MS NOW⁠95%

Trump floats pitiful conspiracy theory about Virginia race ahead of midterm elections ⁠84%

By Steve Benen⁠95%

4/22/2026, 6:33:29 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Indoctrination, and Confirmation Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 40.8% saturation with 216 hits. Analysis detected 1,553 faulty-reasoning hits from 530 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 75.5% and a BS Rank of ⁠84% (3,510 of 21,182 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 83.40% of the article peer group.

The political world was heavily focused on this week’s redistricting race in Virginia, and for good reason: It would open the door to a new congressional map in the commonwealth that would push Democrats closer to a House majority. 
It was close, but Virginia voters narrowly approved the Democratic plan. 
Republicans, who started a partisan redistricting arms race last year without a strategy of success, will go from holding five of the state’s 11 congressional districts to one. 
The finger-pointing in GOP circles was as swift as it was inevitable. 
Politico reported on party insiders, eager to assign blame, turning their ire on the state and national party, among others. 
Donald Trump, however, went in a more typically Trumpian direction. 
On Wednesday afternoon, the president published an item to his social media platform that read in part: 
A RIGGED ELECTION TOOK PLACE LAST NIGHT IN THE GREAT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA! 
All day long Republicans were winning, the Spirit was unbelievable, until the very end when, of course, there was a massive ‘Mail In Ballot Drop!’ 
Where have I heard that before — And the Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory! ... 
Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’ 
He went on to argue that the specific language of the ballot measure was difficult to understand, adding, “As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they!” 
The missive was tiresome and predictable. 
The election in Virginia wasn’t “rigged,” nothing about the race was “crooked,” this wasn’t a “travesty” of justice and few seriously believe the incumbent president is “an extraordinarily brilliant person.” 
The Democratic campaign was expected to win narrowly, and that’s precisely what happened. 
As for his observation about “ballot drops,” as anyone with even a basic familiarity with elections understands, it takes longer to count ballots in high-population areas, and in Virginia, high-population areas tend to have a lot of Democratic voters. 
There’s nothing nefarious about any of this, which is why even the Virginia Republicans who are furious about the outcome made no effort to question the propriety or legitimacy of the result. 
As The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie recently summarized, “To this president, as we should know by now, a ‘rigged’ election is one that he lost or did not win to his satisfaction.” 
That appeared in a column published a month ago, and Trump, right on cue, helped prove it true. 
The Republican’s latest nonsense is notable, however, because it’s an indelible sign of things to come. 
The midterm elections are 28 weeks away, and Trump is already doing what he’s done ahead of every election cycle for a decade, namely, taking steps to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the system to justify his rejection of results he doesn’t like. 
Democrats are positioned to fare well in the fall, and the president’s reaction to Virginia tells us everything we need to know about what he’ll say and do in response to likely Republican defeats later this year. 
Article reasoning-pattern comparisonThis article: 20.0%Steve Benen: 10.5%MS NOW: 7.5%Confirmation Bias20.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 1.2%Anchoring Bias0.0%This article: 10.4%Steve Benen: 3.7%MS NOW: 3.7%Availability Heuristic10.4%This article: 1.9%Steve Benen: 0.9%MS NOW: 1.1%Representativeness Heuristic1.9%This article: 9.4%Steve Benen: 1.9%MS NOW: 1.3%Hindsight Bias9.4%This article: 8.9%Steve Benen: 3.1%MS NOW: 2.6%Overconfidence Bias8.9%This article: 2.3%Steve Benen: 23.0%MS NOW: 15.5%Framing Effect2.3%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.4%MS NOW: 0.7%Loss Aversion0.0%This article: 6.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.9%Status Quo Bias6.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.1%Sunk Cost Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.3%MS NOW: 2.4%Optimism Bias0.0%This article: 10.0%Steve Benen: 3.1%MS NOW: 3.2%Pessimism Bias10.0%This article: 19.2%Steve Benen: 29.0%MS NOW: 19.3%Negativity Bias19.2%This article: 8.9%Steve Benen: 2.1%MS NOW: 2.4%Self-Serving Bias8.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 4.7%MS NOW: 3.1%Fundamental Attribution Error0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.3%MS NOW: 0.3%Actor-Observer Bias0.0%This article: 2.3%Steve Benen: 3.4%MS NOW: 3.5%In-Group Bias2.3%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 3.2%MS NOW: 2.6%Out-Group Homogeneity Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.9%MS NOW: 2.2%Halo Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 4.4%MS NOW: 1.8%Horn Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.0%Dunning-Kruger Effect0.0%This article: 9.6%Steve Benen: 2.9%MS NOW: 1.8%Recency Bias9.6%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.6%Primacy Effect0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.2%Blind-Spot Bias0.0%This article: 3.0%Steve Benen: 7.8%MS NOW: 4.7%Ad Hominem3.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 1.3%Straw Man0.0%This article: 13.6%Steve Benen: 6.3%MS NOW: 5.4%Appeal to Authority13.6%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.6%MS NOW: 2.2%False Dilemma0.0%This article: 10.0%Steve Benen: 1.7%MS NOW: 2.2%Slippery Slope10.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.2%Circular Reasoning0.0%This article: 26.0%Steve Benen: 8.9%MS NOW: 8.1%Hasty Generalization26.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.7%MS NOW: 0.7%Red Herring0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 1.2%MS NOW: 0.9%Bandwagon0.0%This article: 12.1%Steve Benen: 11.3%MS NOW: 9.8%Appeal to Emotion12.1%This article: 8.1%Steve Benen: 3.5%MS NOW: 2.4%Begging the Question8.1%This article: 11.9%Steve Benen: 3.3%MS NOW: 3.2%Post Hoc (False Cause)11.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.8%MS NOW: 0.6%Tu Quoque0.0%This article: 6.0%Steve Benen: 1.4%MS NOW: 0.9%Burden of Proof6.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.0%MS NOW: 0.1%Appeal to Nature0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.3%Composition/Division0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 2.0%MS NOW: 2.6%Anecdotal0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.2%No True Scotsman0.0%This article: 8.9%Steve Benen: 1.9%MS NOW: 1.7%Ambiguity (Equivocation)8.9%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.0%MS NOW: 0.0%Gambler’s Fallacy0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.1%MS NOW: 0.1%Middle Ground0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.5%MS NOW: 0.3%Personal Incredulity0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.3%Special Pleading0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 2.2%MS NOW: 1.3%Genetic Fallacy0.0%This article: 2.5%Steve Benen: 3.8%MS NOW: 2.5%Unattributed Quote2.5%This article: 12.3%Steve Benen: 2.6%MS NOW: 1.5%Quote-first Misdirection12.3%This article: 40.8%Steve Benen: 22.9%MS NOW: 14.2%Biased Writer Voice40.8%This article: 22.8%Steve Benen: 1.4%MS NOW: 2.1%Indoctrination22.8%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 8.6%MS NOW: 5.3%Politically Left Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 0.0%Steve Benen: 0.6%MS NOW: 0.6%Politically Right Leaning Bias0.0%This article: 6.2%Steve Benen: 0.2%MS NOW: 0.4%Attempt to Sell a Product or S…6.2%

530 words analyzed.

Speakers

3speakers31%attributed speech365writer words
Voice mapSelect a segment to jump to its words
Writer's voice • 12 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 39 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 11 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 28 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 12 words • 0.0% coveragePolitico • 20 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 10 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 17 words • 0.0% coverageDonald Trump • 13 words • 100.0% coverageDonald Trump • 25 words • 100.0% coverageDonald Trump • 16 words • 100.0% coverageDonald Trump • 11 words • 100.0% coverageDonald Trump • 47 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 6 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 30 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 13 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 39 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 32 words • 100.0% coverageJamelle Bouie • 33 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 18 words • 0.0% coverageWriter's voice • 16 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 45 words • 100.0% coverageWriter's voice • 37 words • 100.0% coverage
Selected voice

Jamelle Bouie

100%flagged-word coverage
33 attributed words20% of attributed speech82% writer coverage
0%50.0%100.0%Attempt to Sell a Product +100.0 ptsWriter: 0.0%Jamelle Bouie: 100.0%100.0%Biased Writer Voice-59.2 ptsWriter: 59.2%Jamelle Bouie: 0.0%0.0%Indoctrination-33.2 ptsWriter: 33.2%Jamelle Bouie: 0.0%0.0%

Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.

Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.