Trump is already poisoning confidence in the next US elections

CNN
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If God were a vote-counter, Donald Trump says he would win by a landslide.

The Republican candidate suggested Thursday that divine intervention in next week’s election will show he is the rightful winner even in Democratic bastions like California.

On the one hand, Trump’s comment shows how his false claims of election fraud have gone beyond the absurd.

But this goes beyond hyperbole. Trump, who upended reality for tens of millions of Americans by claiming he was cheated out of power four years ago, is posing an ominous threat to the 2024 elections and unfurling a legacy of broken trust that could taint the presidential vote long after he leaves the stage. . Election fraud, which claims Trump most notably intensified in 2020 to make up for his humiliation of losing to Joe Biden, has already reached high intensity this year.

Having laid out the grimmest closing argument in modern American history, Trump is now increasingly turning to undermining public confidence in elections. On Thursday in New Mexico, he falsely claimed the state was indeed in his column in 2016 and 2020. “I think we won it twice,” he said. “If we could bring God down from heaven and he would be the vote-counter, we would win this, we would win California, we would win a lot of states. … You just have to keep the votes honest.”

In fact, Trump lost New Mexico twice, by 8 and 11 points, and his claims that he could have won Democratic strongholds like California if not for voter fraud are completely unfounded. But they are part of a clear and deliberate strategy that is unfolding in front of millions of voters to create the impression that Tuesday’s election will be rigged. That could set the stage for legal challenges if Trump loses, and would also increase fury among his supporters already inflamed by past false fraud allegations. Trump is also working with the conservative media machine to create the impression that his victory is certain and that the victory of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats can only be the result of fraud.

The ex-president’s growing efforts to undermine confidence in the 2024 election as an apparent Plan B if he loses coincide with growing efforts by GOP officials and Make America Great Again activists to undermine any victory for Harris in the courts. local election jurisdictions and even state legislatures.

A recent in-depth report from CNN detailed these schemes.

This catalog of challenges to the integrity of the 2024 election, coupled with Trump’s increasingly belligerent allegations of corruption, creates a surreal new reality given that the United States is the world’s most important democracy and has long been viewed by outside observers as the gold standard of self-government.

It’s not unusual to see extensive election-season litigation by both parties, with armies of lawyers challenging voting procedures, vote-counting practices and even the results of each election cycle. The 2000 election between then-Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush sparked weeks of bitter legal wrangling over a close result in Florida that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the 43rd president. Gore conceded the election, ensuring an uncontested transfer of presidential power, a step Trump refused to take four years ago.

The refusal to accept the election results was not solely a Republican offense. Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, for example, refused to concede her 2018 race against Republican Brian Kemp, citing allegations of voter suppression, even though the Democrat conceded her opponent’s election.

But it’s news when a major presidential candidate criticizes in advance the fairness and legitimacy of successive elections and warns that they will only accept the results based on their arbitrary and often unevidence-based assessments of fairness.

Trump’s intentions were evident in a Truth Social post on Thursday, in which he focused on the incidents in Pennsylvania and said the results in the crucial swing state were fraudulent. The cases involve potential irregularities in Lancaster County involving the use of approximately 2,500 voter registration forms. In York County, election officials rejected more than 700 “questionable” voter registration applications and referred them to prosecutors for investigation, CNN’s Danny Freeman reported Thursday.

The investigation is still ongoing and it is possible that the fraud may be uncovered. But Trump has already fled without waiting for the facts. “We caught them in a BIG SCAM in Pennsylvania. Must be declared and prosecuted, IMMEDIATELY! This is a CRIMINAL VIOLATION OF THE LAW. STOP VOTER FRAUD!” Trump wrote. “WE’VE BEEN AT THEM ALL THIS TIME! Who would have thought that our country is so CORRUPT?

The Pennsylvania incidents show how the maelstrom of conspiracy theories created by Trump about the US election is becoming self-fulfilling.

The alleged irregularities were discovered, which should highlight how secure American voting really is. But instead, each new failure becomes the basis for yet another false claim.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that Trump’s claims of fraud in the commonwealth were “more of the same” from the former president. “Donald Trump wants to use the same pattern again in which he tries to create chaos and incite division and fear about our system. But again, we will have free and fair, safe and secure elections in Pennsylvania, and the will of the people will be respected and protected.”

Trump’s attacks on the integrity of American elections made clear that the cycle of pre-election attempts to undermine public confidence in the results has become as much a tradition of presidential elections as the primary season, the conventions and the historic moment when television networks call the ultimate winner.

The ex-president’s efforts to sow doubt in the system may also have a lasting legacy. Many polls show declining confidence in the electoral system, and a new CNN poll this week found that Trump’s antics have left the electorate irritable about his likely behavior next week. Just 30% of registered voters think Trump will accept the election results and concede if he loses, while 73% say Harris would accept losing the election.

However, even if Americans are concerned that their votes will be counted, this does not stop them from voting. More than 60 million Americans have already voted ahead of Tuesday’s election. And despite all the turmoil caused by Trump’s refusal to concede defeat and attempts to steal power after the 2020 election, the system ultimately ensured that the rightful winner of the presidency would end up in the Oval Office. The former president’s persistent and unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud have been rejected by multiple courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court.

However, the longevity of democracy depends on maintaining the trust of the people. And unless one of the presidential candidates embraces this principle, the essential bargain between the governed and those who govern that lies at the heart of the republic will be in jeopardy.

Despite all the deep cultural and ideological divisions in America, there has always been a sense that elections could provide at least a temporary resolution to the nation’s disputes. This mythical trust in democracy was partially undermined in 2020 simply because Trump refused to concede defeat and then based his subsequent presidential campaign on the false premise that he had won.

Gabriel Sterling, the Republican chief operating officer of Georgia’s secretary of state, became a Democratic hero in 2020 by openly denouncing false claims of fraud by the Trump campaign in his state. He is already warning that Americans need to recommit to fundamental values ​​before next week’s elections.

“We have over 200 years of history of a man failing, shaking hands with a man who won and moving on,” Sterling told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.

One side in perhaps the toughest and most consequential election in modern U.S. history will be faced with this painful choice once this year’s results become clear. Trump has already made it clear that he is unlikely to admit defeat, no matter what happens. And Harris, if she loses, faces the prospect of losing to an opponent she has called a fascist.

But such dilemmas are the essence of democracy.

“We are facing the most secure elections in American history across the country, including Georgia,” Sterling said.

“We must learn to accept the results.”