Analysis: Biden issued a stark warning about election deniers. Here's what's fueling America's 'path to chaos'


New York
CNN Business
 — 

President Joe Biden, just days before the crucial midterm elections, stood before the country on Wednesday from Washington’s Union Station and delivered a dire warning.

“As I stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in America, for governor, Congress, attorney general, secretary of state, who won’t commit, they will not commit to accepting the results of the elections that they’re running in,” Biden said. “This is the path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It’s unlawful. And it’s un-American.”

The line in the speech — which was televised by cable news, but snubbed by the more-watched broadcast networks — is not a matter of opinion. It doesn’t include any political spin. It’s a tragic raw fact.

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Only 41% of Republicans have confidence that US elections reflect the will of the people, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS and published Wednesday found. A staggering 66% of Republicans continue to say that they do not believe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 elections.

It’s impossible to understand why so many Americans no longer trust US elections without understanding the information universe in which they reside. Bad-faith television hosts, radio personalities, podcasters, and websites that now unquestionably dominate the right-wing media landscape have poisoned the information well with lies and conspiracy theories about the elections process.

Take Tucker Carlson for example. After Biden’s speech, the right-wing talk show host not only gave permission for his massive audience to question election results, but actually egged them on to do so. “In a functioning democracy, you’re not simply allowed to raise questions about elections, you’re encouraged to,” Carlson ranted as the on-screen banner alerted viewers to the fact that he was reacting “to the mannequin’s angry speech.”

“There is no such thing as election denying in a free society. It’s called free speech. You’re allowed to say it if you think it, period,” Carlson said. “And yet our media, which exists to defend free speech, is doing its best, day after day, to shut it down. How dare you raise any questions about next week’s midterms. Why are they telling you that? It’s ominous.”

It’s easy to dismiss Carlson’s rhetoric as fringe. To say that he is a radical cable news talker who does not reflect the larger right-wing media universe in which Republicans largely — often exclusively — get their news.

And it is understandable why some people choose to ignore it. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that so many Americans — neighbors, friends, family members — are being radicalized by extreme voices who are wrestling for control of the Republican Party.

But doing so would be to ignore the forces allowing a cancer to grow in our society. And for news organizations, ignoring the toxicity that defines the right-wing media universe leaves readers and viewers without a complete picture of what is happening in the country.

“As I stand here tonight, equality and democracy are under assault,” Biden said Wednesday evening. “We do ourselves no favor to pretend otherwise.”

source: cnn.com