Right on cue, conservatives jumped on the opportunity to raise serious concerns about the recent primary elections in California where Republican Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt lost his election bid to Democrats Karen Bass (incumbent) and Nithya Raman.
Early on in the vote count Pratt was in second place behind Bass, but as late-arriving votes were counted, Raman surged ahead of Pratt.
Primary election day was on June 2, 2026. On June 5, before early vote counts had determined any winners, Donald Trump posted the following on Truth Social :
Watch California, everybody! Our Election process is as bad, or worse, than any Third World Country. The biggest difference is, they count their Votes much faster — They don't wait seven days to tell you who won, rigging the Election during each and every one of them. Americans are ashamed of what is happening! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Trump posted this before vote counts determined that Pratt was not going to advance to the general election in November.
After the announcement that Pratt was not going to advance, Donald Trump responded on Truth Social posting:
Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections! Now they'll be working on great guy Steve Hilton. Won't have results for, possibly, TWO WEEKS, according to officials.
Not possible? Apparently, Trump is now able to predict the future, and when it doesn't happen the way he prefers, he claims that what happened was "not possible."
Third world nation? "Rigged" elections? Those are highly questionable statements coming from someone who on June 7, 2026 wouldn't cite even one instance of voter fraud when asked repeatedly by Kristin Welker from NBC News for evidence that the California election was "rigged" and "crooked."
We've all heard this false and highly misleading narrative from Trump ad nauseam before. It's just more pathetic gaslighting and B.S from the most egregious con-man in the history of U.S. politics.
JD Vance responded saying:
The problem here with this whole thing is, how is it that you had, you know, Karen Bass was in first place, Spencer Pratt was in second place, and then this other woman was in third place. You would expect these mail-in ballots to kind of meet that same basic pattern where, you know, number one would get the most votes, number two would get the second most votes, and so on.
But somehow we find ourselves in a situation where number one, they're still receiving ballots, not just counting ballots, Jesse, they're still receiving ballots, and number two, the way that they're coming in just so happens to work out such that the Republican is getting kicked out of the final two, so it's a Democrat versus Democrat runoff, that seems pretty shady to me.
Vance's response shows us that he doesn't understand, or even want to understand, how California elections work, and that he's just another election denier.
We know from past elections that Democrats vote by mail in much greater numbers than Republicans.
We know from the official Primary Election Day announcement from California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber that ballots postmarked no later than June 2 (election day) that are received by June 9 will be counted. Like all majority blue states, this means that votes tallied after election day will be mostly Democrat.
What part of this does Vance not understand?
House Speaker Mike Johnson responded saying:
I'm not saying it's rigged, I'm saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that. Let's remove the appearance of impropriety—what a concept. Let's have votes on an election the day of the election.
Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.
Two points...
First, Johnson says that "everybody knows" what's happening in California "stinks." NO, not everybody knows that. It's only Trump, MAGA, and the rest of Trump's sycophants that "know" that. They think (not "know") it "stinks" because they are all a bunch of radical election deniers who get extremely paranoid whenever elections results aren't known the day after an election.
Second, Johnson says he's not saying the election is "rigged," then he follows up on that by saying "these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove." Johnson's second statement contradicts his first statement. If there are "diabolical" and "upstream" efforts in play, that's saying their is fraud happening, which is saying the election is "rigged."
This is pure, unadulterated gaslighting and double-speak coming from the person who is second in line to be president of the United States (behind JD Vance). It's a pathetic, desperate, and failed attempt by Johnson to avoid making any definitive claims about what's happening in California, but at the same time saying something nefarious is going on.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded saying:
Frankly, you have to prove if there was cheating, and uh… And clearly, uh… That's something that you would have to do in California or anywhere else for that matter.
But the fact that it takes days — literally days — to be able to count votes in a state like California, when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result, uh… It's, it's incompetence if nothing else. And you know, whether or not there was actual rigging is something that would have to be proven. But clearly this is a system in California that doesn't work and doesn't inspire confidence and trust in voters.
Thune makes a reasonable and rational statement by saying you have to prove cheating, but then he says that vote counting in California shows "incompetence" which "doesn't inspire confidence and trust in voters."
California is the most populous state in the U.S. with an estimated population of about 39 million. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the U.S. with an estimated population of about 3.8 million. California is also one of the most blue (left-leaning) states in the U.S. Because of this, California always has an extremely large number of mail-in ballots to process. It takes a long time to process all of those ballots. How does this equate to "incompetence?"
The answer is, it doesn't it.
By claiming "incompetence," Thune, like so many other Trump/MAGA election-denying sycophants, is undermining confidence in U.S. elections.
But it gets even worse.
Social media user @HelenCarbone responded on X posting:
@LeaderJohnThune You really have fallen off the cliff. YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY!!!!
Stop and think about what this obvious Trump/MAGA, election-denying sycophant is saying.
She is saying that requiring proof of election fraud makes a you a traitor. This person is the epitome of "B-squared F" (beyond, beyond FUBAR). It's a prime example of just how far down the Trump rabbit hole some people are. If there's one person posting batshit crazy stuff like this, you know there are millions more just like her.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise responded saying:
I think it's raised a lot of skepticism among voters when they see these wide changes days and weeks after the election and you still can't get a result two or three weeks after an election happened.
I agree with Scalise, but the "skepticism" is coming only from those who believe Trump's B.S. that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" and "stolen." For everyone else, that's not the case.
Megyn Kelly responded on X posting:
No one is going to trust this outcome if Steve Hilton and Spencer Pratt are eliminated from the general election.
During a video included in her post Kelly said:
I don't care how convenient you want to make it for people, do we really want to make it that convenient? I mean, these are lazy-ass people if they really can't get off their fat asses and get to election polling stations on Election Day. We don''t want you, we don't want your vote. Who gives a shit about you, you're too lazy, too busy to make it down to a polling station on Election Day? Then get out, good, goodbye, you don't get to vote.
This is really, REALLY over the top, and it shows just how sick, stupid, and insane Trump/MAGA sycophants are becoming. Kelly's comments are "B-squared F."
Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson responded on X posting:
They want you to believe this happened in the LA Mayors race…
3rd place jumps to 1st in *every* ballot drop *after* Election Day
Defies all mathematical probability, the law of averages and has never happened in US election history
No one with a functional brain believes this
Johnson's comments are "B-squared F."
On social media, Republican elections activist Cleta Mitchell said "The Cheating, pro-corrupt elections Democrats want every jurisdiction to be like California." Mitchell told Steve Bannon that she heard of people in California getting "15 ballots" sent to their homes.
No, Democrats don't want "every jurisdiction" to be like California.
People getting "15" ballots sent to their homes? Sounds like hearsay, and just another right-wing bogus conspiracy theory to me.
On June 5 (three days after election day), United States Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli, a Republican, posted the following on X (bold added for emphasis):
Protecting the integrity of California's elections is a top priority for my office.
California's election system has serious structural vulnerabilities. Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence.
Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with @FBILosAngeles. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.
My office is also working closely with @AAGDhillon to conduct a comprehensive audit of California's voter rolls. The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote. This case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.
My office will not look the other way. We will investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out.
California is one of the bluest states in the U.S. How could anyone in their right mind think that a Republican would be able to beat any Democratic candidate in a mayoral election in Los Angeles, California?
Obviously, no one in their right mind would think that, which explains why so many conservatives are up in arms.
The ongoing narrative that whenever a Republican candidate is leading at some point during vote tallying, and then later loses the lead as late-arriving votes are counted, constitutes a "rigged" election is completely bogus. It's just a narrative, a conspiracy theory that conservatives employ to cry foul whenever they don't like the results of an election.
Since states, not the federal government, have the right to conduct elections as they see fit, and because some states, generally blue, have more voters that vote by mail, elections in those states are typically not decided for days, and sometimes weeks after election day.
Despite the fact (objective reality) that no concrete evidence of widespread fraud has yet been presented, Trump and Trump/MAGA sycophants remain insanely adamant about their beliefs that elections are "rigged."
They are using their collective voice to vilify Democrats for political gain.
It's a shameful and pathetic attempt to undermine confidence in our election system.
Regarding the investigation being conducted by Bill Essayli, I say "have at it" and let us all know what you find. My only caveat in saying that is that Essayli is a Republican, and obviously a strong supporter of Trump. I don't trust anything that comes out of the Trump administration, or anything coming from anyone who supports Trump. Can we trust the results Essayli presents from his investigation?
On February 2, 2025 I posted an HWR article entitled "Op-Ed | Trump, MAGA, and the Blurring and Rejection of Objective Reality". The insane right-wing response to the recent primary elections in California relates directly to my analysis in that post.
It's crystal clear that the conservative, right-wing response to Pratt's loss is not based on objective reality. Anyone who concludes otherwise is "B-squared F."
On January 7, 2024, speaking with Jim Acosta on "CNN Newsroom," Stephanie Grisham said the following about Donald Trump (bold added for emphasis):
He's not a crackpot. He's actually a very smart man. I mean, he was president of the United States. We have to give them a modicum of credit for that.
But no, he knows he's lying. He used to tell me when I was press secretary, 'Go out there and say this.' And if it was false, he would say, 'It doesn't matter, Stephanie. Just say it over and over and over again, people will believe it.' He knows his base believes in him. He knows he can basically say anything and his base will believe what he's saying.
Stephanie Grisham was White House press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020 during Trump's first term as president. In addition to conducting regular press briefings, White House press secretaries spend many, many hours with the president, often times flying with the president on Air Force One, and they get a insider's look at how the president behaves.
I believe what Grisham said about Trump, and what she said just confirms what I've been saying over and over again for a long time about Trump's narratives. They're highly exaggerated, half-truths and outright lies - bogus stories that Trump wants you to believe. It's gaslighting like we've never seen before, and Trump is a master at doing it.
Trump's bogus narratives blur objective reality, making it hard to separate fact from fiction. When it's so hard, and so complicated to figure out what the truth is, it's way easier to get someone to believe what you say. That's why Trump repeats his narratives over and over again, ad nauseam.
And that's the reason I spend so much time doing research and doing comprehensive analysis of what's going on. It's so I myself can more fully understand what's presented to me each and every day by a Trump movement that is more egregious than anything we've ever seen before.
It's also because I am adamant about finding truth, and because I care deeply about American democracy.
I challenge you to do the same. Take more time to research things you read, regardless of where you read them. Don't, by any means, get all of your information from just one source.
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