July 24, 2026

"[I]t is entirely possible that we will run a repeat of 2020, when the outcome of a narrow election was clouded by accusations of fraud, and MAGA was hellbent on retaining control."

"In 2026, however, we face a president who has surrounded himself with sycophants and yes men, with years left in a term that has already been marked by grotesque lawlessness and abuses of power."

Writes David French, in "This Is What’s Keeping Me Up at Night" (NYT gift link).

52 comments:

tim maguire said...

The president has not just a right, but a duty, to fill his team with people who share, or at least will implement, his vision. That is what the American people voted for. French knows this and would never describe a focused Democratic administration in that way.

What "grotesque lawlessness and abuses of power" does he have in mind? They never say.

wild chicken said...

God I wish he'd die. Vance has good sense when he's not kissing the ring.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Obama had yes men on staff and yes women in the media fangirling over him for 8 years. He got so high on self-worship he finally declared himself god. The exact quote escapes me but the question was how he described “sin.” His answer was violating his own personal code of conduct. His righteousness defines sin.

Caroline said...

All the more reason for French to support any and all steps toward election integrity. Pass the Save act, and republicans will have no beef after the election.

Quayle said...

David French is a smart man but he’s missed the obvious Trump hasn’t surrounded himself with yes men. There are a lot of yes women in the circle.

But seriously, for a lawyer French is being imprecise. What is a a yes man? Somebody who does what their boss tells them to do? Then we’re all yes men to a point.

Marcus Bressler said...

Trump lives in his head rent-free.

boatbuilder said...

"..clouded by accusations of fraud..."

I remember it a little differently, but you be you, Frenchy.

boatbuilder said...

French should try ironing his underwear while he's up at night.

boatbuilder said...

Remember all of those fiercely independent men and women who populated the Biden administration? While Biden hewed closely to the law in every respect, and never abused his power? Sure. Sure you do.

Peachy+2 said...

David French (D) - another media whore we detest.

imTay said...

I don't think that the people around Trump right now were put in place by Trump, at least not the Trump I voted for. A quiet coup happened, and the Tucker Carlsons, the Joe Kents, the Tulsi Gabbards, the Marjorie Taylor Greens, voices that provided a counter to the neocons and militant zionists were all purged, Soviet style, and this is what we have left. We no longer have a democracy, and George H. W. Bush, the last WWII veteran to serve in the job, was the last decent president that we ever had.

Jersey Fled said...

David is terrified that the Democrat vote fraud machine won’t be capable of manufacturing enough votes to win this time.

Eva Marie said...

Is it wrong to find joy in the fact that MAGA is giving David French a lot of sleepless nights?

Kai Akker said...

It is very hard to care what is keeping David French up at night. Perhaps he has not written the NYT's required volume of anti-Trump material. That he fears Democratic lawfare like disbarring John Eastman might work vice versa someday, and someday soon, is a yawner. The disbarment was of course through the Soviet State Supreme Court sitting in San Francisco.

Trump is usually smarter than a mere copycat when he feels injustice has been done. I hope he has worked out a good swap with Denmark on this -- perhaps Greenland and $10 trillion to us for unencumbered Danish title to California.

Then those Soviets can rule on climate change and windmills to their hearts' content.

Kai Akker said...

--- Vance has good sense

I wish I could share your sunny view on the VP, Wild Chicken. I find he gives me the creeps constantly. If he overshadows Rubio politically as this administration comes to a close, it will be the nation's loss. Vance is a self-promoting phony without principles, IMO. His workings on Iran and Israel strike me as weird at best, and the probability of not-best seems high.

rehajm said...

This guy has always been a nitwit. I get he was once considered an interesting or authoritative thinker but only bitter clingers continue to acknowledge his opinion on anything…

gilbar said...

so.. the left is ALREADY stating,
that they Can't Possibly Win without cheating?
again?
https://www.themidwesterner.news/2026/07/elissa-slotkin-admits-save-america-act-would-make-it-hard-for-any-democrat-in-any-state-to-win-any-election/

rehajm said...

…tim has it precisely in the first post. French is too dumb to notice the hordes of lemmings who religiously follow whatever crackpot his party superiors hoist up for worship…

Temujin said...

Every President has 'yes men and women'. That's how they get the job. Every one of them, with the possible exception of Joe Biden whose 'yes men' had to be yes men for Ron Klain, not Joe Biden. No one had to answer to Joe Biden. Joe wasn't even present. (Still no one has been held accountable for that coup.)

David French is such a lefty wearing a conservative costume. How do I know this? He is a chronic hand-wringer. A sure sign of leftist mentality.

Dude1394 said...

Haha David French

Lazarus said...

If that were David French's concern he'd be pushing for ballot security. Is he?

Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

Red scare is also back on the menu.

Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

If polls showed the GOP leading the midterms you wouldn't hear a peep about voter fraud out of Trump and his sycophants. Elections are run locally, not by the Feds. Funny, MAGA always argues for states rights, unless it works against them, when they argue for a federal takeover.

RCOCEAN II said...

The obvious solution is to have honest, open elections which require citizenship and voter ID. As for David French, he has bad character, having recieved money from Tech Companies while at National Review, not disclosed it, and then writing "The Conservative Case for Google..." type articles.


His whole career is a grift consiting of him presenting himself as a "True Conservative" and then pushing people and policies that are the exact opposite. He's the Mitt Romney or Chris Christie of Opinion Columnists.

RCOCEAN II said...

In any case, I'm completely uninterested in what the House does in Jan 2027. If the R's refuse to seat some D's that were elected by Fraud, so what? It will resolve itself, probably with another court case.

Had Pence had any brains or courage he would've done what Trump wanted on J6, and the whole thing would've ended up in the lap of the SCOTUS, and that would've been that. Instead we gotten years of liberal/never Trumper hysterics.

RCOCEAN II said...

BTW, i dont remember French caring when the oddball that got elected by pretending to be Jewish got bounced out of the House. Or when matt gaetz was more or less forced to resign.

Again, he just a grifter, and gets a NYT op-ed slot because he pushes liberal policies while pretending to be a "true con". A male Jennifer Rubin.

StoughtonSconnie said...

Not liking Trump, and not wanting to relitigate 2020 because, to quote a moron, what difference at this point would it make, does not mean you shouldn’t care if a substantial portion of the Republic have lost faith in the election process. What the “there’s no proven election fraud” crowd consistently misses, either through ignorance or malfeasance, is that you never find what you don’t look for, and in addition, the side that has to trust the outcome the most is the losing side.

n.n said...

NYeT. Never. All's fair in lust and abortion? WaPout.

MadisonMan said...

we face a president who has surrounded himself with sycophants and yes men

As others have noted: What President does not surround himself with sycophants and Yes Men?

Hassayamper said...

*** Red scare is also back on the menu. ***

Good. It should be. The extirpation of collectivism is the basis of liberty.

Joe Bar said...

Not this guy, again.

Valentine Smith said...

The Dems propped up a corpse for four years, so I guess there were no sycophants only bloody psycho fans of Marx and Mao.

hombre said...

We’re all tired of the “fraud 2020” conversation. Lefties like French don’t get that their dogged commitment to the nonsensical article of faith that Joe Dementia got 80 million votes while in his basement and that other indicia of fraud are all bogus perpetuates the conversation. Election integrity? Meh!

Skeptical Voter said...

David French is wee wee'd up. And I say that like it's a good thing.

loudogblog said...

Here's more of the, "I willfully choose to believe that only the other side does this." mindset. All politicians surround themselves with "sycophants and yes men." Also, both political parties will abuse power and challenge election results.

It's really disturbing how many people get sucked into this, "My side is 100% good and the other side is 100% evil" fallacy. It's like they have Zaphod Beelblbrox's glasses, but instead of blacking out when they see danger, they black out when something happens that makes their side look bad.

William said...

Noted agricultural reformer and child molester Daniel Ortega has cancelled elections in Nicaragua. That's one way to handle all these controversies over elections. Remember when the left got all hysterical about Reagan interfering with the will of the Nicaraguan people by funding the contra there. Well, despite everything, Ortega managed to triumph. I wonder why his story hasn't received more publicity.. You'd think the NYT would be doing follow up stories on the happy news coming from that country. Maybe Oliver Stone or Sean Penn should fly down there to shake Ortega's hand.

Aggie said...

'...A quiet coup happened, and the Tucker Carlsons, the Joe Kents, the Tulsi Gabbards, the Marjorie Taylor Greens...'

Someone get this poor, fragile dear a cold towel for the forehead.

Tucker Carlson imploded and has demonstrated his foolishness by conducting interviews with such notable citizens as Andrew Tate.
Joe Kent resigned, histrionically, from his office based on his differences with the administration's foreign policy.
Tulsi Gabbard resigned to care for her husband, who has a serious stage 4 cancer.
Marjorie Taylor Greene quit the House, but stayed in office until she qualified for a lifetime pension. To the day.

If you think they were purged, you are delusional. If you think you're not delusional, then share your evidence, even if circumstantial.

Gusty Winds said...

The 2020 COVID absentee ballot fraud was VERY REAL. You could see it happening in real time, and developing throughout 2020. It all started with the WI spring election right after the shutdown, when Democrats started claiming "you shouldn't have to risk your life to vote."

Only liars and those who support the outcome of the fraud deny it, but know it is true. David French is one of them. An evil beta male riding a pretend moral high horse.

mccullough said...

French loves Drag Queen Story Hour. He’s a pervert

jim said...

Super sycophants who are kept up all night dreaming about what his highness REALLY likes.

chuck said...

French is just silly. All that energy should be channeled into something useful, playing solitaire perhaps.

FortheloveofIce said...

2020 eLEcTiON wAS a FraUD!!!!!!!!!! Said all of the MAGAT sheep without a shred of evidence.
The delusion that keeps on giving.

Vance said...

Ah, ForTheLoveOfNazi's is back, sad that he won't be able to Heil Platner. There's tons of evidence of fraud from 2020, including everyone who watched it happen in real time. "We shut down voting and sent all the poll watchers home!" two hours later" Ohh, lookie here, another 95,000 votes for Biden with zero votes for Trump! No one saw them get counted, and gosh darn it, now Biden won the state! How about that?"

FortheloveofIce said...

Actual hard evidence or STFU

Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

6,600 people out of 6.6 million, only a fraction of that 6,600 tried to vote. It was a software bug. Nothing that Trump has proposed would fix a software bug.

Jim at said...

FDF

Mason G said...

"only a fraction of that 6,600 tried to vote."

We've been told that this was not possible and is something that just didn't happen. And now, you're admitting it is possible and that it did happen.

So tell me- why should anyone believe what you say now?

Jim at said...

*Actual hard evidence or STFU*

And I'll tell you again, if you fuckers hadn't stolen it ... Trump would no longer be around.

As it is, he's shoving it up your asses daily and I couldn't be happier about it.

Karma isn't proof, but it's just as satisfying.

Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...

It's not even a decimal point in scale. But Trump will turn it into a major issue—the same way he elevated the transgender high school athletes debate, despite only a handful of cases out of 330 million Americans.

I’m not claiming there are zero mistakes or that no ineligible people ever vote. That does happen. What I am saying is what Homeland Security stated before Trump took office: these incidents are very rare, and they do not undermine the overall integrity of our elections.

Trump is following Putin’s playbook—cherry-picking examples to convince Americans, or at least the roughly 25% who remain fiercely loyal to him, that our elections are shoddy and the system is “rigged.” Yet when he wins, the system suddenly works fine. When he loses—even when he or his party is running the elections—it’s rigged. Funny how that works.

I don’t claim to understand every detail, but I see the pattern clearly. This is a lie he’ll hammer relentlessly from now through November.

Mason G said...

"Yet when he wins, the system suddenly works fine."

You're making up stuff. Again. Trump didn't say that, and he wouldn't be supporting election rules that most every other country in the world already has if he thought that.

It must be embarrassing for you to be in such a financial bind that you have to come here to write silly stuff like this over and over again.

Zavier Onasses said...

...and MAGA was hellbent on retaining control, whereas the Democrats were entirely indifferent about the election? Certainly not emotionally involved enough to..... well, maybe a little ballot tinkering?

Achilles said...

FortheloveofIce said...

Actual hard evidence or STFU

You kicked out the observers.

You boarded up the windows.

You counted ballots for days after the election.

You blocked all audits and investigations.

You censored anyone that questioned the election.\

You are an evil piece of shit. Get fucked.

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