ANN ALTHOUSE PARSES NPR’S SHADY PRE-ELECTION REPORTING:

“Trump and allies have primed supporters to falsely believe he has no chance of losing.”

That’s the headline at NPR for a piece by political reporter Stephen Fowler.

What does “primed” even mean? It seems to admit that Trump never said he has “no chance of losing,” but he said something that has caused a belief. And then what’s the evidence that Trump supporters believe that? No chance of losing — who believes that? And then to ding these people for “falsely” believing this thing Trump never said… well, the “falsely” ought to be appended to this NPR article: NPR political reporter falsely believes Trump somehow caused his supporters to believe he has no chance of losing. . . .

I’d say it’s not so much that Trump supporters believe he has “no chance of losing.” It’s that they are cranked up into a high state of vigilance, so that if a loss is announced, they will support the challenges and litigation that will follow. I hope that works as a strong deterrence to any cheating, that everything’s conducted on the up and up. And I see no reason to disparage people who are creating pressure to handle the voting process accurately and honestly. I don’t know why Joe Biden did not use his presidency to bring us together by working to make the voting process as transparent and squeaky clean. He knew half (or at least a third) of the country had doubts. Why didn’t he work to dispel those doubts? Did he want all this discord? Was he hiding malfeasance?

Yes.