In the Land of Opposites: Anderson Cooper and Tucker Carlson, Side by Side

(CN) — CNN host Anderson Cooper kicked off his broadcast Wednesday discussing President Donald Trump’s current legal battles in states across the country over his loss in November’s election, noting that Trump is now losing in court to boot.

Cooper reported numerous politicians and public officials who have opposed or spoken out about the president’s baseless accusations of election fraud have been on the receiving end of death threats, strangely by individuals who claim to be concerned about the rule of law.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in what can best be described as doubling down, claimed, “The very people who rigged this election with unprecedented mass censorship of the entire country are now covering their tracks by erasing history.”

Carlson believes social media companies shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth in America, which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has himself said more than once before relenting under pressure.

Kangaroo court

When asked if he would accept the official results when the Electoral College casts its vote Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, read verbatim from the official script that seems to be going around: “Why would I do that? I’ll wait until it’s over to find out. Every legal vote has to be counted. Every recount has to be finished and every legal challenge has to be heard.”

Cooper asked CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta if there is anyone left telling Trump these legal challenges are a good idea, astutely pointing out that most lawyers and judges see them as a bad joke.

“I talked to a source close to the White House earlier this evening who said, ‘The only person who believes this anymore is President Trump himself,’” Acosta confirmed.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, himself formerly a high-profile lawyer, publicly agreed to take Trump’s case before the Supreme Court should the court agree to hear it. Cooper and his guests believe giving that kind of credence to the case is especially dangerous as it reinforces the unfounded belief among some that it has any merit to begin with, though they agreed Cruz likely accepted knowing full well that the court will reject it.

Biden time

Ever the popular topic of conversation on his network, Carlson claims other media outlets are hiding damaging information about President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his business dealings with (checks notes) China.

According to Carlson, Hunter Biden made deals with groups connected directly to the communist part of China with his father’s blessing, which the media chose to ignore. Now, to be fair, there’s only one party in China and everything is connected to it, so if you’re making business deals in China, the world’s largest market outside the US, there’s a good chance the communist party is getting their cut.

Carlson also reported Hunter Biden is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware over tax discrepancies, information he also claims liberal media outlets sat on to help the Bidens.

“It’s quite peculiar that it has been released by the Biden-Harris presidential transition team — you know, an official press release, with Joe Biden adding his little plea for sympathy,” said Miranda Devine, a reporter for the New York Post.

Devine believes the Biden family is behind an influence-peddling scheme orchestrated by Hunter and exploited by China, which she and Carlson agree represents the real threat to American democracy, rather than Russia as the Democrats have long alleged.

The virus

Moving on to Covid-19, Cooper reported the day’s death toll in the U.S. reached its highest number yet — 2,939 and climbing.

Cooper asked Pete Muntean, a CNN correspondent on the ground at pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s Michigan manufacturing facility, how fast the company is poised to move if it gets the expected FDA authorization for their vaccine on Thursday.

“Very quickly. Pfizer said trucks could begin leaving here carrying the vaccine within 24 hours of FDA emergency use authorization,” Muntean said in a rare piece of good news regarding the virus. “On the move right now though are the things physically needed to administer the vaccine — like alcohol swabs and syringes. Operation Warp Speed says all that will be in place in only a few days.”

The first vaccine shipment to the U.S. will contain 2.9 million doses, Muntean said, enough for 1.45 million people since it’s a two-dose vaccine — falling short of the supply needed by orders of magnitude. It’s been reported recently that Trump had the opportunity to secure a far larger supply of Pfizer’s vaccine yet for some inexplicable reason he chose not to, leaving Americans hoping Trump splurged with one of the other vaccine makers.

Tech totalitarianism

Carlson turned to a list of tech companies starting with YouTube, which he claims rigged the U.S. presidential election by restricting a range of unfounded conspiracy theories from some users.

“The company that rigged the election by suppressing legitimate information in order to influence the outcome of the election, more effectively than any foreign government could ever do, is now telling us that to preserve our faith in the election they need to censor us more,” said Carlson.

It shouldn’t be difficult to follow his line of reasoning there, as the idea that giant companies are using their platforms to influence American politics is genuinely frightening. Nonetheless, there isn’t a shred of evidence from anyone outside Trump’s orbit that it actually happened. The idea that fierce competitors from publicly traded companies would somehow collude on a single, non-monetary goal based on ideology defies all logic. When competitors collude, such as the tobacco or oil industries, it’s for cash. Full stop.

Tech companies have done exceedingly well under Trump, just as they did under Obama — there’s no business case for stirring the pot in either direction when a significant number of their shareholders vote Republican. In fact, the only way they could lose is to get caught up in some shenanigans like rigging an election.

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