Opinion: Trump just told us our democracy is at risk — from him
This is not a drill. This is not a game.
Because the President of the United States just told us that he would not commit to peacefully turning over the government to a new administration if he loses the election.
Forty-one days before the election, Donald Trump failed to affirm on Wednesday the most basic civic question any president could get. “Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferal of power after the election?”
This is a threat. This is a warning. And anyone who ever called themselves a patriot or a defender of the Constitution ought to condemn it immediately. But instead I expect that we will hear Republicans try to rationalize it with any of the reflexive lines they lately bleat when asked to defend the indefensible when it comes from Trump. They’ll say “that’s just how he talks” or “he’s just trying to get a rise out of the press,” or they’ll call it fake news and pivot to whataboutism and somehow blame the Democrats.
In August, at the Republican National Convention, Trump said, “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.” He was telling his supporters very clearly the only way he can lose is if the election is stolen. That’s setting up a pretext for chaos.
“There are many legitimate votes that are not counted immediately every election year,” Gellman wrote. “For reasons that are not totally understood by election observers, these votes tend to be heavily Democratic, leading results to tilt toward Democrats as more of them are counted, in what has become known as the ‘blue shift.’ In most cases, the blue shift is relatively inconsequential, changing final vote counts but not results. But in others, as in 2018, it can materially change the outcome.”
In his new piece, Gellman interviews a Trump campaign legal adviser — who requested anonymity — who laid it all out: “There will be a count on Election Night, that count will shift over time, and the results when the final count is given will be challenged as being inaccurate, fraudulent — pick your word.”
That is the scenario that is being prepared by President Trump. We have never faced anything like it in the United States. Barring an election night blowout — which no one expects — we are in for days if not weeks of counting votes, given the pandemic’s drive toward mail-in ballots. And that creates a context for maximum chaos and civil discord if the president is willing to do literally anything to stay in power. And Trump just told us — again — that he is.
At this point, it would be naïve to think that Trump would accept the legitimacy of the election if he loses. “Trump’s behavior and declared intent leave no room to suppose that he will accept the public’s verdict if the vote is going against him,” Gellman writes. “We know this man. We cannot afford to pretend.” Or, as Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”