On MS NOW's The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses how election denialism has gone from the fringes to “Republican orthodoxy”
Carusone: GOP election denial “used to be on the edges a decade or more ago and is now front and center really steering the ship”
Published
Citation
From the August 24, 2026, edition of MS Now's The Weeknight
EUGENE DANIELS (MS NOW HOST): It is in August, the end of August. And so at that point, you, like Vaughn read off, the folks who will be voting very soon by mail-in ballot — they do this on purpose and everyone else is at a disadvantage.
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Yeah. I mean, look, Trump built an organized power on what used to be considered the fringes. Then they got pulled into the Republican Party, but this is no longer a fringe issue. This is Republican orthodoxy. Look at what happened after the LA mayor's race — I mean, the vice president said it was stolen. I mean, this is not something that exists on the fringes. So, the sentiment that you're feeling is sort of the kinetic energy that these extremists now have taken over. You used the fruit of the poison tree, they've all eaten from the fruit of the poison tree. They all believe this. This is where they are. This is their perspective. And they're going to be willing to push it. And while they're doing this, from their angle it's win-win, right? Because they either win in the courts or if they don't win in the courts, they use the loss in the courts to say this is why we need to do a national emergency. This is why we need to have people outside of voting — outside of polling stations, right? So either way, they look at it as we get here or we escalate. And that's because the momentum right now, the thing that is driving it is the thing that used to be on the edges a decade or more ago and is now front and center really steering the ship. And it is where the momentum is. It is why that feeling you have is so palpable.