Scarborough Cites Gore, Slams Critics of Trump

Democrats outraged about Donald Trump's potential refusal to acknowledge the results of an election are forgetting the 2000 election, Joe Scarborough argued on MSNBC Thursday. Scarborough accused the media of "bath[ing] in hypocrisy" and pummelling Trump with an unfair, "holier-than-thou" attitude, reports the Hill. The same people who are accusing Trump of heinous offenses against democracy are the same people who wouldn't accept that George W. Bush's win over Al Gore was legit, he says. He also points out that "just six months ago," Bernie Sanders supporters were complaining of a rigged primary system.

Others have been using the 2000 election as an example of a candidate who wouldn't accept results, but Philip Bump at the Washington Post writes that the situations were different. "Gore's fight was a fight over counting ballots, not over an allegation that the election itself was unfair," he writes. Yes, Gore recanted his election night concession, but that was because the counting process was in chaos. Once the Supreme Court weighed in, he ended the fight. And in his subsequent concession speech, Gore was civil and congenial, saying that in past in contested elections, "both the victor and the vanquished have accepted the result peacefully, and in the spirit of reconciliation. So let it be with us." (Trump said Thursday he will accept the results, if he wins.)