The 2024 presidential election is less than a month away and MAGA Republicans, led by convicted felon Donald Trump, are pushing harder than ever to amplify conspiracy theories about our election processes and security. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senator JD Vance, and officials in the states are using their positions to do Trump‘s bidding and act as an arm of his struggling campaign. They are focused on sowing doubts in our elections to attempt another coup if they lose the election again in November. MAGA Republicans continue to represent one of the greatest threats to our democracy.
NBC News: How Trump Allies Stoked Election Chaos In Detroit In 2020 — And What They’re Planning In 2024.
- “What happened in Detroit opens a unique window into how vigilante volunteers, misinformation and distrust in the election system can damage democracy — and it offers a road map for what could happen this year. Trump is again telling his followers that he can lose only if there’s massive fraud, directing his ire at majority-nonwhite cities in critical swing states. ‘I’m here only because they cheat, and they cheat in this state, especially in Philadelphia,’ Trump said at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, just last month. ‘Philadelphia’s out of control. Detroit is out of control. Atlanta is out of control.’”
- “And NBC News has obtained a video of a training session in Michigan for 2024 poll watchers showing the RNC is giving volunteers who echo Trump’s claims of widespread fraud the tools to challenge votes and few guardrails on what makes a challenge legitimate.”
- “The RNC is using right-wing celebrities to recruit volunteers, like Jack Posobiec, well-known for spreading the false ‘pizzagate’ conspiracy theory, and Arizona Senate nominee Kari Lake, a prominent election denier. ‘We have to keep our eyeballs on the whole system, and we know why,’ Lake said at the August training session.”
Washington Post: How Trump May Try To Challenge The Election Results If He Loses Again
- “In 2020, Trump refused to acknowledge his loss, spread false claims about widespread fraudulent voting, sought to reverse the results in swing states and tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to help him stay in power as rioters raided the U.S. Capitol. Many of those strategies can’t be used again because Trump no longer occupies the White House, and state and federal officials have since tightened election laws and policies to make it harder to undermine the will of voters. But vulnerabilities persist.”
- “Trump has not committed to accepting the outcome of the upcoming election, no matter who wins, and he has already claimed without evidence that Democrats will cheat. He has also threatened to jail election officials and others ‘involved in unscrupulous behavior’ related to voting.”
- “Trump has a long history of blaming his electoral shortcomings on nonexistent voter fraud. In 2020, Trump falsely claimed victory on election night, even though full results weren’t known for days. He could do the same this year — and now misinformation and disinformation can spread even faster because of sophisticated artificial intelligence-generated content and a hands-off approach from social media platforms.”
Rolling Stone: Mike Johnson Baselessly Claims There Will Be ‘Election Cheating’ and ‘Non-Citizens’ Voting.
- “Republican House speaker Mike Johnson claimed — without evidence — that there will be ‘cheating’ in the 2024 election, once again raising unfounded doubts about electoral integrity. In 2020, Johnson voted against the certification of President Joe Biden’s win. ‘I think there is going to be some cheating in this election,’ Johnson said in an interview Sunday on Face the Nation. ‘I think non-citizens are going to vote.’”
- “Johnson responded with more conspiracy theories, namely that Democrats ‘opened the border wide’ to get more voters. ‘A lot of people theorize that that was so that they could have non-citizens to vote,’ Johnson said, offering zero proof other than conjecture. ‘I wish it weren’t true, but that’s the concern that people have.’”
CNN: Swing-State Election Officials Move Aggressively To Guard Against A Repeat Of 2020’s Disruptions.
- “In the years since former President Donald Trump and his allies made baseless claims that widespread fraud led to his 2020 defeat, allegations of wild election misdeeds continue to swirl in key battleground states. So, too, have confrontations over voting rules and the once low-profile task of formally signing off on vote tallies – an act mandated by state laws and what will be a crucial step in certifying the results of next month’s presidential election and down-ballot contests.”
- “But as Election Day draws near, state officials say they have moved aggressively to guard against any disruptions in what polls show could be another nail-biter election – the battle for the White House between Trump and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris. Those measures include schooling judges on the tight deadlines that election officials face under state and federal laws and, in the most extreme examples, pursuing criminal charges against those who resist carrying out their duties.”
The New Republic: JD Vance and Mike Johnson Are Gaslighting People About 2020 Now.
- “Republican leaders want you to ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears as they rewrite their narrative about the 2020 presidential election. In the waning days leading into Election Day 2024, some of Trump’s closest allies are refusing to yield to the truth: that Trump lost the last election—a bad omen ahead of November.”
- “On Sunday, ABC News’s Martha Raddatz pressed Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on why he wouldn’t admit that Trump didn’t win during the last election cycle.”
- “But Trump’s right-hand man isn’t the only MAGA ally to aggressively skirt a confession about the results of the 2020 election. Speaking with NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson couldn’t help but qualify his answer as to whether he would certify the results of the upcoming election, regardless of who wins.”