Say more please. Aren’t there GOP politicians, election boards etc prepared to assist him in throwing the election? I get that he doesn’t have the advantage of incumbency this time, but I doubt they’re completely powerless (??)
I think the flip side of this coin is there needs to be more emphasis on educating the public on the safeguards already in place. The MAGA goal isn’t to prove cheating, but simply cast doubt.
right? he is not in office anymore. he can bitch and moan all he wants. the question is how many senators and members of congress want to be complicit in another coup attempt ? He still has plenty of flunkies unfortunately
Thank you! And the corollary: stop asking whether he or Vance or anyone else will “accept” the results, and treating the answer as news. Its a dumb question!
i mean. it's not unreasonable to worry about. Extremist experts haver been sounding the alarm about this for awhile now. The Judiciary could very well hand him the election.
I don't care if he has opinions about it, but TBH I do care that "rejects the results" in this context is an anodyne way of saying "is going to do a coup that could be violent" or "will force an article II section 1 procedure to be installed by gerrymandered red state delegations"
This exactly. Incumbent POTUS Donald Trump rejecting the results of the 2020 election was infinitely more dangerous than former president Trump potentially rejecting the results of the 2024 election. He no longer controls the government.
The risk of Trump calling for a violent mob and getting one is a lot different than the risk of President Trump invoking martial law and calling for the military.
Considering that he claimed that he won in 2020, won the popular vote in 2016, should have won two Emmys, should have won the Nobel Peace prize, and said he won the nonexistent Wisconsin Man of the Year award, isn’t it time they started to treat claims that he won like a “dog bites man” story?
Assuming he loses Fani Willis should immediately revoke his bond in Georgia for the numerous violations he’s committed (mostly talking with other defendants) in the interim. Let his supporters storm Fulton County Jail.
Everything will be different what with him not being in charge, but I assume his responses will depend on how close everything is and what sorts of spanners his saboteurs think they can throw in the works.
MAGA losers aren't prepared for an opposition that is prepared with the full backing of the levers of power. They're entirely dependent on inside support, and that didn't even pan out due to the fundamentally incompetent nature of their mythological strongman
they all gambled that they would face no significant resistance because they assumed anyone with authority would be either a collaborator (cops) or cowards (elected Democrats and staff)
this is why I think absolutely none of them had any plan B
I think they actually gambled they would face resistance from counter-protestors and then with the ensuing violence they could declare Martial Law to stop "the anteefa threat to our election"
Thankfully antifash aren't dumb, knew the fash's plan, and stayed home that day.
Sometimes teenage anarchists are very dumb, and resistant to being talked out of stupidity, so it would be interesting to know why not on January 6, specifically.
It's part of the same information bubble, they actively lie to themselves that they actually won the majority and that most people agree with them. It's how they maintain the cognitive dissonance about their self-image and the real-world unpopularity of their views. High on their own supply.
They weren't too far off. We won't talk about it, but IMO a lot of the cops that day were active or passive (via nonresponse) collaborators. But just enough weren't.
And they *completely* didn't think about things like House staffers removing the elec cert boxes to a safer location.
I’m betting he’s not going to accept the results, unless of course he wins. Fingers crossed he doesn’t. And the GOP has the Supreme Court in their pocket. I’m not just afraid for our country, I’m terrified.
He doesn't hold the Presidency or command over the National Guard. He can beak to the media and maybe get some model units of irregulars out. That's about it.
It's also not "what if." There is no question here. There's a zero percent chance that he will accept the results. We know this for a dead ass certainty. It's just dumb.
Also like nothing more predictable than him rejecting the results? He rejected the results last time, and rejected the results of the popular vote of the election he won. We have a lot of evidence for “this is how he responds to election results” now
We already had this discussion in 2020. The only question is whether he will (successfully) foment violence. But refusing to acknowledge his loss means absolutely nothing.
...because last time a number of people were willing to lie, cheat, kill, and die to make him president. This time they've had a lot more time to plan.
I wanna see procedures like "National Guard will be deployed to trump strongholds and rallies with orders to treat them like they're indigenous activists at a pipeline" or "wildfire waterbomber planes will commence their runs against Trump when he takes to the stage to activate his militia"
You know, I really wish you were right. I wish we could all wave goodbye and send him off to deal with his mountain of legal woes. The truth is that he has been building the ability to unleash a very large number of faithful MAGA who could do real damage, not just in DC, but across the nation.
That would be great, except my experience living in MAGA-land in NW Montana is that they believe he's going to pardon them once he's put back into office "where he rightfully belongs." Wish I were making this up.
But they weren't located and charged until weeks or months, sometimes years, later. He didn't know who they were before he left. I'm not trying to argue. Just giving people a flavor of what I'm reading on local FB threads and what I hear in town.
Would the secret service even do that? The way they wiped devices after 1/6/21, it seems to me there's a significant cohort loyal to Trump — not the office and Construction.
I guess? But wasn't that the problem before? Instead of obeying standing orders, they wiped their phones. Has anyone been let go? Didn't Anthony Ornato go back to the USSS after the election to train new agents?
Gee IDK, what usually happens in developed nations when somebody other than Trump rejects the election results and attempts a coup? Maybe we can try that.
I hope Biden/harris have a plan for this. And I hope that plan involves nailing Clarence Thomas’ dick to a wooden plank and playing it like a banjo string.
Or just recognize that he will in fact reject the results unless he wins. It's not a question at this point, there's no possibility that he'll accept defeat regardless of how decisive it is. Look, the man has repeatedly claimed he won California in 2020, reality is not a thing he feels bound by.
The article is written with the same kind of tone and content that would be in an article about “What could happen if Trump proposes a small change to gas taxes”
Well, we should probably care about potential worst-case scenarios, like right-wingers forming impromptu death squads and going door-to-door in their neighborhoods, executing families who fail to pass an ideological sniff-test.
You know, things that have happened in other countries.
It’s absurd to think that Trump would do anything BUT reject the results if he loses. We might as well count on that, or more to the point, discount it and move on.
Who's VP now, again? GOP needs to win the House for that route to remotely work, and a crowd will not intervene this time regardless. SCOTUS could conceivably flip one state result but not three +
Not if Harris has the popular vote too. Then, all hell really would break loose. I don’t see that happening. If you are refering to Bush v Gore, he conceded. I don’t see Harris doing that.
Yes, but if the J6 yahoos are any indication of how organized they are, I think it’s going to be fine. If Harris wins she will have all resources to deal with that mess. This isn’t Afghanistan.
I love the idea of him trying to organize a slate of fraudulent electors or telling electeds to find more votes and getting indicted before Harris is inaugurated.
I hear you. But I also think it does matter: the danger of terrorism after a potential Harris victory is very high (or so friends who study white nationalism tell me). It is obviously higher if Trump talks up a "coup." Higher still if GOP followers at the state level attempt to stifle process.
I mean I get the “stop giving maga oxygen” take, but there’s some crazy shit in this piece.“In the unlikely result that enough electoral votes are tossed so that neither candidate reaches the necessary majority, the newly elected U.S. House of Representatives would choose the next president.” 😵💫
If Trump "rejects" the results, it's time to remind him what his followers say people can do with their feelings,
and offer him a room in The Big House instead.
He's not Officially President this time, so hopefully the Supreme Court won't help him use that excuse again.
Should probably just say "What if Trump loses?" If he wins, he accepts the results; if he loses, then he's going to cover the country in bullshit and whining and hopefully not blood.
My only comfort right now that was lacking in 2020 is that Biden/Democrats are in office. No getting Charles Flynn to delay security assistance, no sending half of the Capitol Police home.
Fresh J6'ers showing up to meet a secured Capitol will be Dark Brandon's swan song...
would love to see a story about why stealing elections and overturning the will of the voters is bad and wrong. like, I don't want to have my vote nullified by some piece of shit wannabe authoritarians doing a coup! I can't be the only one who feels that way. where is our story?
BIG diffs this time. Trump will be a private citizen, not sitting president, so, powerless. His crazy lawyer squad is gone. He's got criminal trials itching to restart. He's being SENTENCED 11/26, hopefully to prison. If Donny protests his loss, we say, "STFU, Loser!" and move on.
“The Nate Silvers of the world, who have unanimously labeled the upcoming election a toss-up, will be correct no matter who wins.” To this I would say what happened to the “red wave”. Polls are notoriously flawed. We have a known experience to that. I will take Lichtman any day.
I keep thinking about the Brooks Brothers riot in 2020. Get enough people to do that around the states - maybe steal ballots and voting machines - to make an argument the votes can't be certified.
I mean yeah. Like so what? On the other hand, I have concerns because he's got this whole cult thing going on. I tried to get back in uniform and got rejected hard. So like. I'm worried.
Why are they asking the question? Of COURSE he will reject the results and say "rigged" if he loses. He did that 4 years ago, it's expected he'll do it again
“Former Green Party nominee Jill Stein, holed-up in her fortified compound, pledged violent resistance to law enforcement unless electors installed her as president in a video message Wednesday. Federal officials are believed to be planning a raid before the deadline to execute another hostage…”
I expect him to lead another paramilitary attack as votes are being counted, which could have an impact although I admit he’s unlikely to find success.
Comments
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/opinion/trump-election-crisis.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Sk4.U6Nj.5urtVX9N5whP&smid=em-share
Hell, he rejected the results in 2016, when he nominally won. (Remember, he claimed he'd also won the popular vote.)
Many people are saying it at levels never seen before.
The problem is all the chaos he'll generate, using the GOP and his MAGAt followers, which will further divide the country.
I mean, I'm tempted to buy a gun, even though I know it's a terrible idea.
this is why I think absolutely none of them had any plan B
Thankfully antifash aren't dumb, knew the fash's plan, and stayed home that day.
And they *completely* didn't think about things like House staffers removing the elec cert boxes to a safer location.
2020 was much worse.
https://bsky.app/profile/natanael.bsky.social/post/3l6nh5clxhd2g
So we should be prepared accordingly to shut that down before it starts.
“What if John McClane were to get trapped in Dulles airport?”
Probably the same thing that happened when he got trapped in nakatomi tower…
Gee IDK, what usually happens in developed nations when somebody other than Trump rejects the election results and attempts a coup? Maybe we can try that.
You know, things that have happened in other countries.
and offer him a room in The Big House instead.
He's not Officially President this time, so hopefully the Supreme Court won't help him use that excuse again.
Actually, have his parole officer book him.
Fresh J6'ers showing up to meet a secured Capitol will be Dark Brandon's swan song...
There will be denial, lies, and violence. Mark my words. And be ready.
People would say "sucks to be you." And if she incited violence, she'd go to jail.
Might be a useful model.