This article originally appeared at FAIR.org. Used by permission.
Major media outlets have largely come around — a day late and a dollar short — to calling out Donald Trump's extremism and lies, particularly the Big Lie that the election was stolen (FAIR.org, 1/7/21). But this rejection of Trumpism and the Big Lie goes hand in hand with the elevation of a "reasonable" or "admirable" wing of the GOP, whose own extremism and undermining of democracy are thereby whitewashed.
Exhibit A is Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who jumped on the Trump bandwagon early and was only kicked off it when he rebuffed Trump's infamous demand to "find" 11,780 votes in order to overturn the state's election result.