On Monday's New Day, CNN's Alisyn Camerota fretted over President Donald Trump's decision to hold off on conceding the election as she cued up her guest, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, to complain that such a delay would hinder the transition to a Joe Biden presidency. The CNN host posed:
President Trump is not conceding, and the people around him are saying that he should fight on, and the real world consequences of that, it sounds like, are that some things in government are not happening that would normally happen. For instance, the GSA administrator has not yet signed the paperwork that would officially begin the transition to open up funding and equipment and office space and things like that for the Biden transition team, and so what do you make of that? Is that going to happen, and what if she never signs it?
Even though it took Democrat Al Gore more than a month to concede the 2000 election, Clyburn suggested that President Trump was a poor leader for not following Gore's example:
Well, you know, this is a classic example of why people ought to be very, very careful when we're trying to look for leadership. Leadership's got to be about more than soundbites. It's got to be about more than who can yell the loudest, who can insult the most. It's got to be about determining what direction the country needs to go in and really being able to reach out to people on all sides because, if this President was really concerned about this country and its people, he would use the Al Gore example or the George H.W. Bush example.
The South Carolina Democrat added: "Both these men suffered disappointing losses -- one a Republican, one a Democrat -- but both of them conceded in a way that would make all of us proud. I was really hurt over Florida 2000 and Al Gore."
By contrast, on the same day's Fox & Friends, left-leaning Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley argued that there is no reason to rush for a concession while votes are still being counted and that, while it would most likely not change the outcome, a recanvassing could help uncover evidence of vote fraud that would be worth the effort:
But what I don't understand is how so many people want these challenges to end and for there to be just simply a concession. We've electoral problems in this country -- 1960, the outcome of that election is still believed to have been fraudulent, you know, in Illinois and Texas, there were a lot of fraudulent votes that put Kennedy over the top against Richard Nixon. In 2000, people still believe we didn't take enough time in Florida, and that Al Gore may have won Florida and won the presidency.
The George Washington University Law School professor then added:
So there's no reason not to look at the allegations to give 71 million people who voted for trump that sense of assurance that nothing untoward occurred and that their votes really did count. Now, is there -- can they really overcome these margins? Probably not, but we don't know what we're talking about here. I mean, as a legal analyst, I'm supposed to analyze things. It's like saying, you know, there's a sick patient outside -- we just want you declare if he's going to live or die." You really need to see the patient.
Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade pointed out that it took more than a month for the 2000 election to be decided.
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Transcripts are below. Click on "expand" to read more.
New Day
November 9, 2020
8:09 p.m. Eastern
ALISYN CAMEROTA: And so, you know, President Trump is not conceding, and the people around him are saying that he should fight on, and the real world consequences of that, it sounds like, are that some things in government are not happening that would normally happen. For instance, the GSA administrator has not yet signed the paperwork that would officially begin the transition to open up funding and equipment and office space and things like that for the Biden transition team, and so what do you make of that? Is that going to happen, and what if she never signs it?
CONGRESSMAN JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, you know, this is a classic example of why people ought to be very, very careful when we're trying to look for leadership. Leadership's got to be about more than soundbites. It's got to be about more than who can yell the loudest, who can insult the most. It's got to be about determining what direction the country needs to go in and really being able to reach out to people on all sides because, if this President was really concerned about this country and its people, he would use the Al Gore example or the George H.W. Bush example.
Both these men suffered disappointing losses -- one a Republican, one a Democrat -- but both of them conceded in a way that would make all of us proud. I was really hurt over Florida 2000 and Al Gore. I was very active in that campaign, but they showed us the way to do it, and so I would vote, though I would not hold my breath that the President would come around to a system of transition because this transition could be very, very important when it comes to saving lives and really fending off this virus and really getting this economy back on track. The election is over. Put it behind us, and let's go forward and continue this pursuit towards a more perfect union.
(...)
Fox & Friends
November 9, 2020
6:42 p.m.
JONATHAN TURLEY, FOX NEWS ANALYST: I'm not sure that those late arriving ballots would be enough to take out this margin. All of us have been saying that we have not seen any systemic errors and the odds dramatically favor Vice President Biden. But what I don't understand is how so many people want these challenges to end and for there to be just simply a concession. We've electoral problems in this country -- 1960, the outcome of that election is still believed to have been fraudulent, you know, in Illinois and Texas, there were a lot of fraudulent votes that put Kennedy over the top against Richard Nixon. In 2000, people still believe we didn't take enough time in Florida, and that Al Gore may have won Florida and won the presidency.
So there's no reason not to look at the allegations to give 71 million people who voted for trump that sense of assurance that nothing untoward occurred and that their votes really did count. Now, is there -- can they really overcome these margins? Probably not, but we don't know what we're talking about here. I mean, as a legal analyst, I'm supposed to analyze things. It's like saying, you know, there's a sick patient outside -- we just want you declare if he's going to live or die." You really need to see the patient.
