Can we hold both sides accountable?

Facing the consequences of one's actions matters—especially for the powerful. No matter what "side" they belong to.

Imagine for a moment that it’s November 2024, just after Election Day, and Joe Biden is losing in the polls. (That certainly is not an impossible situation). As the certified votes roll in, his prospects dwindle. It’s clear that he’s lost.

Now imagine that Biden decides to wants to change the outcome, post facto, to remain in office. That’s…. not okay, right? So he takes his staff, his lawyers, his friends and calls up a state election official—a Democrat, an ally, someone who’s endorsed him publicly—in a state where he’s losing by just a fraction of a percent. By just under 12,000 votes of millions of votes cast. 

The election official is, of course, both honored and taken aback by this personal call. They start out talking amicably. In just a few short minutes, Biden begins claiming that he actually won the state—the state’s votes have been counted and certified wrong. 

The Secretary of State is adamant (if apologetic) that the vote counting in his state is accurate, it’s been audited, it’s all been done above the board. The votes are clear: Biden’s opponent has won.

Still, the President refuses to believe that he’s lost. Biden begins to pressure this election official to change the totals. “There’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” he suggests. “I just want to find 11,780 votes” to flip the state to him. It seems plausible, right—this story?

Here’s my question, Democrats and Republicans and those of us in-between: would you be okay with this? Would you be okay with President Joe Biden, arguably the most powerful person in the United States, pressuring an election official to change a total and hand him an election?

Or would that be election interference of the highest order? Would that be trying to “steal an election”?

Let me be clear: no one, not Democrats and not Republicans, would find this kind of behavior by Joe Biden acceptable. It would be a violation of law, it would be completely unethical, and it would run counter to centuries of the United States’ history of free and fair elections.

May I ask: If you’re not okay with President Joe Biden doing it, are you okay with President Donald Trump doing it?

Because this is precisely what the former president did soon after the momentous 2020 election. It’s not some liberal hearsay either—this call is public record, so you can listen to the call or read the transcript.

Those were real quotes from former President Trump.

In spite of clear, repeated reassurances by a politically-aligned, Republican Secretary of State that the election results from Georgia were accurate, Donald Trump continued to claim he’d won. Others in his administration (including personal attorney Rudy Guiliani, also implicated in this election-stealing attempt) have since admitted that they made false claims of election fraud in Georgia; others that Trump knew all along that he’d lost.

Now, I can imagine that if you live in a part of America—whether that be a geographic area or a network of people who are big Trump folks—that you would feel surprised to see him lose. If everyone you know was voting for him, learning that more than half the country feels differently might feel shocking. (Aside: if you’re from a blue area, or your network leans Democratic or even moderate, learning that nearly half the country would vote for him seems equally wild).

Take it from this political moderate—a voter who historically voted heavily Republican—that there are many voters in America today who cannot in good conscience vote for a man who shows so often that he puts his own well-being above the laws of the land. It’s not shocking to us that he lost.

I personally know hundreds of people who might have voted for another Republican presidential candidate, but who would not and will not ever vote for Donald Trump.

Along with many other Americans who care deeply about election integrity, I support audits, recounts, and good-faith court cases. All of these happened in 2020. I trust sworn statements about election security, decades of research about fraud in US elections (minimal and usually caught), and reports by international election observers far more than claims by the losing (or winning) party. 

All of these tell the same story: the 2020 election was conducted fairly.

When these options—audits, recounts, court cases—are exhausted, do we honor our elections processes? 

Do we continue to seek for free and fair elections?

Do we hold powerful people accountable when they pressure elections officials to change their numbers, attempt to interfere in the election, or otherwise break the law?

If in 2024, Joe Biden calls up his pals and tries to secretly arrange an election in his favor, I promise I will lead the charge to seek justice for his opponent. I’m not a Democrat, and there’s no love lost there.

So I must also hold the Republican party accountable.

The charges in Georgia are serious. The so-called “perfect” call made to Georgia’s Secretary of State was nothing less than blatant, illegal election interference on the part of Donald J. Trump, Jr. 

I hope Mr. Trump is not above the law, as he seems to believe. I hope that instead, he’s held to what the rest of us must obey, and what the law requires—and is charged accordingly in Georgia and elsewhere. It’s true that our system is not perfect, but we need the checks and balances of juries of everyday Americans determining truth.

Moreover, I hope (and pray) that we can find presidential candidates who will uphold our beautiful American tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, who will put country over self and over party, and who will seek for liberty and justice for all—powerful or not.