Donald Trump ally Sen. J.D.

Vance (R-OH) compared the former president’s election denial claims to a violent, racially-tinged disputed vote in 1876 during a New York Times interview this week — and on Saturday he got a harsh history lesson from the same newspaper. The right-wing Republican, rumored to be on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, whined that dismissing “Stop the Steal” grievances was taking “this very legitimate grievance over our most fundamental democratic act as a people, and completely suppress[ing] concerns about it.” Then he compared it to the 1876 election “Here’s what this would’ve looked like if you really wanted to do this,” he said.

“You would’ve actually tried to go to the states that had problems. You would try to marshal alternative slates of electors, like they did in the election of 1876. And then you have to actually prosecute that case, you have to make an argument to the American people.

” His comparison infuriated Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. “Let’s look at what happened in 1876,” he said. ALSO READ: Attention Lincoln and Reagan: GOP senators scramble history with Trump greatness claim “In that race, the Democrat, Gov.

Samuel Tilden of New York, won a majority of the national popular vote but fell one vote short of a majority in the Electoral College. The Republican, Rutherford Hayes, was well behind in both. The trouble was 20 electoral votes in four states: Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina.

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