Paul Kengor: When Democrats challenge presidential elections

As Donald Trump strolled into Georgia for a mugshot for alleged misdeeds in challenging the 2020 election, I was walking through the nation’s capital, where I was struck by this Washington Times headline: “Democrats deny wrongdoing with stolen elections claims.”

Those claims weren’t from Trump supporters, but from Democrats, and they go way back.

“Democrats such as Hillary Clinton, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and dozens of congressional lawmakers have long objected to state and federal election results and have attempted to block every Republican presidential winner since 2000,” the Times reported. “No Democrat has been prosecuted for challenging election results. The party also rejects any attempt to draw an equivalence to the actions of Donald Trump, even though top House Democrats objected to the certification of his presidential victory in 2016.”

No question.

“Mrs. Clinton said for years that Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory was unfair,” added the Times. “After her defeat, Mrs. Clinton claimed Mr. Trump won the election by colluding with Russian operatives and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The claim was the basis for a much-criticized Justice Department investigation that hobbled Mr. Trump’s presidency and showed no evidence of collusion.”

Again, no question. That investigation cost taxpayers millions, only to see Trump fully exonerated.

“I believe he (Trump) knows he’s an illegitimate president,” Clinton told CBS News in September 2019. She warned fellow Democrats: “You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee and you can have the election stolen from you.”

The Times also pointed to Abrams’ refusing to concede to Republican Brian Kemp in Georgia’s 2018 governor’s race. Abrams insisted the election was “rigged” and “stolen.”

This is hardly new behavior for Democrats. As the Times noted, “Democrats have gone far beyond election fraud claims. Congressional Democrats, mostly in the House, have objected to certifying every Republican presidential win since 2000.”

I know that history well. In 2004, I did a biography of George W. Bush, where I dealt with incessant charges from Democrats fuming that Bush stole the election. Everyone who voted in the 2000 election remembers this, or at least should.

Here’s one sample, reported by the left-wing Salon magazine on the day of Bush’s January 2001 inauguration, when liberal demonstrators stormed the presidential parade route: “Interspersed between Bush-Cheney signs and Texas flags were thousands of protest placards, bearing inscriptions such as ‘Bush Cheated,’ ‘Hail to the Thief,’ ‘Selected not elected,’ ‘Bushwhacked by the Supremes’ and ‘Golly Jeb, we pulled it off!’ ”

This was standard fare. Liberals insisted the 2000 election was stolen. Ditto for 2016. For four years, they squawked about a Trump-Putin conspiracy. Not only did we permit them to question the election, but their suspicions led our federal government to spend countless millions investigating baseless claims.

Now, however, if you question the 2020 election, liberals cancel you and (depending on your position) maybe criminalize you.

Liberals will protest that my analogy is misplaced, that Trump is different. His case involves indictments. Point taken. But I’m looking well beyond Trump here (as readers know, I’ve never liked Trump). The fact is that liberals viciously attack any and every conservative who raises questions about 2020. But Democrats, too, have a long history of questioning presidential elections.