After weeks of declining to do so, Mitch McConnell finally acknowledged reality on Tuesday, congratulating Joe Biden on his victory over Donald Trump. It was not an act of courage — McConnell had been silent for weeks as Trump and his allies undermined the integrity of the US electoral system. The truth of the matter was that McConnell had little real choice. The Electoral College had affirmed Biden’s win and Trump had failed to prove his deranged claims of voter conspiracy in court.
But immediately upon doing so, McConnell became the target of some in MAGA Media. Charlie Kirk raged on his podcast, “You typically don’t use the term ‘congratulations’ when someone just stole a bank — stole money from a bank.” The Gateway Pundit accused him of “supporting election fraud” and questioned his wife’s dealings with China. An OANN host said he would “regret revealing his own corruption in less than 30 days.” Sebastian Gorka said he had “cave[d] to the mob.” Mark Levin bashed him and said it’s “time for some fresh thinking and new blood.”
The whole episode underscored — yet again — the true nature of the MAGA Media diehards. These pro-Trump personalities claim to be against groupthink and cancel culture, but are ready to cancel anyone who steps out of line, regardless of who they are. Don’t just look at the attacks McConnell has faced. Look at the wrath folks like Attorney General William Barr and Tucker Carlson faced in recent weeks for rejecting wild election conspiracy theories. And, more broadly, look at how former GOP heroes like Jeff Sessions and John Bolton were treated by right-wing media when they had the nerve to diverge from Trump.
There is a small sliver of conservative media that remains which is genuinely interested in advancing conservative philosophy and debating on the merits. But that small sliver is nothing compared to the rest of the right-wing apparatus that has pledged undying support to Trump. Dissent from Trump and they will aim to destroy. The ironic feature of right-wing media is that at its core it often acts as an agent of the cancel culture that it professes to hate. The question now becomes: What do they do when Trump is gone?
Propagandists continue to supply fantasy
Bartiromo’s “intel source”
Brian Stelter writes: “This is a classic example of Fox failing to maintain any editorial standards. Maria Bartiromo went on her Fox Business show and said ‘an intel source’ is ‘telling me that President Trump did in fact win the election. He says that it is up to the Supreme Court to hear suits from other cases across the country to stop the clock.’ This was a pre-planned segment, complete with a banner on screen. So was this ‘source’ vetted by Fox’s newsroom? Approved by management? That’s how it works at other networks, but not at Fox. I inquired about this on Tuesday, and a Fox News spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment…”