Before becoming a radio talk show host, I was a reporter for almost 10 years, and I believed then, and still believe today, that the role of the press is to hold government accountable and inform the public.
It's why I criticize the way many journalists cover politics and culture, and it's why I find myself reluctantly voting for Donald Trump in 2024.
I have never voted Republican or Democrat for President. In the past, I have either voted Libertarian or abstained.
I don't consider abstaining or voting for a third-party candidate a “wasted vote.” It's not a vote for any other candidate. Not voting for Trump in 2016 and 2020 was not a vote for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden. It was a small signal to each party to put forward a better candidate. It was my personal, ineffectual protest. But
my.
This is not normal.
In 2016, I was a conservative talk radio host in Asheville, North Carolina. Flanked by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, I urged my audience not to support Trump in the primary. I spent months stressing why Trump should not be the nominee. I knew I would be putting my job and career at risk by doing so, but I didn't think he was the best candidate in the field. And while my listening area supported Ted Cruz (just barely), Trump won the state handily.
In the general election, I believed the polls. I scolded the audience for supporting someone who had no chance of beating Clinton. She was going to win in a landslide!
Of course, I know how that turned out. I was dead wrong. I took a lot of flak from my viewers. But I vowed to cover Trump honestly — to praise him when he deserved it and to oppose him when I thought he was wrong.
Serious systematic corruption
Over the next seven years, I watched as a bloated and corrupt federal government fed false stories and accusations from anonymous sources to resistance media outlets to launch a whole host of attacks against the president.
At first, it was easy for me to believe these stories because, as a former reporter, I couldn't imagine that so many journalists would be willing to publish misleading reports, but as the stories fell apart under closer scrutiny, I became horrified at the corruption of the institution of journalism.
The weaponization of the fabricated Steele dossier. The corrupt FBI's Operation Crossfire Hurricane. The denial and cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and its impact on national security. The lie that Joe Biden was running for office because “fine people on both sides.” No reporter asked for an explanation.
The media promoted these stories, which ultimately drew attention. When the stories turned out to be false, the journalists did not retract them or return their industry awards. This was just another episode in the “Orange Man Bad: A Threat to Democracy” series that we all had to endure for seven years.
The most egregious example is the continued cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline. I've been documenting it for years, and I'm not the only one to have noticed it, but until that fateful debate in June, no one in the Washington press corps acknowledged it, or simply chose to ignore it.
Adding to the scandal was the palace coup by Democratic Party leaders to replace the president, and adding insult to injury, California Governor Gavin Newsom's ridicule of the entire corrupt process.
Podcasts With former Obama staff.
This is not normal.
My vote, my choice
One thing I know for sure is that the traditional media and Washington journalists will continue to pursue, prosecute and hold Trump accountable. If he abuses his power, there will be investigations and there will be retaliation.
Yes, the investigation will be biased and crazy in many ways, but their track record is clear: they will continue to work with unnamed government officials “in the know” to bring down Trump. (I suspect some of them are using AI to create fake “pee tapes” right now.)
But I also believe those same people are not going to pursue Kamala Harris or Tim Walz with the same fervor, and that to me is a big difference.
My first principle is that the press must hold government accountable, so I don't believe that the press will hold government accountable if Harris wins. Not at all.
If Harris loses, the corrupt actions of the media and the Democratic Party will be punished. I don't see any other way.
This will also be a single, ineffectual protest vote, but it is mine.
That's why I'm going to vote for Donald Trump, even though it's not going to be satisfying for me.
