Fact check... as if facts actually matter anymore?

One of the figures who has been brought up by the media as we approach what may become the "legal" portion of this election is Al Gore. It has been suggested by some, that Al Gore showed some sort of class by "conceding" to George W Bush and that the President is being "classless" by not conceding. 

There is also an argument being made that no "modern day candidate" has ever refused to concede. 

Gore did not concede until Dec 13th

Now if I have my 2000 historical election trivia correct, I believe that there may have been an Al Gore concession at one point on election night that was taken back. From a standpoint of pure reason, a concession that is "taken back" is not really a concession. As it ended up Al Gore filed numerous lawsuits and did not technically "concede" the race until December 13th, which would give the President nearly five weeks to beat Al Gore to that mark.

As Jonathan Turley suggests:

We are finishing only the second of four stages in an election for president. After the voting stage, states began the tabulation stage. We will soon enter the canvass stage, in which local districts confirm their counts and face challenges or recounts. Finally, there is the certification stage, in which final challenges can be raised. In other words, Trump is not deceased yet. Biden has reason to claim his lead as the odds are heavily against Trump. One or two states could flip on a “Hail Mary” challenge. But Trump needs four of those to win in a feat that would hyperventilate Aaron Rogers.

Yet the public should welcome close scrutiny of these swing states. There are valid reasons to examine the figures based on the many unknowns in a new kind of election. The outcome will be determined by millions of mailed ballots in various states, some of which have never used such mailed ballots to this magnitude, and legitimate concerns were raised before the election.

Not sure why the left demands that Trump has done something inherently unprecedented by not offering a concession immediately, when there is obvious proof to the contrary. But as suggested in the title of this post, I question seriously whether "facts" really matter any more. In 2020, all we need is for a "majority" of Americans to believe something contrary to reality, and reality no longer exists.  

But either way, this particular election was unprecedented in many ways, thus making the manner in which we determined a winner took (or is taking) longer, and there "are" (regardless of what some may argue) questions about several states and how they managed their election counting. 

Currently there is one state that appears to be headed for a recount (Georgia), Arizona is within a few thousand votes and could end up in that same category, and Pennsylvania has been ordered by the USSC to set aside thousands of ballots that will be the subject of legal questions. It wouldn't take much to push Pennsylvania into recount if any of those ballots end up being tossed out. Without solid tangible results in these three states, Joe Biden has not yet won the election. 

So the reality is that there is still potential legal issues in enough states that could eventually flip the election. Does that mean it's "likely" that anything will change? Certainly not. This is a Hail Mary, at best.  But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take our time and work through this process. After all, conservatives had to put up with nearly three years of questions about the legitimacy of the 2016 results, with the liberal media breathlessly demanding that Trump was an illegitimately elected President based on fake allegations that were never proven. 

I think it's only fair that liberals allow for a few weeks of hand-wringing, pushing of conspiracies,  and ultimately investigating what they believe might be true. I doubt it lasts anywhere near the length of the nonsense that Trump and his supporters endured through most of his first term. 

Right now, conservatives and Trump voters simply do not trust the media. This should not come as a shock to anyone.

Ultimately the media has created their own problem here. To be clear, it was the media that demanded Joe Biden would win the election by upwards of 11-12 percent, that Democrats would win the Senate outright, and as late as election night, the media was already "calling" that the Democrats were picking up seats in the house (they have already lost several and may lose as many as ten or twelve). Many media outlets called Arizona (17,000 votes) for Biden on election night "before" they were willing to call Florida for Trump (374,000 votes). Even their exit polling still shows Biden winning by a larger margin than he actually did in reality (by over double). 

To be clear, the only reason Biden has been "declared" the winner is because this same media has made that call. There is no final vote totals, no certified results, nothing official that says Joe Biden has won. Just the same media who has gotten pretty much nothing correct over the past three elections. Why is it that suddenly the left doesn't get why conservatives are not willing to take the "media" at their word on this one? 

Many have suggested that Joe Biden would have been better off waiting to "declare victory" and not being so quick to interrupt the Clemson/Notre Dame Saturday Night NCAA football game, in which two turnovers and two touchdowns were scored during his speech. I tend to believe that Joe Biden providing that speech when he did sends a serious signal that (in spite of insistence otherwise) that he has no interest in appealing to conservative and 70 million Trump voters. Actions speak louder than words, and his actions of declaring victory without a concession with legal issues outstanding were at least as questionable as Trump's reluctance to "concede".