I’ve been saying this since November [1] and now it has been noted in a 27-page 2021 election autopsy document (Washington Post [2]):
Former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 election largely due to his handling of the coronavirus [3] pandemic, according to a post-election autopsy completed by Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio.
The 27-page document shows that voters in 10 key states rated the pandemic as their top voting issue, and President Biden won higher marks on the topic. The report also indicates that Trump lost ground among key demographic groups he needed.
The internal report cuts against Trump’s claims that the election was stolen from him and that Biden could not have fairly beaten him — and mirrors what many Trump campaign officials said privately for months.
What Donald Trump and his MAGA nation of followers never understood was the anger, bitterness, and hurt from families who lost loved ones to Covid-19, and the loneliness of dying without the comfort of family that will never be forgotten. At the time of the November 3 election, 400,000 Americans had passed away from Covid-19, and countless others had been hospitalized and were permanently disabled from the vicious virus. As of today that number has grown to almost 450,000.
Because Trump and his supporters refused to wear masks or support other measures that were recommended by infectious disease experts to slow or curtail the spread (even chanting “Fire Fauci” at rallies), many who had been reliable Republican voters turned to Joe Biden who offered empathy, hope, and a plan to get a handle on the global pandemic.
I will believe until the day I die that many who were lost during the dark days of Covid could have been saved if Trump had taken measures at the beginning, in January and February 2020. Instead of encouraging his MAGA nation to follow health recommendations, he egged them on in their defiance and mocking of regulations and safeguards by holding mass super-spreader rallies and events at the White House, a flaunting of “freedom.”
Again, quoting the Washington Post:
Advisers repeatedly encouraged Trump to wear a mask, stop attacking Fauci and signal to the public that he was taking the coronavirus more seriously, particularly after he was hospitalized and given an experimental drug. Trump was largely resistant and mocked the virus down the stretch, sarcastically saying “Covid, covid, covid” at his rallies and falsely predicting the virus would leave the news after the election.
So, no, the election was not “stolen,” the hoax endlessly pressed by Trump after his loss on November 3. It was the result of a series of missteps that caused various groups of voters including those who had lost loved ones to Covid to crawl over broken glass to vote. Yes, there were that many Americans angry at Trump who ended up casting ballots for Joe Biden.
And now we have the rest of the story. http://mirziamov.ru [4]