Watch on Rumble
Ali Velshi was on The Briefing with Jen Psaki on August 18 talking about the recent primaries. When he got to John Strand, the Republican running for Florida’s 19th Congressional District, he said:
“John Strand convicted and pardoned by Donald Trump as an election denier. So these stories are, are super, super weird when you look at them.”
Strand entered the Capitol on January 6 with Dr. Simone Gold, the doctor he was accompanying. They stayed inside for less than an hour while she gave short speeches. He was later convicted and sentenced to 32 months in prison, of which he served about one year before being released.
Prosecutors offered him a plea deal: plead guilty to a single misdemeanor (entering a restricted building) and walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist. He rejected it. Even though he did walk into the building, accepting the deal would have required him to admit he committed a crime and accept the government’s entire version of January 6 — something he has always said was a lie. He called it “bending the knee to tyranny and to lies” and chose to go to trial on principle instead, knowing he would likely be convicted.
Trump later gave him a full pardon in 2025.
Of course Velshi slapped the media’s favorite label on him: “election denier.”
Notice how the media uses the term “election denier” only against Republicans who question elections — especially anyone who points out that the 2020 election was cheated on a massive scale. They never use it on Democrats. Democrats who claimed Republican wins were stolen or illegitimate (Bush in 2000 and 2004, Trump in 2016, Stacey Abrams in 2018, and many more) never get the same label. Instead they get praised as fighters for democracy. The term “election denier” exists for one purpose: to attack Republicans who are fighting real election fraud.
Watch on YouTube