Ted Cruz got into a bit of a rhetorical tussle with CNN’s Chris Cuomo yesterday that’s worth mentioning, both because Cruz taking someone to the woodshed is always fun to observe and because it illustrates the enormous ignorance of how elections function on the left.

The media are fighting this odd crusade whereby they want to be the ones to be able to pronounce an election over instead of just waiting for the official process top lay out. Cruz pointed that out on his top-rated podcast recently, and that led the less accomplished Cuomo brother into a season of great triggering.

Here’s Cruz’s original tweet.

Here's a radical proposition — elections are decided when the results have been counted and the legal proceedings are over.

That didn't use to be a controversial proposition.

More on the latest episode of #Verdict: https://t.co/wHQ67sFcxB pic.twitter.com/n0shQxdmA1

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 17, 2020

And here’s Cuomo jumping into the fray.

Wrong. You have been empowering the notion that there are problems with the count that justify delaying transition in the middle of figuring out how to distribute a vaccine in a pandemic. Own it…because the position owns you and will be remembered. https://t.co/u9gt0D7JoJ

— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) November 17, 2020

There’s a bit to unpack here. First, Cruz is absolutely not “wrong.” Nowhere in our constitutional process does it say an election is over before the votes are tallied, and in this case, the electors have voted. If Cuomo wants to pronounce things done, he gets to wait until December for that. The fact is that we do not elect our presidents based on the popular vote, nor is it relevant to ceasing legal challenges, which are ongoing. Cuomo may not like that, but he isn’t privy to his own set of facts whereby the “results” of an election predate the actual results.

Also, what exactly does the vaccine have to do with any of this. Does Cuomo believe that Joe Biden, who has shown he has zero plan for how to deal with COVID, has some super-secret distribution plan that must be put in place during the transition period? Last I checked, it will be those manufacturing the vaccine and the healthcare system that distribute things. It won’t be Kamala Harris and her mostly senile boss.

Cruz eventually hit back at Cuomo.

Hush child. https://t.co/qxzHMcFxFS

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 17, 2020

What’s when this final exchange occurred (at least at the time of this writing).

In the past 2 months, we’ve voted TWICE on $500 billion in COVID relief. Both times, Senate Dems filibustered the bill.

You should call on your own party to stop blocking relief. EVERY SINGLE Dem voted to filibuster.

I suspect you never reported on that fact to your viewers. https://t.co/Thsid8ZBbm

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 18, 2020

Cruz is correct again. Republicans have given up the farm on COVID relief, handing Democrats large parts of what they want. Instead of passing what everyone agrees on, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have staked the country’s economic health holding out for big payouts to badly run blue states, as well as other special interests. No one who supports Democrats, especially not Chris Cuomo, gets to throw shade about the lack of a new COVID relief bill. Republicans are trying to give more relief and Democrats keep saying no. That’s on them.

Cuomo should think harder before picking a fight like this next time, though he certainly won’t.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)