The media and Democrats are really, really mad. I know that’s not necessarily unusual, but this time it’s because they believe Donald Trump is “delegitimizing” the results of the 2020 election. Of course, we don’t even have all the results, nor do we know that Trump has lost at this point. Arizona continues to surprise, with the President keeping pace for what he would need to flip the state.

Regardless, seeing the consternation among the pundit class this evening over Trump’s most recent presser, where he complained about possible fraud, I was struck by the lack of self-awareness. I’m old enough to remember, because I’m more than four years old, when the left and their media allies spent the entire Trump first term proclaiming that Russia stole the 2016 election with magical Facebook memes.

If there was ever a group that should sit this discussion out, it’s these conspiratorial partisans.

Yes, the president being a Russian operative is far more likely than Philadelphia engaging in some voter fraud. Go with that.

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) November 5, 2020

Of course, they aren’t going to sit this one out though.

In the 2000 election Al Gore took a bullet for the country. Tonight President Trump put a bullet into the country. Most shameful thing I’ve ever seen.

— Thomas L. Friedman (@tomfriedman) November 6, 2020

In another example, here’s David French, who bought nearly every Kremlin backed misinformation campaign about Trump stealing the 2016 election suddenly deciding that it’s really, really awful to question the results of an election.

That was a very low energy, pathetic (and yet still dangerous) festival of conspiracy theories and lies. He reaffirmed five long years of opposition to his dreadful demagoguery with every syllable.

— David French (@DavidAFrench) November 6, 2020

French will have no future in a post-Trump Republican party because he in no way reflects most of its voters, but that’s beside the point. His hysteria is indicative of much of the anti-Trump contingent tonight. They are acting as though the Republic is going to collapse because Trump says there was voter fraud. I’d suggest possibly lightening up, but these people are incapable of anything but virtue signaling and finger-wagging.

If you think that Trump’s press conference just now did more to undermine our democracy than four years of Democrats and the media screaming that Donald Trump was a Russian asset controlled by Putin, you’re delusional.

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) November 6, 2020

I’m not sure of a lot of things, but I’m positive the country will not only survive, but be completely unaffected by the fact that the President isn’t folding like some on the right demand their politicians do. As I wrote earlier (see Republican 2024 Hopefuls Can Speak Now or Shut Up In Four Years), anyone in the GOP who wants to run for president four years from now better speak now or expect to be ignored in the future. This is not the time to be polite or gnash one’s teeth over Trump saying stuff that may in fact end up true. It’s the time to fight with every tool left to fight with until this is officially over.

The reality is that nothing Trump said in his presser comes close to harming our electoral process in the way that the  media, the left, and some on the right did by pushing the Steele Dossier and promoting the idea that Trump “stole” the 2016 election by colluding with Putin. Anyone who pushed that garbage doesn’t get to stand up now and pretend to be a protector of norms and elections.

The party of Russian hysteria and "the election was stolen by Facebook memes" doesn't get to lecture now on delegitimizing elections. Shut up and lighten up. Whoever wins will win. Our republic is not at stake because Trump got mad.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 6, 2020

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)