The Media Research Center would rather not talk about former Republican congressman George Santos. We’ve noted that as his history of fabrications about his life surfaced, the MRC tried to deflect with a lot of Biden whataboutism, and that comedy cop Alex Christy complained that late-night TV told a lot of jokes about him (and not enough about indicted Sen. Bob Menendez). Tim Graham served up more Biden whataboutism to deflect from more Santos scandals in his Nov. 29 podcast:
The Democrats and their media allies are all abuzz at the possibility that they’ll reduce the tiny Republican majority in the House of Representatives by one. The House may vote to expel freshman Republican Rep. George Santos of New York. They love promoting this guy to make the GOP look bad. The late-night “comedians” recently offered 72 jokes about Santos, compared to only 45 about President Biden (and two for Sen. Bob “Gold Bars” Menendez.)
CBS Evening News was the only network show on Tuesday night that reported on the potential purge of Congressman Santos. Reporter Scott McFarlane also added a brief note on how Hunter Biden suddenly wants to testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee. The Comer committee sent a subpoena to Hunter to meet for a deposition in private, but Hunter wants a public spectacle. That would be good for us — in terms of studying how the media would cover or not cover it, live or not live. But Republicans must have a reason for their approach.
When Santos was ultimately expelled from the House, the MRC had little to say. When a Democrat won a special election to fill Santos’ seat, the complaint machine ramped up again. Mark Finkelstein made excuses for Republicans losing the seat in a Feb. 14 post:
“A district the Republicans should have won.”
That’s how, on today’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough described yesterday’s special election in New York’s 3rd district, won by the Democrat, Tom Suozzi, who represented the district from 2017 to 2023, and so was the virtual incumbent in the race. He won the district in 2018 by 59-41 percent, and in 2020 by 56-43.
The election was held to fill the seat vacated by serial fabulist Republican George Santos, only the third person since the Civil War to be expelled from the House. There was surely significant voter sentiment wanting to punish Santos retroactively.
Moreover, it was in a district that in 2020, per Ballotpedia, Biden carried by over 10 points (although, before correcting himself, Willie Geist had said, trying to support Scarborough’s point, that Trump won the district in 2020.)
Scarborough blamed Trump for the loss. This despite the fact that Mazi Pilip, the Republican candidate, had distanced herself from Trump, never endorsed him, declined to say if she even voted for Trump in 2020—and is reportedly still a registered Democrat!
Finkelstein later repeated his insistence that “Pilip was anything but a MAGA candidate.” The next day, Finkelstein whined further that Scarborough was still talking about Democrats flipping Santos’ seat:
Morning Joe had a grand old time today at the top of the show mocking House Speaker Mike Johnson for in part blaming an Election Day snowstorm for the Republican loss in the New York Third District special election on Tuesday to replace the disgraced and expelled Congressman George Santos.
MSNBC really wants this win to be a “canary in the coal mine,” a warning of GOP losses to come in November.
[…]Except . . . Morning Joe conveniently ignored the differences in early voting vs. same-day voting, and mail-in voting, between Democrats and Republicans in this election. As per this Politico article, Democrats enjoyed a 7,000 vote advantage in the nine days of snow-free early voting. Dems also had a mail-in ballot advantage over Republicans. Those factors are a large chunk of Suozzi’s winning margin.
That Democrats tend to vote early whereas Republicans prefer same-day voting is a national phenomenon of which Scarborough is surely aware. But he suppressed that factor, choosing instead to mock Johnson on snow.In fact, in his comments Johnson described several factors accounting for the loss. He actually never even mentioned snow, only making vague reference, at the end of his comments, to a “weather event” that affected turnout.
[…]And as per Scarborough’s claim that we noted yesterday that this was “a district Republicans should have won,” that same Politico article noted that Dems enjoy a major, 11%, party-registration advantage over Republicans in the district: 39% vs. 28%. From that perspective, the Republican’s 8% loss could be seen as over-performing. And as we mentioned yesterday, voters were in part surely motivated to punish Republicans for the Santos fiasco, and looked at the Dem winner, Tom Suozzi, who previously represented the district in the House, as a comfortable, virtual incumbent.
Finkelstein was still complaining that Santos was being talked about in a March 3 post, in which MSNBC guest Rep. Gregory Meeks “boasted that the Democrat had won the recent special election in New York’s 3rd congressional district, despite the fact that ‘a lot of folks did not think we were going to win that election.’ That was the election to fill the seat from which disgraced Republican George Santos had been expelled by the House. And Biden had carried the district easily in 2020. So it was hardly a surprise that Democrat Tom Suozzi, who had represented the district in the past, won it back last month.”
Of course, if Republicans had vetted their candidates a little better, Finkelstein wouldn’t have to be playing so much defense.