(CNN)- Donald Trump says if God was counting the votes, he would have won by a landslide.
The Republican nominee suggested this Thursday that divine intervention in next week’s elections will reveal him as the legitimate winner even in Democratic strongholds like California.
On the one hand, Trump’s comments show how his false claims of election fraud veered into the realm of the absurd.
But this is beyond exaggeration. Trump — who changed the reality of millions of Americans by saying he was ousted from power four years ago — poses a chilling threat to the 2024 elections and weaves a legacy of broken trust that will follow his presidency. Can greatly influence the choice of left platform. The allegations of election fraud that Trump made to assuage his humiliation after losing to Joe Biden in 2020 are already at their peak this year.
After delivering the most profound closing argument in modern American history, Trump is increasingly dedicated to poisoning public confidence in the election. This Thursday in New Mexico, he falsely claimed that the state was actually in his favor in 2016 and 2020. “I think we won it twice,” he said.
“If we could bring God down from heaven and make him count the votes, we would win this, we would win California, we would win a lot of states. …You just have to keep the voting honest.
In fact, Trump lost in New Mexico twice by 8 and 11 points, and his claim that he could win Democratic strongholds like California if there was no voter fraud is completely baseless. But they are part of a clear and deliberate strategy being played to create the impression among millions of voters that this Tuesday’s election will be fraudulent. It could lay the groundwork for legal challenges if Trump loses, and also serve to stoke anger among his supporters already troubled by false allegations of fraud in the past. 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 could only be the result of fraud.
The former president’s growing efforts to undermine the credibility of the 2024 election as an apparent Plan B if he loses are being used by GOP officials and “Make America Great Again” activists to position himself and any Harris victory. Coinciding with a growing effort to weaken the courts, local electoral jurisdictions, and even state legislatures.
Recent extensive CNN reporting detailed these maneuvers.
- For example, research published Thursday showed that some of the same activists who tried to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory are taking steps to undermine the results if Trump loses again. Making plans. Trump and Republican National Committee officials quickly began making claims about potential problems with mail-in votes in Pennsylvania.
- House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said it “makes a lot of sense” to allocate North Carolina’s electoral voters before the votes are counted because of the risk of Hurricane Helene making it difficult for some voters to cast a ballot. Will be done. , The congressman later said the comment was taken out of context, but it reignited fears that some GOP state legislatures — acting on exaggerated claims of fraud or other rationale — might ignore the will of the voters. And can give Trump election victory.
- Experts say Republicans, including in the House of Representatives, have made great efforts to highlight the almost negligible problem of noncitizen voting.
- In one case this week, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin made a last-minute effort to remove 1,600 suspected noncitizens from the rolls, despite concerns that the move would disenfranchise some U.S. citizens. Will be deprived. The Supreme Court allowed this with a divided opinion.
- It has become impossible for election officials in key states to combat the flood of disinformation managed by Ax owner and Trump supporter Elon Musk, CNN reported Thursday.
This list of challenges to the fairness of the 2024 election, combined with Trump’s growing and belligerent claims of corruption, are creating an unrealistic new reality, given that the United States is and has long been the world’s largest democracy. It is considered the gold standard by others. Self-governance.
There is nothing unusual about extensive litigation during election season by both sides, who hire armies of lawyers to challenge voting practices, counting methods and even the results of each election cycle. Then-Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. The close outcome of the 2000 election between Bush and Florida led to several weeks of legal battle, at which point the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of President Gore. 43 The U.S. Supreme Court conceded that election, thus President Guaranteed an undisputed transfer of power, a step Trump had refused to take four years earlier.
Refusing to accept election results is not a Republican crime exclusively. For example, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams refused to concede her race against Republican Brian Kemp in 2018, citing allegations of voter suppression, although Democrats agreed to let her opponent be elected. .
But it is new for a major presidential candidate to criticize in advance the fairness and validity of successive elections and to warn that he will accept the results only on the basis of his own arbitrary assessment and often without evidence of fairness.
Trump’s intentions were revealed this Thursday in a Truth Social post, in which he took advantage of events in Pennsylvania to claim that the results in the key swing state were fraudulent. The cases relate to potential irregularities affecting approximately 2,500 voter registration forms in Lancaster County. In York County, elections officials rejected more than 700 “suspicious” voter registration applications and referred them to the district attorney’s office for investigation, CNN’s Danny Freeman reported Thursday.
The investigation will remain pending and fraud may be discovered. But Trump started without waiting to know the facts. “We caught them committing major fraud in Pennsylvania. Now it must be announced and prosecuted! This is a criminal violation of the law. Trump wrote, stop election fraud! “We’ve been on them this whole time! “Who would have thought that our country is so corrupt?”
The events in Pennsylvania show how the whirlpool of conspiracy theories spun by Trump about the US elections is proving itself.
The alleged violations discovered should underscore just how secure the American vote really is. But instead, each new failure becomes the starting point for another false claim.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday that Trump’s claims about fraud in the state of Pennsylvania were “more in line” with those of the former president. “Donald Trump, again, wants to use the same strategies he used to try to create chaos and create division and fear about our system. But again, we will have a free and fair, secure election in Pennsylvania, and the will of the people will be respected and protected.”
Trump’s attacks on the transparency of American elections made clear that the cycle of pre-election efforts to crush public confidence in the results has already become a tradition of presidential elections, such as primary seasons, conventions, and historic moments in which television networks Reveals the name of the final winner.
The former president’s efforts to sow doubt into the system may also have a lasting legacy. Many polls show declining trust in the election system, and a new CNN poll this week showed that Trump’s actions have left voters somewhat apprehensive about his potential conduct next week. Only 30% of registered voters believe Trump will accept the election results and accept defeat, while 73% say Harris will accept election defeat.
However, although Americans may have doubts about their votes counting, that does not stop them from voting. More than 60 million Americans have already voted ahead of this Tuesday’s election. And despite all the uproar caused by Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and his attempts to steal power after the 2020 election, the system ultimately managed to land the real winner of the presidency in the Oval Office. The former president’s persistent and baseless allegations of widespread fraud were rejected by multiple courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court.
However, the longevity of democracy is based on maintaining the trust of the people. And if no candidate in the presidential election accepts that principle, the essential compromise between the governed and the rulers that is at the heart of the republic is in danger.
Despite America’s deep cultural and ideological divisions, there was always a sense that elections could provide at least a temporary solution to national disputes. That mythical faith in democracy was shattered in 2020 in part only because Trump refused to accept defeat and then founded his subsequent presidential campaign on the false premise that he had won.
Gabriel Sterling, the Republican chief operating officer of the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, became a hero of democracy in 2020 with his apparent expose of false allegations of fraud by the Trump campaign in his state. He is already warning that Americans need to recommit to core values ahead of next week’s election.
“We have a history going back over 200 years where the guy who came up short shakes the hand of the guy who won and moves on,” Sterling told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.
The party will face a painful election, perhaps one of the most tense and unpredictable in modern American history, when this year’s outcome becomes clear. Trump has already indicated that no matter what, he will not accept defeat. And if Harris loses, she will face the prospect of conceding defeat to an opponent she has called a fascist.
But such dilemmas represent the essence of democracy.
“We are going to have the most secure election in American history across the country, including Georgia,” Sterling said.
“We have to learn to accept the consequences.”