NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has spent months laying the groundwork to problem the outcomes of the 2024 election if he loses — simply as he did 4 years in the past.
At rally after rally, he urges his supporters to ship a victory “too huge to rig,” telling them the one means he can lose is that if Democrats cheat. He has refused to say, repeatedly, whether or not he’ll settle for the outcomes whatever the consequence. And he is claimed dishonest is already underway, citing debunked claims or outrageous theories with no foundation in actuality.
“The one factor that may cease us is the dishonest. It’s the one factor that may cease us,” he mentioned at an occasion in Arizona late Thursday night time.
In 2020, Trump prematurely declared victory from the White Home. He launched a authorized and political effort to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden that culminated within the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.
Democrats worry he could do the identical factor this 12 months earlier than the race is known as. He would not reply a query Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, about these Democratic considerations, as an alternative pivoting to attacking Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has made election lies central to his 2024 marketing campaign, issuing fevered warnings about fraud whereas promising to take retribution towards folks he sees as standing in his means.
This 12 months, he’s backed by a complicated “election integrity” operation constructed by his marketing campaign and the Republican Nationwide Committee that has filed greater than 130 lawsuits already and signed up greater than 230,000 volunteers being educated to deploy as ballot watchers and ballot staff throughout the nation on Election Day.
This is a take a look at Trump’s technique to sow doubt on this 12 months’s election and the info behind every declare.
THE CLAIM: Trump has alleged, with out proof, that Democrats have allowed thousands and thousands of migrants to enter the nation illegally in order that they are often registered to vote. In an interview with Newsmax in September, Trump alleged such efforts have been already underway.
“They’re working time beyond regulation making an attempt to signal folks, illegally, to vote within the election,” he claimed. “They’re working time beyond regulation to signal folks and register folks — lots of the identical folks that you simply simply see come throughout the border. Which might be their authentic thought, as a result of why else would they wish to destroy our nation?”
THE FACTS: It takes years for newcomers to develop into residents and solely residents can legally forged ballots in federal elections. Remoted instances of noncitizens being caught making an attempt to vote — like a College of Michigan scholar from China arrested for allegedly casting an unlawful poll — don’t replicate a bigger conspiracy.
Analysis has proven noncitizens illegally registering and casting ballots is extraordinarily uncommon and often executed by mistake.
THE CLAIM: Trump has pointed to Democratic efforts to safe the votes of People dwelling overseas as one other alternative for fraud. He is alleged that they’re “on the point of CHEAT!” and ”wish to “dilute the TRUE vote of our lovely navy and their households.”
THE FACTS: The previous president has himself campaigned for the votes of People abroad, promising to finish so-called “double taxation” for individuals who typically pay taxes within the nation the place they reside in addition to to the U.S. authorities.
THE CLAIM: Trump has begun to counsel that Harris may need entry to some type of secret inside details about the end result of a race that has but to be determined.
For the reason that vp took a break day from the path to take a seat for interviews with Telemundo and NBC, he has repeatedly instructed, “Possibly she is aware of one thing we do not know.”
In Michigan final weekend, he instructed there is no such thing as a means Harris can be campaigning with Beyoncé — one of many greatest stars on the earth — if the race have been actually as shut as polls counsel.
“Primary, they cheat like hell. So possibly they know one thing that we don’t, proper?” he mentioned. “They may know one thing that we don’t, I don’t know. Why the hell would she be celebrating if you’re down? Possibly — by no means considered that — possibly she is aware of one thing we don’t. However we’re not going to let it occur.”
THE FACTS: There isn’t a proof to assist a Democratic conspiracy. Certainly, Trump fanned fears of his personal inside planning at a rally at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard when he checked out Home Speaker Mike Johnson and talked a couple of “little secret” they’d.
Johnson, earlier than turning into speaker, took the lead in drafting a extensively panned temporary in search of to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss and echoed a few of the wilder conspiracy theories to elucidate away his loss.
Requested about Trump’s reference to a “little secret,” Johnson issued a press release that included the next: “By definition, a secret is to not be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one.” (He later instructed an viewers that it associated to “one among our techniques on get-out-the-vote,” in response to The Hill. Trump’s marketing campaign issued a press release noting he had “executed numerous tele-rallies” to assist bolster Republican congressional candidates.)
THE CLAIM: Trump in current days has turned his ire on Pennsylvania, a state that each campaigns view as crucial, and the place he is claimed dishonest is already underway.
Earlier this week, he claimed York County, Pennsylvania, had “acquired THOUSANDS of doubtless FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Kinds and Mail-In Poll Functions from a 3rd occasion group.” He has additionally pointed to Lancaster County, which he claimed had been “caught with 2600 Pretend Ballots and Kinds, all written by the identical particular person. Actually unhealthy ‘stuff.’”
Throughout a marketing campaign occasion in Allentown on Tuesday, the previous president mentioned: “They’ve already began dishonest in Lancaster. They’ve cheated. We caught ’em with 2,600 votes. No, we caught them chilly. 2,600 votes. Consider this, consider this. And each vote was written by the identical particular person.”
THE FACTS: In Lancaster, County District Legal professional Heather Adams, an elected Republican, has mentioned election staff raised considerations about two units of voter registration functions due to what she described as quite a few similarities. Officers are actually analyzing a complete of about 2,500 types.
To be clear, Lancaster is trying into voter registration functions, not “votes.” Lancaster officers mentioned some types contained false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses or different problematic particulars, however didn’t say they have been all written by the identical particular person.
York County Chief Clerk Greg Monskie confirmed this week that his county was reviewing suspect types. County Commissioner Julie Wheeler issued a press release saying voter registration types and mail-in poll functions have been amongst a “massive supply containing hundreds of election-related supplies” that the county elections workplace acquired from a third-party group.
Officers within the state say the invention and investigation into the functions — not votes — is proof the system is working because it ought to.
THE CLAIM: Trump has threatened extreme penalties for these engaged in what he deems “unscrupulous conduct.”
In a single social media put up that falsely cites “the rampant Dishonest and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats within the 2020 Presidential Election,” he has warned that, “WHEN I WIN, these those who CHEATED will probably be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Legislation, which is able to embrace long run jail sentences.”
The posts go on to threaten “These concerned in unscrupulous conduct,” together with election officers, attorneys, and donors, whom he says “will probably be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at ranges, sadly, by no means seen earlier than in our Nation.”
THE FACTS: Judges, election officers and even Trump’s personal legal professional basic, William Barr, have all affirmed that there was no widespread dishonest within the 2020 election.
If he’s elected once more, Trump has vowed to go after rivals he has deemed “enemies from inside,” together with saying he would appoint a particular prosecutor to focus on Biden. That’s greater than a theoretical risk provided that when he was president, Trump repeatedly pressed for investigations into perceived political adversaries.
Whereas the Justice Division does have checks in place meant to chase away political affect, Trump may appoint leaders who would facilitate instances being opened at his behest.
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Related Press writers Christine Fernando in Chicago, Adriana Gomez Licon in Dearborn, Michigan, and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
