FOX News Channel general assignment correspondent Major Garrett distorted statements by Democratic lawyers to cast Democrats as eager to litigate the November 2 presidential election “even if President [George W.] Bush is the clear winner.” In fact, none of the Democratic lawyers Garrett quoted said they planned to “dispute election results.” They claimed only that they were going to pursue specific allegations of voting irregularities regardless of whether such irregularities appeared to affect the overall outcome. Garrett also suggested throughout his story that only Democrats had assembled legal teams poised to take action if irregularities occur; the truth is that Republicans have also made substantial preparations for post-election legal action.

Garrett began his story on the October 19 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume by declaring: “John Kerry's campaign has recruited nearly 10,000 lawyers to fight for Democratic votes in courtrooms across America.” But Garrett neglected to mention that “Republicans say they have established the most extensive legal operation in their history, recruiting thousands of lawyers to help monitor 30,000 precincts in battleground states,” according to an October 18 New York Times article.

After claiming that Democrats planned to “dispute election results,” Garrett showed a video clip of Kerry-Edwards '04 legal adviser Eric Holder saying something completely different:

GARRETT: Top Kerry legal advisers say they will dispute election results even if President Bush is the clear winner.

HOLDER: [video clip] For us, it's not a question of looking at a statistical margin. It's a question of looking at allegations, and seeing what people are saying about the way in which they were treated.

Holder simply said that his legal team will act to protect voting rights even if the votes in question would not have changed the outcome of the election. Garrett proceeded to explain that in contrast to Democrats, Republicans planned legal action “only where necessary,” clearly implying that Democrats planned to file unnecessary lawsuits. Garrett showed a clip of Republican National Committee legal adviser Robert Traynham:

GARRETT: And the Bush campaign has left the recruitment of lawyers to the state Republican parties and vowed to battle Democratic lawyers, but only where necessary.

TRAYNHAM: The Republican National Committee, along with the president, want this election to be decided by the voters. The Democrats want this to be decided by trial lawyers.