Joe Biden this weekend revealed that he is eyeing failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as a potential 2020 running mate. The former vice president also promoted the persistent lie that Abrams would be the governor of Georgia right now were it not for a far-reaching conspiracy of voter suppression.
Biden may fashion himself as the reasonable, moderate candidate of the 2020 Democratic primary, but no one ever said he was above lying.
A woman at a town hall event in Winterset, Iowa, asked the former vice president specifically whether he has a running mate picked out yet for the 2020 general election.
“You. Are you available?” Biden joked, according to the Des Moines Register.
Biden then became more serious and alluded to four women he says would make excellent vice presidential candidates. He declined, however, to name names, explaining that to do so would set off a meddlesome, misleading news cycle.
“I could start naming people, but the press will think that’s who I picked,” said Biden.
He added that his list includes “the former assistant attorney general who got fired.” This is a reference to Sally Yates, who was fired from her role as acting attorney general in 2017 after she refused to enforce or defend the White House’s controversial travel ban.
Biden continued, saying his list also includes “the two senators from the state of New Hampshire.” That would be Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan.
Lastly, Biden said of his vice-presidential shortlist that there is “the woman who should have been the governor of Georgia.”
This is a reference, of course, to Abrams.
There you have it. The 2020 Democratic primary front-runner and supposed champion of moderates everywhere, whose platform can be summed up as “I am not a crazy left-winger,” has now promoted the lie that Abrams was robbed in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election.
The only thing more frustrating than the fact that this evidence-free falsehood has become an article of faith for the entire Democratic Party is that newsrooms have done approximately nothing to beat it back.
The Des Moines Register, for example, which reported first on Biden’s comments, makes no mention in its article of the fact that the Abrams-would-have-won myth is divorced entirely from reality and facts. All the newspaper has to say in its campaign trail write-up is this: “Abrams, a former state lawmaker in Georgia, came close to winning that state’s gubernatorial election last year and said in Iowa this month that she would be ‘happy’ to run as a vice-presidential nominee.”
I probably would have reported details about how Abrams lost by 54,723 votes in a year that saw voter turnout in Georgia increase by an estimated 2.5 million from the last midterm election cycle. I probably would have also mentioned the Abrams campaign said in 2018 that it could prove the election was stolen, and that nothing has moved on that front except that she now says she would consider running as vice president.
These details are not mentioned in the Des Moines Register report. In fact, Biden’s remarks this weekend disputing the results of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election attracted no attention whatsoever this weekend from the national press. Weird, right?
I remember when it used to be national news for a presidential candidate to spread conspiracy theories questioning the legitimacy of U.S. elections.
