Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024 in New York City. , Photo Credit: AFP via Getty Images
Much of the outside world’s attention during the 2024 US election has been on what a Donald Trump victory might look like, but many Americans are worried about the opposite outcome – including some of his most vocal rivals.
The Republican former president, who is neck-and-neck with Democrat Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, has never acknowledged the legitimacy of his election defeat — from the 2016 Iowa primary to his presidential bid in 2020.
His denials last time out deeply polarized the country, and his continued efforts to sow distrust in American democracy have sparked fears of a repeat of the violence seen during the storming of the US Capitol in 2021.
“Should he lose this year, I have no doubt that he will claim fraud, make no effort to overturn the results and attend Ms. Harris’s inauguration,” said Donald Neiman, a political analyst at Binghamton University in New York state. Will refuse.” ,
“Not only is he a sore loser, but he is someone who will never admit that he is a loser.”
Former President Trump’s rap sheet shows that trying to cheat in elections is not his cup of tea.
He has 34 felony convictions for a scandal involving hush payments to a porn star he feared was going to ruin his 2016 campaign with a salacious story about a sexual encounter.
And he has been impeached twice and impeached twice for alleged efforts to steal or otherwise commit fraud in the 2020 election, which he has still not pleaded guilty to.
Rejected by the American people four years ago, Mr Trump and his allies flooded the region with false claims of irregularities and fraud.
deadly riot
Mr. Trump’s critics worry about a repeat of the violence that has resulted from those lies — a deadly riot by an angry mob summoned to Washington by Mr. Trump, a march on the Capitol fueled by his claims of voter fraud.
Especially when he’s at it again.
“If I lose, I’ll tell you what, it’s possible because they cheat. That’s the only way we’re going to lose — because they cheat,” the 78-year-old told a rally in Michigan last month.
Mr. Trump is raising the same baseless concerns over the legality of vote counts, overseas voting, the reliability of mail-in ballots and more.
The former president and his allies set the stage for the 2021 riot through legal means — more than 60 lawsuits largely complaining about how state and local officials rewrote voting rules in the wake of a raging pandemic. Had changed.
But they lost every important case, with judges ruling that objections to the election organization should have been filed long before the first votes were cast.
Republicans have jumped into the fray this time, filing more than 100 lawsuits before early voting began regarding every aspect of the election, from how Americans can register and vote to who can vote.
Many of the lawsuits seek to limit voting access and most will be unresolved by Election Day, but experts say it stokes distrust in the vote count, which Mr. Trump and other conspiracy theorists have stoked for years. Has given.
‘Sporadic violence’
“Legal clashes could last for weeks, and depending on their intensity, could lead to protests or even sporadic violence in some areas,” said political analyst Adrienne Uthey, founder of Utah-based PR firm Cronus Communications.
A Scripps News/Ipsos poll on Thursday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans expect post-election violence and a majority support using the military to quell unrest once voting begins on Nov. 5 .
More than a quarter believe civil war could break out, according to a new poll by YouGov, with 12 per cent saying they knew someone who might take up arms if they felt Mr Trump had been betrayed. Is.
The intelligence community had raised concerns about the potential for bloodshed in a report on election threats from foreign actors that was declassified, redacted and released last week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
It says, “Violent protests, violence, or physical threats directed or amplified from abroad … could challenge the ability of state and local officials to conduct certification and elements of the Electoral College process.”
Security measures have been stepped up in Washington in anticipation of possible unrest, though analysts contacted AFP A repeat of the 2021 uprising in the capital was unlikely, with hundreds of prosecutions serving as a powerful deterrent.
But he warned about the potential for violence in battleground states during and after the election.
“My biggest fear is violence in Madison, Wisconsin; Lansing, Michigan; Or the one in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by armed Mr. Trump supporters designed to prevent voters from casting their ballots,” Mr. Neiman said.
published – October 28, 2024 11:28 am IST