After Donald Trump tweeted a panicky plea to delay the election and to delegitimize his likely loss otherwise, Fox Business host Stuart Varney didn’t just talk it up, he tried to push Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) into backing it.
With Trump trailing in national as well as battleground-state polls, and with his approval ratings sinking, he tweeted this morning what The Washington Post called Trump's “most dramatic” effort “to undermine public faith in U.S. elections.”
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
For Varney, Trump’s tweet was his command. And he saw it as his duty to persuade Barrasso to see it the same way. Unfortunately for lickspittle Varney, Barrasso would not go along.
In fact, pretty much all the top Republicans seem to have publicly rejected the delay. Maybe they prefer to try to delegitimize the election the old-fashioned way, with their incessant and false claims of voter fraud.
Whatever the reason, Barrasso stood fast despite Varney’s best efforts.
Varney interrupted Barrasso as he said, “I think we're going to vote on Election Day and the lead-up to Election Day. It'll be a secure election.” He added, “if I can have anything to do with it, we will reelect Donald Trump president of the United States.”
VARNEY: Mr. Senator, I do apologize for interrupting you, but if we have mail-in balloting the way it's scheduled now, there is absolutely no way you will get an election result on election night, or even in the first few days. That means confusion and endless challenges. That is a mess. What do you think? Delay the election?
BARRASSO: No, we're not gonna delay the election, Stuart. We're going to have the election completed, and voting completed by Election Day. It's going to take a while to get all the votes counted, I am certain. … You know, Nancy Pelosi, in her bill dealing with coronavirus, wants a complete federal takeover of the election, and we cannot allow that, and I won't allow it.
But Varney persisted:
VARNEY: You can't start counting mail-in ballots until the day of the election. And in some places, you can't start counting until you've checked every mail-in ballot for the right postmark. I mean, it's a mess, Senator.
BARRASSO: Well, there's a lot that's changed because of coronavirus. We have been focused and working on making sure elections are secure. And we will get results, it's gonna take awhile, I believe that it will. We may not know on election night the balance of the House of Representatives, or the Senate, or the presidency. But we will not delay the elections.
You can watch Varney’s sycophancy below, from Fox Business Network’s July 30, 2020 Varney & Co.
(H/T reader Eric J.)