Rep. Bob Good
A week after Virginia’s primaries, the race between Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good and state Sen. John McGuire remains too close to call, but Good isn’t waiting for the final results to yell fraud. Turns out, election denial works even worse if you’re not convicted felon Donald Trump. It also doesn’t garner you much support when Trump endorsed the other guy.
Good is demanding a revote in the city of Lynchburg, where he is leading in the count, and he is saying that if the revote doesn’t happen, he’ll block certification of the city’s results because, of course, conspiracy theories of fraud.
“They did not secure their drop boxes. There’s no accountability for when those boxes were open. They were apparently left to be stuffed for two or three days after the election,” Good said Monday on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. “There’s no accountability for who opened those, how many ballots came out.”
In the case that the ballot-stuffing and/or -stealing allegations don’t pan out, Good is also pushing a conspiracy theory about fire alarms that went off in some precincts.
“We had 3 ‘fires’ on election day in 3 precincts, all requiring the precincts to be evacuated for 20 minutes. Albemarle County, Hanover County, and Lynchburg City,” he tweeted last Thursday. “What is the probability? Does anyone recall even 1 fire at a precinct on election day?”
There were no fires, and no one was prevented from voting in any of the incidents, election officials in each county told USA Today.
All of this is being met by ridicule and worse from Good’s Republican colleagues in the House. That might have something to do with the fact that Trump has already declared McGuire the winner.
"[Of] course Bob is claiming election fraud. He is grasping at straws to help save his political career," Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin told Axios. "If Bob had spent more time working for America and less time trying to dictate to other members of Congress how we could vote for our constituents, we would not be having this conversation. He is a bully and it is time for him to go,” he added.
"F**k Bob Good. Bob Good is a sore loser. His defeat strengthens our majority," one House Republican anonymously told Axios, while another said, "I assume Bob Good is full of s**t."
"What a loser,” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said, noting that Good won Lynchburg but is still declaring fraud there.
Who knew that House Republicans would ridicule election denial? It seems that because Trump endorsed the other guy, the MAGA crowd just won’t back Good on this one. If Good somehow manages to eke out the win, however, all bets are off on whether they believe fraud happened.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
