 When Donald Trump was spreading his big lie by the 2020 election, Tucker Carlson was one of the few individuals who actually dared to push back against that narrative and ask for a little bit more evidence, and he received a lot of backlash for doing that. However, fast forward to today, and he's not going to make that mistake again. He knows what his viewers want to hear, and he's going to tell them exactly what they want to hear. He's going to give them the conspiracy theories that they are thirsty for. So when it comes to the California recall election of Gavin Newsom, Tucker Carlson just made things up about the election. Take a look. Well, in 15 days, the long-suffering residents of the state of California will have a chance to hold someone accountable, their governor, Gavin Newsom, who has so mismanaged the state that can't keep the lights on, crime is skyrocketing, wildfires are so bad right now with Tahoe, people can't go outside. And in 15 days, voters in California will be able to recall him. Is it just voters in California? In California, non-citizens can vote. So people who don't live in California vote seems kind of racist to prevent them from voting just because you don't live there. We can't answer those questions. We're not election officials. What we can say is in 15 days, democracy is a chance to work. Let's hope that it does. Non-citizens are not eligible to vote in this recall election. That's a lie. He made that up. But what he's doing here is providing Republicans like Larry Elder with an excuse. So in the event the recall effort fails, well, it's not necessarily because Republicans didn't turn out to support one of the Republican candidates running against Gavin Newsom. It's because Democrats allowed non-citizens to vote. This is a lie that is continuously spread, but it just changes a little bit. Back in 2015, when we saw Republicans advocate against admitting Syrian refugees, well, what was the argument? Well, they just want to change the demographics so that way Democrats have a better chance at winning. They're essentially importing new voters. They say the same thing about immigrants from Latin America. They're saying it now about Afghanistan. In fact, an OAN reporter was asking Donald Trump about this very thing. Are they just trying to win elections by importing Afghanistan refugees here? So this is what they do, but it's a lie. You don't get to just make up things, right? And if anything, the Republican Party, they're the ones who are resorting to cheating in order to win elections. That's why after Donald Trump's big lie, we're seeing them change the rules in so many states. All of the things that actually drove turnout like drive-through voting in Texas, for example, they're trying to get rid of that. In voting, that drove turnout. So in a number of states, they want to get rid of that as well. They want to impose strict draconian rules, voter ID laws, all to make sure that fewer people vote because they're the ones cheating. So when they say things like this, it's all projection. But when it comes to the California recall election, this is a really serious moment that I think people need to take seriously because what we're about to witness is possibly a power grab by the GOP who's taking advantage of California's absurd laws. But while we're on the subject of the California recall election, I do want to give you some additional details about this because if Democrats don't actually perform here, if they don't get out the vote for their party, then what we're seeing is a Republican takeover of California, which could be catastrophic given the options that will likely come to power, Larry Elder, most likely. But Jake Johnson of Common Dreams gives us some additional details and adds the effort to recall Newsom advanced in June after proponents gathered enough signatures, more than 1.7 million, to trigger the election. Early voting began this month, and Californians who opt to participate will face two valid questions, one asking whether Newsom should be recalled and another asking who should replace him. According to 538, recent polling on the first question is very close, with 50.6 percent of Californians saying they want to keep Newsom in office and 46.3 percent saying they want him removed. If more than 50 percent vote yes on the first question, the challenger with the most votes will become California's next governor. It's going to be a very tight race, Representative Ro Khanna told The Hill last month. I think people realize this is not a slam dunk. Larry Elder, a longtime right-wing radio host who recently said the ideal minimum wage is $0 an hour, has emerged as the Republican front wanted to succeed Newsom. Democrats, for their part, have launched what's been described as the largest voter mobilization effort in state history to keep Newsom in office, but as the Los Angeles Times reported, Newsom and the state Democratic Party successfully deterred any prominent Democratic politician from running in the election. That means if voters recall the Democratic governor from office next month, the newspaper observed his replacement is likely to come from a group of top Republican candidates, almost all of whom have publicly supported former President Donald Trump. Now, the extent to which the Democratic Party of California's voter mobilization effort will be successful, will have to wait and see, but they've already messed up the messaging plan by being so cartoonishly corrupt. So the way that it works is if a majority of Californians vote yes on the recall, then the person, as this article was explaining, who has the most votes will automatically become the governor. That means that a Republican only needs a plurality, not a majority, to become governor. So think of how absurd that is. You just need a simple majority to get rid of the current governor, but a plurality will suffice for the new governor if the recall is successful. That doesn't even make sense. But Democrats botched this entire thing by telling everyone to vote no on the recall and don't select an alternative in the event Gavin Newsom is recalled because the establishment, the Democratic Party establishment in California, they don't want to roll the dice and have somebody replace Gavin Newsom, who's not part of the establishment. So they'd rather risk handing the state to a Republican than actually trying to work with some other Democrat who is obviously a better alternative to one of these fucking lunatics like Larry Elder. And Larry Elder, for those of you who don't know, this is an individual that months before he announced this campaign said, yeah, I wouldn't want to run for governor because I don't have the temperament. Like this is something he literally said about himself. And now he might become the governor. But don't take my word for it. Take his word for it. Most recently, somebody that you know quite well has approached me and I said, I subscribe to the Walter Cronkite philosophy. I'd love to serve. I hate to have to run. I just don't believe I have the stomach, the temperament, the personality, the drive, the willingness to deal with these doofy in Sacramento for the next several years of my life. Have I exhausted all of my excuses yet? Anyway, thank you very much for that. It's very flattering, but no, I'm not going to run. I would miss being on the radio as well. So, I mean, there's not much that he can do as governor or some other right wing lunatic can do as governor. If they get elected, given that the legislature in California is still held by Democrats, but he can still do a lot of damage as governor. He can still get rid of mask mandates. He could try to pull a DeSantis in California. And this is all horrifying. During a pandemic, even if Gavin Newsom is terrible, he's still preferable to one of these loony tunes who probably think that the pandemic is a hoax. Like I'm not sure where Larry Elder stands, but I'm sure he's anti-mask. I'm sure he's anti-vax because basically that's the default position of Republicans. So this effort is, you know, it's, if Gavin Newsom survives this, I think it'll be a miracle, basically. And I hate Gavin Newsom. But if I lived in California, I'm definitely voting no on the recall, because even if he's terrible, I think the way to replace him is to wait until there's a Democratic primary in the state to get rid of him that way, not risk having some right wing lunatic coming to power. But if it is the case that Gavin Newsom does survive this recall effort, it won't be because California is importing immigrants or allowing a non-citizens to vote as Tucker Carlson is claiming. It'll be because that voter mobilization effort paid off and because Californian voters rejected these right wing lunatics. But who knows what's going to happen? I hope that he survives this recall effort, even if I'm not a fan of him, but you know, we'll have to wait and see. But these lies about the elections in the country, you know, across the country, spread by people like Tucker Carlson is deeply harmful. And if there's no accountability for these lies about the elections that take place in this country, democracy is not long for this world. And I'm not being hyperbolic about that. So somebody needs to hold Tucker Carlson accountable in a meaningful way at Fox News. Otherwise, they're literally choosing ratings and clicks over democracy, which is gross. But I mean, in a late stage capitalist society, democracy is doomed to fail at some point in time. So maybe we're going to watch that moment now in the coming years. You know, if lies about elections continue with Republicans, but this is just like a microcosm of a bigger issue with conspiracy theories in the Republican Party.