President Trump’s darkly portentous campaign message came into stark focus this as he launched his most intensive campaign swing since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, warning of “fascist” Democrats with a “Trojan horse” candidate.
The dire warnings — reliant on false information and racist tropes — foreshadowed a bitter fall campaign as Trump seeks to reverse a slide in the polls.
And they presaged a drawn out post-election battle as Trump preempted a potential loss with warnings of fraud.
“The only way we’re going to lose this election is if this election is rigged,” he said during a stop in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the second of several battleground events he is using this week to counterprogram the Democrats’ all-digital convention.
Over the past week, Trump’s attempts at shoring up his political standing have taken on a frantic and often conspiratorial energy, including attempts to limit mail-in voting by refusing new funding for the post office, racist and sexist attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden’s new running mate and persistent unfounded warnings that November’s vote will be rigged.
He appeared to inject a new scheme meant to deprive him of a second term on Monday: a “deep state” he is concerned might announce a coronavirus vaccine on November 4 — the day after the election.
“I don’t need that,” he said during his late-afternoon speech in Wisconsin.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany today would not say whether Trump would accept the results of the November election if he is not declared the winner.
McEnany was asked twice about Trump’s comments in which he claimed that the only way he would lose in November is if the election is “rigged.”
She did not answer directly either time.
“The president believes he’s done a great job for the American people, and that will show in November,” she told one reporter, adding that Trump “believes that voter fraud is real,” particularly with mail ballots. Experts have said there is scant evidence of meaningful fraud associated with mail voting.
“He wants a fair election, and he wants confidence in the results of the election,” McEnany added.
“Is the president saying if he doesn’t win this election that he will not accept the results unless he wins?” another reporter asked.
“The president has always said he’ll see what happens and make a determination in the aftermath. It’s the same thing he said last election,” McEnany said.
Trump has in recent week increasingly called into question the possible result of November’s election, including with relentless attacks on mail-in voting amid a pandemic that will likely force millions of Americans to vote by mail.
He told Chris Wallace in a “Fox News Sunday” interview in late July that he would wait to see the results of the vote before deciding whether to accept them.
He has taken to pushing the false claim that the result could take months or even years to determine if mail ballots are widely used, and on Monday, Trump told supporters that “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
The likely surge in mail-in ballots that the pandemic will encourage suggests that tallying the election results won’t be completed on November 3 but will take days, possibly weeks, to complete accurately.
Trump will almost certainly use this delay as an opportunity to cast doubt on the whole election.
He may even try to urge Republican-controlled legislatures in states that tend to vote blue but supported him in 2016 to deem Election Day “failed” given the uncounted votes, as well as pressure those legislatures to then exploit a federal law that allows them to come up with a new way to appoint presidential electors—such as handpicking a slate committed to Trump.
Trump may additionally think his hand is strengthened by another federal law that tells Congress to respect each state’s final resolution of ballot disputes if made by December 8.
This date may well be too soon for all mail-in ballots to be counted when the pandemic is sure to increase the number of such ballots cast.