Hypocritical NY Instances Mocks ‘GOP’s Delicate Dance of Absurdity’ on Biden, Forgets Dems in 2016

New York Times political profile writer Mark Leibovich took his trademark snark to the Washington Memo on Friday and trolled Republican senators who allegedly refused to recognize Joe Biden as the next president of the United States: “President-Elect Who? The delicate dance of the absurdity of the GOP. “

What the newspaper ignored under its standard anti-GOP snark: How Congressional Democrats refused to accept Trump after his victory in 2016, with much of the caucus boycotting Trump’s inauguration (55, according to this report) in order to prevent Trump from doing so will take his rightful place as President.

Washington-based Leibovich has typically committed a few personal slurs against Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell:

Funny what counts as a sudden revelation in the Capitol these days.

Senator Mitch McConnell had just uttered a sentence that in more normal times would be received and quickly forgotten. as the very kind of drab cauldron the Senate majority leader, a Republican from Kentucky, is known for.

Funny what kind of news the New York Times counts these days.

“I think we all know that after the first of the year there is likely to be some discussion of an additional package of some size next year,” McConnell said Tuesday as he discussed the prospect of a coronavirus relief bill. At this point he dropped his bomb: “Depending on what the new government wants to pursue.”

Aha!

He said “new administration”. There would be an outgoing president.

If President Trump had won re-election because he continues to insist – and few Republican senators will publicly oppose him – there would be no “new administration” to speak of.

In other words, Mr. McConnell, in his own awkward and perhaps inadvertent way, admitted that Mr. Trump had lost.

Maybe he didn’t want to be so open-minded. It’s a delicate verbal dance, after all, that Mr. McConnell and many of his fellow Republican senators engage in …

….

Privately, pretty much all Republican senators admit that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on January 20. This includes even Mr. Trump’s most staunch supporters like Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who also admitted this to Mark Becker, a former Republican official for the state.

But that wasn’t good enough. Republicans must confess! Leibovich has unwittingly shown how trolling it has become to troll GOP senators over Biden’s victory.

In recent weeks, the unwillingness of most Senate and House Republicans to recognize an obvious election result has reached a new level of absurdity. Whenever another prominent Republican official admits that Mr Biden actually won, the media updates the scoreboard like breaking news – as if a new state had been convened on election night….

….

It becomes more difficult when Republicans are asked directly whether they accept the election results. since November 3rd, reporters have been pushing them almost every day. In normal times (how long does it take to retire this qualifier?) That question would deviate from the same obvious and generally accepted answer, “yes”.

Unfortunately, these are not normal times.

Judging by Leibovich’s smug tone, one would think Democratic members of Congress accepted Trump’s 2016 victory without complaint. One would be wrong, as mentioned above. Neither does the Times.

After Trump became angry about pre-election comments in 2016 over the non-acceptance of the results, the paper turned and urged Jill Stein, the loser of the Greens, to recount in three Midwestern states who turned to Trump. Hillary Clinton’s campaign itself joined this effort. Are you talking about not accepting election results? The Times even issued statements after the election asking voters to change their votes. And of course, the newspaper reveled in the street protests following Trump’s victory in the free and fair elections.