If the Situation Were Reversed, Would the Media Push Biden to Concede?

My friends on the left and right can’t understand why I’m always looking at both sides of an issue. Trump haters can’t stand that I’m not pushing only for their side, and Trump lovers can’t stand that I’m not pushing only for theirs. Each side believes it owns 100 percent of the truth.

Is President Trump delusional to challenge the election results? If his side believes fraud was committed, is he properly exercising his rights or is he violating the long tradition of the prompt concession speech? Are his legal challenges spreading mistrust in a vital American institution or is a legal process necessary to prove integrity of the process itself?

These are questions for another time. Right now, I’m more interested in things like hypocrisy, defined in the dictionary as “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform.”

So, when I see the mainstream media’s all-out assault on Trump’s refusal to concede, I can’t help but wonder: Would they be reacting the same way if the shoe were on the other foot? If Biden was refusing to concede, would they mock him for being a fool and accuse him of undermining our democracy?

Would they categorically dismiss Biden’s contention that there are enough examples of irregularities to merit a legal challenge?

Would they run with the “Trump is our President-elect” story as they are running with the “Biden is our President-elect” story?

Which side am I on? Ultimately, on the side of treating everyone the same, whether we love them or hate them.

Let’s remember that it was a member of Democratic royalty, Hillary Clinton, who said a few months ago, as reported in Politico:

“Joe Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this is going to drag out, and eventually I do believe he will win if we don’t give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other side is.”

Would the media and Democratic establishment beat up a “focused” and “relentless” Joe Biden who fought for every vote and refused to “give an inch” as they are doing now with Trump?

I don’t know.  You tell me.

Finally, does anyone remember this exchange in the first debate between Biden and Chris Wallace: “Final question for you…will you pledge not to declare victory until the election is independently certified?”

Biden’s answer: “Yes.” Is the election independently certified? Well, not exactly: The Electoral College is expected to formalize Biden as president-elect on December 14, unless Trump prevails in court.

Personally, I lean in the direction of Karl Rove’s op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, in which he wrote that Trump was “100% within his rights” to challenge the fairness of the election, but that “once his days in court are over,” the president “should do his part to unite the country by leading a peaceful transition and letting grievances go.”

I do wish that by now we would have had final closure on this election, but we don’t. Which side am I on? Ultimately, on the side of treating everyone the same, whether we love them or hate them.