Wall Street Journal was attacked by Media, ignores Pennsylvania’s serious history of voter fraud
Well, two cheers and a bravo for our friends at the Wall Street Journal.
The paper is taking media flak for having the nerve — the nerve! — to run unedited a letter to the editor from the former 45th President of the United States. In which Donald Trump runs through a litany of charges about voter fraud in Pennsylvania in 2020.
The WSJ took note of the media brouhaha and answered in an editorial titled:
The Facts on Trump’s Fraud Letter
His 2020 monomania is news, and it reflects on his fitness for 2024.
In which my two cheers instead of the usual three was because the paper showed a bit of the convulsive Trump Derangement Syndrome that runs rampant through the mainstream media. Said the new editorial:
It is always interesting to note that institutions criticizing the WSJ for running the Trump letter — like the Washington Post and the Poynter Institute — manage to deny and ignore Pennsylvania’s repeated problems with voter fraud. And it is a tad startling that the new WSJ editorial completely ignores the same problem. It is decidedly not “bananas” to say there has been repeated and documented voter fraud in Pennsylvania. President Trump has chapter and verse of reason to not trust my home state of Pennsylvania in elections.
A few weeks back (again!) I specifically documented Pennsylvania’s history of voter fraud in elections in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2008, and 1994. In the last case, as noted, a federal judge overturned a special election for the Pennsylvania State Senate because of what the judge said was a “massive scheme” by Democrats to steal the election.
Yet when President Trump raises exactly the same concerns about Pennsylvania in 2020, the media freaks out and the WSJ calls him “bananas.”
Rest assured, there is nothing bananas in believing voter fraud in Pennsylvania has been a serious problem — and remains so. President Trump is exactly right to focus on this.
Over (again!) at the Washington Post my former CNN colleague Philip Bump headlines:
The 14 things you need to know about Trump’s letter in the Wall Street Journal
In this gem of misdirection Bump takes the WSJ to task for an “inexplicable decision” to run the letter without “contextualizing” it. There is not the slightest sense of self-awareness that Bump himself penned this piece without contextualizing that yes, in fact, Pennsylvania has had that long history of voter fraud — replete with indictments and convictions as I have documented specifically and in detail. All of which gives the former President more than enough reason to be suspicious about Pennsylvania.
Over at the Poynter Institute their headline was:
Why would The Wall Street Journal run these false claims from Trump?
Newspapers have a long tradition of allowing readers to express their views. But this is incredibly and surprisingly irresponsible.
Yet again without the slightest sense of self-awareness Poynter cites one person after another who are either deliberately ignoring or are ignorant of Pennsylvania’s very real and very documented history of voter fraud. They cite Bump’s wildly deceptive column along with similar scathing reviews of the WSJ by my former CNN colleagues Amanda Carpenter and Jake Tapper, plus “Bill Grueskin, a Columbia University journalism school professor,” Politico’s Alex Thompson, and the Post’s “fact checker,” Glenn Kessler.
To be crystal clear, what President Trump did with his letter was to point to my home state and question the election results of 2020. With this long-documented record of Pennsylvania voter fraud, he did exactly the right thing. And to the point, the Journal had the courage to print his letter and let it stand on its own.
To deny this history by ignoring it is what should correctly be called “the Really Big Lie” that ignores the hard, documented, and repeated reality of Pennsylvania voter fraud. In fact, only a few days ago there was this headline in phillymag.com:
Mark Squilla Staffer Charged in South Philly Voter Fraud Conspiracy
Prosecutors say Marie Beren, who is no longer with Squilla’s office, used her role as a de facto judge of elections in three South Philly voting divisions to cast fraudulent votes for candidates at all levels of government.
No bananas about that.
Yet the media insists — insists — on ignoring this history and that, yes indeed, Trump is exactly right to raise questions. Google the reaction by the media to the WSJ’s publishing of the Trump letter and the list of media outlets who completely ignore Pennsylvania’s real history with voter fraud as they slam the Journal is considerable. Let’s run through a small list:
Mediaite: Wall Street Journal Prints an Entire Letter Trump Wrote Continuing to Push Election Lies
Mention by Mediaite of Pennsylvania’s history of voter fraud? Zero.
Yahoo News: Wall Street Journal Under Fire For Publishing Lie-Filled Letter From Trump
Mention by Yahoo News of Pennsylvania’s history of voter fraud? Zero.
HuffPost: Wall Street Journal Under Fire For Publishing Lie-Filled Letter From Trump
Donald Trump’s “letter to the editor” was crammed full of nonsense, but the newspaper published it anyway,
Mention by HuffPost of Pennsylvania’s history of voter fraud? Zero.
The Guardian: Wall Street Journal criticized for Trump letter pushing election lie
Mention by the Guardian of Pennsylvania’s history of voter fraud? Zero.
On and on — and on and on — went this kind of thing. With once respected media outlets repeatedly (deliberately?) ignoring repeated and documented evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania. In fact, right this minute there is an on-going audit of the Pennsylvania 2020 vote being conducted by the Pennsylvania State Senate to examine exactly what happened in a state where voter fraud is a regular occurrence.
The editors of the Wall Street Journal deserve two cheers for publishing the former President’s letter as is. The real question here is why, exactly, all the people criticizing theJournal refuse to even mention — much less investigate — Pennsylvania’s documented history of voter fraud.
What are they afraid of? The truth, maybe?
Not long ago The American Spectator held its annual dinner in Washington named for the late Robert Bartley, the legendary editor of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Bartley was absolutely fearless in taking on the hot-button subjects of his day, ranging from the Clintons to the Washington Inside the Beltway crowd.
Seeing the courage by his editorial successors at the paper he so loved in publishing the Trump letter — untouched and uncensored — surely has him smiling from above. But seeing them slightly backtrack the next day, with, like their critics, zero mention of repeated and documented voter fraud in Pennsylvania, and say that the former President’s claims are “bananas,” disappoints.
So two cheers for the Wall Street Journal. Well done the first time, less well the second.
And again, President Trump is 100 percent right that Pennsylvania has a serious, repeated, and well-documented problem with voter fraud and election integrity.
President Trump is exactly right to make election integrity a major issue — because it is.
