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Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections
Mollie Hemingway applies her talent—rigorous and thoughtful old-school journalism—to documenting the 2020 assault against America perpetrated by the evil alliance of the progressive movement, the entrenched bureaucracy, modern “journalism”, and big technology firms. Yes, the election was rigged. But the core of Rigged is the story of years of lawfare, private takeovers of election boards by well-funded progressives, ill-considered and/or uncontested consent agreements, the flouting of long-standing election law, and the shielding thereof by a twisted judiciary.
This book does not lay out specific proof that Trump won on November 3, 2020. It does show how the unprecedented surge in mail-in voting, and the suppression of the anti-fraud measures that are supposed to accompany it, made 2020 a perfect storm for untraceable fraud. Meanwhile, the media’s four-year campaign to oust Trump by any means necessary ground on, with regular assistance from an entrenched bureaucracy willing to do anything to avoid draining the swamp. Add in a huge assist by abrupt changes in the censorship practices of big social media firms, and you have the tools to lift a mediocre basement-dweller over the most energetic and energizing politician of my lifetime. (I’m 54, fwiw.)
My copy of Rigged, pictured, is festooned with Post-It flags for the statements and quotations that were new to me or struck me as particularly significant. I can’t possibly mention them all in this review—I placed 77 of these markers. But I can hit the highlights of each chapter.
Mollie sets the stage with a brief prologue, letting you know that you aren’t crazy if you think Trump’s victory was stolen.
The first chapter is a discussion of the changes in voting laws over the history of the United States, from pre-colonial times to the present. Some of this was completely new to me, especially that the secret ballot wasn’t really all that secret until late in the 19th century, with the introduction of “Australian-style” ballots printed by the government. Fully public and partially public voting practices prior to this were shockingly prone to coercion and fraud, especially in the form of vote-buying. The reforms of the time were particularly focused on abolishing voting by mail, and eliminating long time periods for voting. Election day was established by amendment to be the Tuesday after the first Monday of November to avoid influencing the outcome of states that voted later in the calendar based on reports of the outcome in other states. Mollie’s exposition shows how we (these United States) are going backward to known-abusive voting procedures.
The second chapter discusses how Trump’s enemies were strewn through the establishment, and included antagonistic Republicans. Trump’s policies are poison for big-government enthusiasts in both parties, and those policies’ successes across a variety of topics were embarrassing to the failures that preceded him. His foreign policy successes, like Peace in the Middle East, demonstrated the bankruptcy of the establishment’s own policy preferences. Meanwhile, Trump’s economic policies were so successful, across all classes and among minorities, that re-alignment of traditional Democratic constituencies was in full swing. The establishment desperately needed to stop Trump.
The third chapter lays out the impact Covid-19 had on the presidential contest. And how every twist and turn in the course of events was portrayed in the media in the worst possible light for Trump, and the best possible light for his antagonists (particularly Cuomo in New York), regardless of the hypocrisy. The politicization of science, already a grave problem in any topic that lives on public research funds, reached new heights in 2020 (and continuing today, I might add). Mollie doesn’t really dwell on the scientific details of Covid-19, as that isn’t really relevant to the theme of Rigged. Her presentation is focused on the excuse Covid provided for activists to push a huge expansion of mail-in voting—precisely the tool needed to enable untraceable fraud on a grand scale.
Chapter four moves on to the horrifying violence that engulfed major cities in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the knee of Derek Chauvin. The initial impressions of Floyd’s demise, now known to be not quite so simple, were seized by anti-police activists in the black community to advance their agenda. An agenda that is Marxist to its core, and contemptuous of American standards of justice. Mollie lays out point after point showing how the progressive movement’s vested interest in stopping Trump’s gains in minority communities led its politicians, media apologists, and social media censors to do everything they could to keep tensions simmering. And to hide the truth about Antifa and BLM activist behavior.
Chapter five covers the convention season, and how the lackluster “virtual” convention held by the Democrats was outshone by a very unconventional Republican convention. Unconventional because all the usual players were unavailable, and the Charlotte host site was effectively sabotaged by North Carolina’s Democrat governor. The good news for Trump could not be allowed to stand, and the mainstream news media leveraged conveniently anonymous sources to gin up a controversy over a canceled visit to a military cemetery in France. That numerous eyewitnesses contradicted the “sources”, insisting that Trump did not defame any soldiers, was ignored. Corrections to the record were naturally held until they could help Trump anymore. No apologies from Fake News, of course.
Chapter six describes the debate season and the journalist malpractice that surrounded it. Mollie highlights the shameful conduct of the Commission on Presidential Debates and points out that it is likely to have no future.
Chapter seven is a deep dive into Big Tech’s assistance to the progressive movement, with a particular focus on the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), Mark Zuckerberg’s vehicle for buying elections. Specifically, CTCL gave huge sums, with strings attached, to election boards around the country. The strings were basically to push mail-in voting to the max, and eliminate the signature matches, address checks, witness requirements, and any other anti-fraud measure that normally accompanies mail-in voting. And “cooperate” with CTCL “advisors”. Mollie documents how that meant CTCL running some elections. Georgia was the biggest recipient, at $31 million. More on that in chapter ten.
Chapter eight is all about Hunter. And all the trouble he creates for the Biden family while leading the family’s worldwide grift. Trouble that reflects poorly on his father, and so must be suppressed. Especially the classic October surprise: Hunter’s abandoned laptop with oodles of embarrassing and incriminating content. The journalistic malpractice (or to be more honest, malice) was breathtaking. Major media, big tech, and bureaucrats closed ranks to silence all news about this event. At least until the election was safely in Biden’s pocket. Yes, anyone inclined to bypass major news media for more trustworthy sources knew all about it, but the general public doesn’t do this. Numerous polls, after the fact, show that earlier knowledge of this scandal would have changed many Biden voters’ minds. More than enough to flip the result.
Chapter nine is about the legal and judicial shenanigans used in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to suppress the Green Party and candidates that would siphon voter support on the left, plus an account of similar legal and judicial misconduct to suppress poll-watchers and post-election challenges to signature verification misconduct. The election boards in both states flouted state laws with impunity, thanks to sympathetic judges. Mollie throws stones at Rudy Guiliani, too. He disrupted Trump’s legal efforts quite badly, as Mollie explains.
The tenth and final chapter focuses on Georgia’s Fulton County and Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensburger. As a Georgia resident myself, much of this has been covered locally ad nauseam. However, one bit about Raffensburger’s stonewalling on FOIA requests, requests needed by Mark Davis, a local election integrity expert, for Trump’s legal challenges, left my jaw on the floor. I was already upset at Raffensburger for the outrageous consent agreement that changed mail-in ballot handling, but the sheer malice towards conservatism shown by the post-election conduct Mollie documents has me furious. Not to mention the mind-boggling revelation that Raffensburger’s right hand in the office is a clear Democrat activist.
Mollie adds a brief epilogue to tie it all back together.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mollie’s writing, and learned a few things I’d missed in the past year or so. I highly recommend you get your own copy.
Published in Elections
Thanks very much!
Looks like a darn good book on all the legal-but-wrong election-rigging. And the enabling of untraceable fraud.
And it looks like the proposition that illegally cast or counted votes exceeded the Biden margin of victory in a swing states gets its deserved attention for Georgia.
So she doesn’t cover that other stuff in other states, eh? Except maybe with the occasional poll-watchers issue?
And no looking at claims of electronic fraud either, eh?
I have ordered the book which is supposed to arrive tomorrow. [Edit. I have reviewed the book in Comment #73.]
Thank you. I will need to get it and read it.
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin get a lot of attention, too. Much of the material is applicable country-wide, particular the spread of “Zuck Bucks”.
Mentioned in a few places, but not covered in depth. She does review the many democrat critics of Dominion that turned into defenders and boosters when it became convenient. And the media’s memory-holing of the prior objections.
Quick question: how did you get your book so fast. I was talking to Mark last night. Molly comp’ed him a copy and he still hasn’t gotten it yet. Did you work through Amazon or Barnes and Noble?
The GA Sec State is beyond hopeless. Not long after Mark published his tally of highly suspicious GA voters the Sec State opened an investigation and announced to one and all that since it was now an open investigation no open records requests would be honored. Pretty neat technique for stone walling wouldn’t you say? “Geez I’d really love to provide you with that data but it’s an open criminal investigation and I can’t do that. I’m sure you understand. We’re just trying to do the right thing by the investigators”.
I followed a link (from Instapundit, I think) to the Barnes and Noble sales page. Where I pre-ordered. On September 17, according to my B&N order history. Friday was release day.
All important. I’m not sure how much of it is illegal, which has been my main focus. (Maybe because “Legally rigged” has been obvious since the Hunter laptop story.)
Gregory Stenstrom’s fact-checked-and-survived testimony covers 50,000 PA votes with a bad chain of custody–illegally counted votes (unless PA really has laws silly enough to allow that). I care about that. I’d like to confirm whether the probable arguments that illegally cast or counted votes exceed the Biden margin of victory in a swing state hold in AZ, PA, and NV just as they do in GA.
Hmm. A good start. Important enough. I’m not sure if it comes anywhere near what I still need to think through carefully: Do we have strong arguments that there was significant electronic fraud?
How would you know, outside of electronic voting records that (mysteriously enough) have been purged – at least in the Maricopa county.
And once you have read it you will thoughtfully discuss it here?
Or will you write 3 reviews, delete 2 (ostensibly the ones with the highest pushback) and then whine about the third being hijacked?
Awesome review – Thanks!
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Well, that harms the effort to know, I suppose.
But electronic fraud is shockingly plausible in the USA (and easy to avoid, were we a wiser nation). That doesn’t prove anything, but it makes proof not that hard.
Given the reports of statistically impossible vote ratios in repeated vote updates and of Trump votes disappearing in the computer logs, we might have a darn good argument on our hands. The only explanations I can think of are:
–the reports are fake and (from what I know) still no one has corrected them,
–the data are fake and (from what I know) still no one has corrected them,
–the reports and data are real and there is some explanation that doesn’t involve fraud that (from what I know) still no one has given, or
–electronic fraud actually happened on a significant scale.
I hesitate to come to that conclusion. I need more time to think, I have videos to watch, I have a HUGE pile of notes on electronic fraud allegations I need to reorganize, and I have the argument for electronic fraud to assemble and scrutinize. I can’t promise anything yet.
But this is absolutely a question that should not be ignored and a question that is serious and plausible.
Mollie covers multiple situations where judges in WI, PA, and GA simply ignored the law. Pretty much everywhere before the cases even got to the merits. I’m not a lawyer, so there may be nuances I missed, but the account is damning.
Instead of going to Amazon I used your link and also installed Nook on my tablet. Amazon Kindle doesn’t seem to be run by people who like books or read them, so we’ll see if this is any different.
I buy a lot of kindle books, but for hot political books, I prefer print versions because big tech can’t reach in and take them back
I agree that at this point, your list of explanations are the only ones that are logical.
The point becomes, how to show which explanation is the most correct one?
Superb review. Thanks for that. There’s no question about it: Mollie Hemingway is an excellent and rare journalist, not to mention a genuinely nice person.
I really miss the Hemingways podcast, especially the fight of the week.
You could write a book. Seriously.
I thought so. My Amazon copy comes today. I feel like Ralph waiting for his decoder ring to come in the mail.
Looking forward to your comments.
Newsweek (!) has a excerpt of Mollie’ s book:
https://www.newsweek.com/how-mail-voting-became-democratic-electoral-strategy-opinion-1637676
Make sure your ad blocker is in top form. Alternatively, use the archived version, which is pre-scrubbed for ads:
https://archive.ph/XHC7H
I should mention that “Rigged” is thoroughly footnoted. About a hundred pages in the back are just the notes. I did not try to review those.
Yes.
Oh my. Where to start with your multiple misstatements of fact?
So it sounds like a nice summary of some of the issues but with no new revelations for those who’ve been paying attention. It also sounds like she didn’t even touch on the most damning information such as the pausing of the vote counts and the lies associated with them, electronic interference, the mathematical impossibilities, voting machine vulnerabilities, poll watcher confrontations, and more than a thousand eyewitness affidavits that the courts ignored. Is that correct?
Where indeed – since there are none. Only present is a question based upon your own contentious behavior in the more recent past.
Ha
Mentioned, but not followed. It might just have been too much and too ephemeral for her to confirm. As I note above, she throws stones at Guiliani for assertions about those topics that he could not explain in a courtroom. He especially hurt the lawsuit about Philadelphia’s lack of cooperation with poll monitors. Her primary focus is the procedural changes that make voter fraud in mail-in ballots effectively untraceable. And how the lefty cabal took advantage of that.
The media’s only job was to make the country “nose blind” to the stench from Progressives. What Progressives have done since the election is making it more difficult for the media to be successful.