Anything and everything. If the Republicans loses their House majority in the election (assuming they haven’t lost it before then by sheer attrition), they could question the legitimacy of newly elected Dems and refuse to seat them. Coordinated assassinations across multiple states could occur. Any number of unpleasant things that could make J6 look like a Sunday school picnic.
We’ve already seen some alt-right groups occupying some State Houses, with little or no push-back. So I’d expect a bit of that. Any swing state that goes for Biden might be occupied by people intent on disrupting the state government from certifying the state results, and naming a slate of electors.
This, exactly. They’re going to be laser-focused on sowing chaos and disruption in the swing states. They won’t waste their time anywhere else.
Though I don’t expect my state of Oregon to be much in play as we are so reliably blue, I did apply to be an elections worker this year. We vote by mail here, but we also have a lot of MAGAt kooks.
Right, I’m in Michigan and I remember the occupation of the Capitol building in Lansing back in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. I think it’s going to be a lot of that.
I was a Michigan Biden voter in 2020 and I will do everything in my power to make sure that happens again.
Trump’s own veep was in the rifle sights of the insurrectionists on January 6, 2021. Do you think those idiots will hold back when Biden’s veep carries out her constitutional duty?
invade polling places, destroy votes of balck voters. Hold up counting forever. Lots of time to raise hell after election.
The orange turd is promising a “bloodbath” if he loses again. And he has said if he wins, this could be the last election we ever have.
In fairness to Trump, the context of that “bloodbath” comment wasn’t about physical violence, but rather, about the U.S. automobile industry in decline.
(Not that he hasn’t made plenty of other threats or references to violence - just not this one.)
Which gives him plausible deniability while his diehards take it literally.
Correct. The blood bath comment came in the midst of comments about the auto industry. That doesn’t mean that’s what it was about.
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: Trump is like the Godfather. He never actually says what he wants to happen, but he implies it, and hopes that somebody will pick up the implication and act upon it. “Lotta people seem to like Sammy’s Candy Store. Be a shame if anything happened to it.” And the protection racket swings into motion.
I take his “bloodbath” statement in the same way. No matter how many times he couches it in terms of the auto industry, it’s little different from his “Be there, will be wild” Tweet prior to January 6, and “Fight like hell” at the Ellipse rally on January 6. Oh sure, he’s not encouraging his supporters to attack the Capitol and disrupt a Congressional proceeding, but that’s implied, and his supporters pick up on it and act on it.
So it will be a bloodbath if he loses. Likely not localized or with any kind of centralized organization, but I can see MAGAts in various places taking the law into their own hands (cf. Kyle Rittenhouse). They’ll cite “freedom, liberty, patriotism,” and other MAGA talking points, and they’ll back it up with their guns.
In short, it ain’t gonna be pretty. Y’know, “bloodbath,” like Trump implied.
Here is a serious discussion of the prospects:
Many countries experience some level of election violence. All of us who read inside pages of a daily newspaper have seen it. Risks in the U.S. may have gone from low to merely average.
Risk of election violence that changes the results — low.
I do not know any white Trump supporters crazy enough to get involved in election violence, so maybe this is irrelevant. But most Trump supporters near where I live are fearful of going into Philadelphia. I think this limits the risk of Trumpers going into Black neighborhoods and stopping people from voting. Also, Philadelphia police will be on the alert to stop it should I be wrong.
This is assuming the polling places are actually in black neighborhoods. Let’s not forget the stories from 2020 about people having to drive for hours to reach the nearest polling place.
Expect more of this.
Biden/Harris was not going to win Texas anyway, and, for reasons given in my link at the end of this post, Ted Cruz has little chance of losing.
Talking about Pennsylvania, which I know more about, Democrats mostly use the no-excuse-needed absentee mail ballots that Republicans have been taught to shun. So if you make it hard to vote on election day, you will disproportionately hurt the GOP.
Also, old stereotypes of which neighborhood favors which party are crumbling.
No, I don’t see it being a nightmare for a couple of reasons.
Democrats occupy the office of Governor in swing states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan. Nevada has an R governor but he has stated he believes Biden won in 2020 and rejects the election deniers.
Democrats also occupy the position of Secretary of State in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada. Add Georgia to this list since even though the office is held by a Republican he demonstrated in 2020 he won’t play the election denier game.
I am fairly certain one or both of these offices control final certification of election results for Presidential elections. If I am correct I feel confident any of the fake elector nonsense from 2020 will not get anywhere. And keep in mind VP Harris will be in charge of things when the electoral count takes place on January 6, 2025.
To repeat what has been said above more emphatically: The Supremes do not want a dictator. If Trump were to win, the Supremes will need to kiss the ring. If not, they will be figuratively knee-capped and lose their power. There’s no upside to the conservative wing of the Supreme Court to have Trump as the Emperor.
And this time around will lack the element of surprise (or stupidity or obstruction) that resulted in Jan 6 taking place. And we also live in a country, at least for the moment, where sharpshooters on the roof the capital were not ordered to open fire on the Jan 6 crowd.
My interpretation is that he meant both. The way he says it, it sounds to me like he interrupts his thought about a bloodbath in the auto industry to mention that there will also be one nationwide if he isn’t elected.
The silver lining to this is that while Trump loves violent fantasies, he hasn’t really had much luck with stochastic terrorism as of yet. And I include Jan 6th in that. It would have been a lot different if the insurrectionists had been armed but Trump ordered the Secret Service to take the metal detectors away and they just ignored him. If he can’t rally people to vote for him he sure won’t be able to rally anyone to kill for him.
I think it will be concerted attacks on ballot counting facilities a few days after Election Day in states where it’s still too close to call. Remember Republicans pounding on the doors of the Broward County elections office in 2000? Like that, except with guns and tactical armor. The lives of election workers and the physical ballots will be in real jeopardy in places that don’t have anywhere near the level of security the Capitol had in 2021.
The violence and destruction of ballots will be the rationale for GOP controlled statehouses sending their own slate of electors.
Yes, the one thing we won’t see is a full-scale reenactment of what happened last time. If Biden wins, he’ll make sure that there’s proper security all over DC this time, and even the MAGAts will know that. Even if they were to come in guns a-blazing, they know they wouldn’t last five minutes against even average National Guard troops.
This is why I expect a more spread-out reaction. It will fail anywhere the Governor of the State takes the threat seriously, but I expect at least a few won’t take it seriously, for various reasons, so there will be a few (short-term, at least) successes.
It is glaringly obvious that Trump must win the Presidential election. His life, legacy, fortune, everything hangs on him becoming President again. He would not be this far along unless he felt he had an ace- in-the-hole, a take-it-to-the-bank plan to make sure that happens. He most certainly is not leaving this up to the fickle nature of the American Voter.
My guess is the plan is
- Get a majority of the House of Representatives (by state) by the short ones
- Cause enough chaos while the votes are being counted to delay certification, at least in key states
- Through court filings, cause states to miss “safe harbor” dates in enough states to allow state houses to chose electors
- If this isn’t enough, create more chaos in the system to prevent a majority of electoral votes, causing the House to chose the President
Number one is already accomplished.
Number two they almost accomplished last time just by calling audibles post election. With 4 years of planning, they probably have a solid plan.
Number three and for takes a bit more planning. Getting enough lawyers to join the conspiracy could be tough. He’s burned through a lot of them already. My guess is there are plenty of others willing to take up the Trump flag and march on.
Number four is a gimmie. If it goes to the House, there is no way Trump doesn’t win. So, all he has to do to win is make sure it goes to the House, which will happen if he can prevent the Electoral College from doing it’s job. If he can get control of enough State Legislatures, he can do that.
The big question is, how do we stop it?