John Thune Receives Rare Praise on the Left For Insisting Rigged Election Allegations Require Evidence

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) received praise from an unexpected source on Tuesday after he said on CNBC that allegations of voter fraud must actually be proven to have any meaning.

“Frankly, you have to prove if there was cheating, and uh… And clearly, uh… That’s something that you would have to do in California or anywhere else for that matter,” Thune told CNCB on Tuesday morning, while weighing on President Donald Trump’s outlandish claims that Los Angeles mayor race was rigged.

“But the fact that it takes days — literally days — to be able to count votes in a state like California, when there are other states around the country who do that very quickly and get an outcome and a result, uh… It’s, it’s incompetence if nothing else. And you know, whether or not there was actual rigging is something that would have to be proven. But clearly this is a system in California that doesn’t work and doesn’t inspire confidence and trust in voters,” concluded Thune, taking a swipe at California’s lengthy vote-counting process.

Thune’s comment was clipped and quickly went viral on X, with Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor taking note.

“This is a totally fair criticism by @LeaderJohnThune and one shared by many Democrats in California. Appreciate him not spreading disinformation like @MeghanMcCain and many others who let internet brain rot convince them that Spencer Pratt was going to get elected mayor of LA,” Vietor said of Thune while sharing the clip.

Many other social media users offered their takes as well on Thune’s comments, with some predicting that Thune will likely have earned himself an angry tweet from Trump. “Oh he’s definitely getting a nickname and a half literate rant at 3am,” wrote one social media user.

Fans of Trump also took to X to blast Thune for insisting that allegations require proof. “You really have fallen off the cliff. YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY!!!!” wrote one such critic.

Thune’s comments were noticeably different from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who conveniently argued that evidence of fraud is elusive because that’s just the nature of the crime. “Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here, and that’s a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system. It is critical to maintain a constitutional republic,” Johnson told reporters on Monday.

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