Lawrence O’Donnell just nailed it
This week I’ve been critical of the mainstream media for jumping on a ridiculous story about Donald Trump somehow magically installing his own electors to rig the Electoral College, when doing so would be realistically impossible in some states and literally impossible in other states.
The media has been using this nonsensical story to push its “Trump will win no matter what” and “all hope is lost” narratives, which do real harm because they instruct people not to even bother voting against him. But credit where it’s due to MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who is helping to spell out why the story is nonsense. He tweeted this:
Stop the panic about Pennsylvania’s Republican state legislature discarding election result & naming electors for Trump to the Electoral College. They’d have to pass legislation changing Pennsylvania’s Electoral College statute which would be VETOed by the Democratic governor.
That’s absolutely correct. It’s also true in a number of other states. This simply isn’t a real thing. The original article – which falsely painted this unrealistic premise as if it could really happen – was either poorly researched at best, or intentionally crafted to scare people into making it go viral at worst. One of the biggest keys to winning this election is not allowing ourselves to be distracted from the work at hand by absurd nonsense.
