Ever since the police killing of George Floyd, Democrats have attempted to blame the Republicans and President Donald Trump of somehow abetting police brutality in general or Derek Chauvin, the police officer who put his knee on the neck of George Floyd, in particular. On Monday, former Vice President Al Gore took it one step further. He accused Trump of doing to “democracy” what Chauvin did to George Floyd. This seemed more than a little ironic, given Gore’s own history with military ballots from overseas.
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Gore said, “Americans understand, Anderson, that during a pandemic, there are lots of older voters and voters of all ages with a pre-existing condition who worry that they can’t breathe safely standing in line to vote.”
“So, in effect, by tampering with the Postal Service, [Trump] is, in effect, putting his knee on the neck of American democracy and trying to make it impossible for people to vote by mail,” Gore argued.
Al Gore: “By tampering with the Postal Service, [President Trump] is in effect putting his knee on the neck of American democracy.” pic.twitter.com/uAfB1arfZA
— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2020
Wait, who’s Al Gore, again? Isn’t he that guy who tried to run for president and then had his lawyers urge Democratic recount observers to challenge overseas absentee ballots, potentially throwing out the votes of hundreds of military members stations overseas?
Why yes, it is. Now, that same Al Gore is trying to convince voters that Trump will prevent voters from casting ballots by mail. That’s what you call ironic.
Speaking of ironic, remember when the Democrats insisted — until they were blue in the face — that concerns about voting by mail were entirely unwarranted? Twitter even “fact-checked” Trump on the issue, pushing a “completely false” narrative.
Those same Democrats are now breathlessly warning the American people that the dastardly Donald Trump is — wait for it — sabotaging the vote-by-mail system! Democrats and left-leaning reporters have claimed that the president has launched an “assault” on the U.S. Postal Service. In reality, Trump is not trying to undermine the system. He has merely refused to fork over $25 billion to the post office, which is rapidly becoming insolvent. The Postal Service did receive a $10 billion loan, however. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has also sought to reform the Postal Service to cut costs.
The USPS has been removing a few mail collection boxes, since surplus collections are a key drag on the budget. (Lest Americans think this is a Trump idea, the Obama administration removed more than 12,000 mail collection boxes.) Al Gore concocted a conspiracy theory — that Trump was removing those boxes specifically in order to stop people from voting by mail.
“You see them going around with flatbed trucks and picking up the mailboxes outside the senior citizens’ centers and schools and libraries, places where people are used to dropping off their mail,” Gore claimed.
Al Gore: “You see them going around with flatbed trucks and picking up the mailboxes outside the senior citizens’ centers and schools and libraries, places where people are used to dropping off their mail.” pic.twitter.com/SBCyCMWr4s
— The Hill (@thehill) August 17, 2020
Gore’s fearmongering and hyperbole are par for the course among Democrats these days. In June, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of “trying to get away with murder, the murder of George Floyd.” What was Republicans’ dastardly crime? Pushing a more moderate version of the extreme criminal justice reform bill Democrats advanced. Yet Pelosi doubled down and then tripled down on the accusation.
Republicans were not trying to get away with George Floyd’s murder, and Trump doesn’t have “his knee on the neck of American democracy.” But Democrats are getting increasingly desperate in their hyperbolic accusations.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.