Why Is Donald Trump Whining About a Rigged Election? Mark Cuban Has an Interesting Theory.

[Is this an updated theory of The Manchurian Candidate?]

LAS VEGAS—Mark Cuban has a theory about Donald Trump. “I can’t think of a single benefit to him of offering the excuse that the election is rigged,” Cuban told me. “But who I can think of a benefit to is Breitbart.”

The CEO of Trump’s campaign, Steve Bannon, is the former executive chairman of Breitbart’s parent company.

“When you think about it, if he loses and the election is rigged, it’s the ultimate story,” Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and onetime Trump buddy who has been one of the GOP nominee’s most vociferous critics this cycle, continued. “ ‘We were there when the election was rigged, we had behind-the-scenes access. Come to Breitbart, come to our Breitbart TV online.’ ”

Basically, Cuban said, Bannon is working Trump.

“I literally think Steve and his crew is smarter than Donald, they’re using him, this will go down in history as the one time one of the two party presidential candidates has been played and played like a puppet,” he said.

One potential personal benefit of Trump claiming that the election will be stolen from him—as he has suggested for the past several weeks and hinted at since August—is that a guy who loses a stolen election is not really a loser. President Barack Obama more or less diagnosed Trump’s whining as sore-loser syndrome in a thoughtful and brutal takedown of the vote-rigging talk on Tuesday. Cuban sees it differently, though.

“I think there’s more to it,” he said. “I see President Obama’s perspective, but again, I think he’s the puppet, Steve Bannon is playing the strings, because if you think about all of these conspiracy theories, who does it benefit? There’s absolutely nothing that benefits Donald Trump by any of those comments?”

Cuban seemed completely sincere in this belief, but it did have the added bonus of depicting Trump as an incompetent Muppet, something Cuban has enjoyed doing ever since he started voicing his displeasure at Trump’s candidacy.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/19/why_is_donald_trump_is_whining_about_a_rigged_election_mark_cuban_has_a.html