’t trust them as a credible source of information. Because he’s not. And by the way, we should have machine and hand recounts in every state in question. Because every vote really should be counted and accounted for honestly.
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