A 2020 presidential ballot featuring President Donald J. Trump against Joe Biden (Photo by Joe Kovacs)
When the Bush-Gore recount went on for 36 days, the media urged patience and calm to achieve a resolution that would preserve the nation's trust in the integrity of its election system.
But now the media seem poised to declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election while few of the nearly 70 million Americans who voted for President Trump believe the outcome is settled, warned Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show Thursday night.
In 2000, he noted, media reported the irregularities, including the infamous hanging chads, putting them on TV so people could see for themselves.
The process "was excruciating," he said, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but "in the end, it was well worth it."
Media at the time "understood that preserving the public's faith in the system, our American system of government was more important than getting Al Gore or anyone else into the White House."
"So they pushed for openness and transparency in the process, and thank God they did."
But much has changed since then, Carlson said, and it's "entirely possible now that someday soon, the news media will decide to shut this election down."
"Believe it or not, effectively, they have the power to do that," Carlson said.
Election officials in Philadelphia, for example, could produced a large number of newly counted votes that would be hastily ratified by Pennsylvania's secretary of state, declaring Joe Biden the winner and putting him over the 270 threshold.
"But hold on a minute, how many of the 69 million Americans who voted for Donald Trump this week would believe that and accept it? At this point, not very many, not that anyone cares, and of course, the fact that no one cares is the reason they voted for Donald Trump in the first place," he said.
"But if you cared about the country and its future, you wouldn't force Donald Trump's voters to believe this. You wouldn’t force them to take you on your word," said Carlson.
"Instead, you would show them. You would convince them. You would pull back, you’d resist hasty calls, and you’d make certain that we got to the bottom of any credible claim of fraud."
He acknowledged that not all of the claims are credible, but some are.
"You would air the hanging chads. You'd let the process work as we did in 2000," he said. "Maybe, in the end, Joe Biden would win anyway, maybe he wouldn't.
"But the public's faith in the system -- and that's essential in a self-governing republic -- would remain intact," he said.
"That's what you would do if you cared about this country."
He warned that "shutting down legitimate discourse and inquiry" always "destroys social trust and it sets the table for awful things to come."
"If people air concerns, resolve the concerns," Carlson said. "Don't call them names. Don't sweep those concerns under the rug. Don’t shut it down artificially with unelected news anchors; let our system work.
"Only by doing that will we have a country we are going to want to live in 20 years from now."
See "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday:
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