Opinion: Biden enters presidency under a cloud

Have Democrats run roughshod over the U.S. Constitution in an effort to elect their man? The question deserves at least a hearing.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

At noon on Wednesday, Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States. He enters office under a cloud. Over 30% of Americans don’t trust that the elections were accurate, according to a Dec. 9 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. That number rises to 72% when speaking of Republicans.

Even before courts rejected the Trump lawyers’ appeals, the mainstream media refused to take seriously allegations of election fraud, injecting opinion into straight news stories. Though the word “claims” already conveys the idea that something is not verified, the media felt it necessary to add “baseless” or “false” whenever it appeared, as in “baseless claims” and “false claims” of election fraud.

In an election where there was an unprecedented number of unverified mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting and electronic voting, it is very difficult to prove fraud, especially in a short timeframe.

However, what is visible to the naked eye doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It is clear that Democrats worked hard to weaken ballot integrity and they did so under the cover of Covid.

John Perazzo writes in FrontPage Mag, “Beginning more than a year ago, Democrats filed nearly 300 lawsuits in dozens of states – most notably all of the key battleground states – in an effort to change election laws and regulations in ways that would benefit Democrat candidates.”

Critics have argued that electoral changes made in key battleground states were unconstitutional, citing Article II, Section 1, Clause 2, which says only state legislatures may make changes to election law.

Conservative pundit Mark Levin says such rule changes were made in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona. He goes so far as to call Biden “illegitimate.”

Have Democrats run roughshod over the U.S. Constitution in an effort to elect their man? The question deserves at least a hearing.

Other evidence of fraud appears circumstantial, though taken together gathers weight, i.e., President Trump won more votes than any previous incumbent seeking re-election; states where Trump was leading suddenly stopped counting on Election Night; Trump’s support among blacks and Hispanics grew; Trump won 18 of 19 bellwether counties; Republicans won all 27 House races that were ‘toss-ups’ even as Trump lost, and so on.

Where Biden found the numbers to win were in Democratic cities in battleground states. It was in these places on Election eve that voting was stopped.

“After official vote counting had been suspended, tabulations of votes took place that have astounded statisticians and computer experts. These experts have not been able to explain them except as a result of fraud,” writes Claes G. Ryn, professor of politics and founding director of the new Center for the Study of Statesmanship at The Catholic University of America.

We are not taking sides on this matter, but while the media can ignore such things, the 74 million people who voted for Trump have not.

Biden enters the White House facing a fractured country. So deep is the distrust that the Defense Department ordered 25,000 National Guard service members into Washington to protect the incoming president and then proceeded to vet every one of them, fearing an insider attack.

It falls to Biden to rebuild trust in America’s institutions. He says he wants to.

In his inauguration speech, Biden stressed the importance of unity, saying “This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward and we must meet this moment as the United States of America.”

Worryingly, his actions speak louder than his words. Biden has already stoked the flames of division by sitting back passively as the House impeached Trump for the second time. Sen. Lindsey Graham was right when he begged Biden to intercede and stop it; that it would only antagonize Trump supporters more.

Biden did nothing, standing aside to let Pelosi, et al., do their worst.

How he governs will also determine how quickly the country heals. But here, too, Biden has done nothing to ease concerns. He has already announced he’s shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, that he’s returning to the Paris Climate Accord, and, most worrisome for Israel, that he’s going back to the Iran deal.

“I have a very ambitious, very progressive agenda,” Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt.

That doesn’t sound like he’s playing to the middle.

David Isaac is managing editor of World Israel News.