Our Best Stuff From Yet Another Week We Relived the 2020 Election

Hello and happy Sunday. Back in late October 2020, I was talking to a friend about the upcoming election and she shared her belief not only that it wouldn’t be over on Election Night, but that it would take days, if not weeks, to resolve. She was right on the specifics—Joe Biden effectively became president-elect on Nov. 7 when all the major media outlets called Pennsylvania for him and put him over the 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College. And yet, for millions of Americans, the election still isn’t over 20 months later. 

At its convention in June, the Texas GOP approved a platform that rejected the results of the 2020 election, and the Idaho GOP was poised to do the same in its convention this week. Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules is, as our fact check upon its release noted, “riddled with errors and previously debunked claims of voter fraud” but it’s also the most-watched political documentary in at least a decade. 

Could the tide finally be turning? A few events of the past week give me hope. 

On Monday, the January 6 committee heard testimony from Stephen Ayres, an Ohio man who traveled to D.C. for the Stop the Steal rally. He hadn’t intended to storm the Capitol, but ended up being part of the crowd that did. In his testimony, he discussed how he was very active on social media and how it influenced him to make the trip to D.C. He has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and is awaiting sentencing in June. As Price St. Clair noted in his coverage of the hearing for The Dispatch, “He told the House committee he no longer believes the election was stolen and is mad Trump is still lying about it.”