With nearly all votes counted, Ms Hyde-Smith had taken 53.9% of the vote in the staunchly Republican state compared to 46.1% for Mr Espy.
That’s quite a decisive win considering traditionally the mid term elections trend against the incumbent President’s party. Plus the overwhelming disdain for President Trump from almost all the media, showbiz and the establishment “conservative” punditocracy
Naturally the BBC was disappointed. Taking the lead from their friends at NYT, WaPo and CNN they had orgasmed over what was claimed to be Hyde-Smith’s macaca moment….
The race narrowed after Ms Hyde-Smith, who is white, was recorded saying she would happily attend a public hanging. The comments evoked the lynching of African-Americans in a state scarred by a history of racial violence.
Of course the beeb failed to point out that state officials who turned a blind eye to Jim Crow, the KKK and the lynchings were almost entirely Democrats. But why spoil a good narrative with historical facts….
To be fair the beeb did refer to Espy’s “ethical issues”
The Democrat has himself come under scrutiny for his 2011 lobbying work in the Ivory Coast, whose former leader Laurent Gbagbo is on trial at the International Criminal Court. Mr Espy was agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton, but resigned under a cloud of corruption allegations, on which he was later acquitted.
Nevertheless, although forced through gritted teeth to declare the Trump supported Hyde-Smith’s win as decisive, the BBC had to weasel something out of it
Yet Democrats and their candidate Mike Espy may well claim some sort of moral victory. In a state widely regarded as a Republican stronghold they made this run-off election a genuine battle.
Trump 1 Macaca 0
