During a live stream of a Donald Trump rally in Iowa, Fox News interrupted the broadcast to correct what they deemed as “untruths” from the former president regarding the 2020 presidential election. Fox anchor Arthel Neville stepped in to clarify that the 2020 election was not rigged, highlighting that Trump had conveyed “many untruths” in his speech.
“The 2020 election was not rigged. It was not stolen,” Neville said before adding, “But still, Trump is way ahead in the polls.” She then switched to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ opposing Iowa rally, where she referred to him as “the man desperately trying to catch” the former president.
Neville made these statements following Fox News’ substantial $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April. Dominion Voting Systems had filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that the network insinuated bias in its devices against Donald Trump.
Smartmatic, another voting technology company, has also filed a related defamation lawsuit against Fox News, seeking $2.7 billion in damages.
Murdoch News Goes Full Never Trump During Historic Iowa Speech… #FoxNews [news for stupid people] Cuts Away from Trump Rally to Correct ‘Many Untruths’ and Report the Election ‘Was NOT Stolen’ pic.twitter.com/dr0QqKFWzd
— Joe Dan Gorman (@JoeDanMedia) December 4, 2023
According to a recent election analysis that assesses various aspects of the race, Donald Trump has a better-than-average chance of defeating incumbent President Joe Biden in the upcoming year. Dr. Louis Perron, a seasoned political consultant and author of the forthcoming book “Beat the Incumbent: Proven Strategies and Tactics to Win Elections,” discusses in a RealClearPolitics column that Trump’s victory is not guaranteed, despite the challenges that have occurred during Biden’s presidency.
“Elections with an incumbent are foremost a referendum on the incumbent. As two-thirds of Americans think that their country is headed in the wrong direction and more than half of voters tell pollsters that they disapprove of the job President Joe Biden is doing, the 2024 election is the Republicans’ to lose,” Perron begins.
However, he cautions in his book against candidates relying solely on the weaknesses, failures, and scandals of an incumbent government, emphasizing that these factors may not be sufficient to bring down an incumbent. To illustrate this point, he references a focus group respondent’s analogy, stating, “Voting for a challenger is like moving houses. Yes, you’re unhappy with the place you currently live, but you want to know what the new house will look like.” Perron goes on to highlight that this poses a challenge for Trump.
“Their likely nominee, Donald Trump, is as disliked as Joe Biden, and worse, he’s not a new commodity as challengers otherwise often are. Most people have made up their minds about him, and it’s much more difficult to change public opinion than to define it in the first place,” he wrote. “I always tell my clients that the best and only starting point for effective campaign planning is brutal honesty. The reality is that being out on bail in four jurisdictions, Donald Trump is a deeply flawed general election candidate.”
Nevertheless, Perron suggests that the outcome of the upcoming presidential election will hinge on the “double haters,” individuals with an unfavorable opinion about both Trump and Biden. According to the analyst, if the focus remains on Biden, Trump is likely to emerge victorious. Conversely, if Trump takes center stage, the outcome may favor the opposite result.
He adds:
For any challenger, the first imperative is, therefore, to keep the focus on the incumbent and lock him in. Voters are unhappy with the status quo, which means Donald Trump and Republicans now need to make the case on why this is Joe Biden’s fault. Don’t let them get away with it the way Barack Obama and his team avoided blame for economic dissatisfaction in 2012 and skillfully passed it on to George W. Bush.
The second imperative is to describe what the new house, a second Trump term, would look like.
Perron further expressed that, based on his experience, swing voters are likely to either be indifferent to Trump keeping score or could find it objectionable. Additionally, he speculated that unless the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza escalate into a global conflict, the deciding factor in the election will be, as always, the state of the economy. Perron believes that this is where Trump could potentially gain an advantage.
“Voters used to credit Trump with economic competence, so there is something to work with. During the first three years of Donald Trump in the White House, the U.S. economy did remarkably well. Republicans should take this record as a basis to actively renew and update their credibility on the economy. There has to be more in store to get out and vote for than the usual hackneyed claims of lower taxes and less bureaucracy,” he writes.