The Democrats have a plan if Trump prematurely declares election victory

Democrats are preparing a swift response to flood social media and the airwaves with calls for calm and patience as votes are counted if Donald Trump tries to prematurely claim election victory as he did in 2020, Harris campaign officials said party officials told Reuters.

The Republican candidate told reporters this week that he hoped to declare victory on Election Day, although election experts have warned that it could take several days for the final results to be known, especially if there are demands for vote recounts in some key sectors . areas. Trump is locked in a razor-thin race with Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

U.S. election winners are typically declared by major media outlets that analyze vote counts provided by election officials. While candidates sometimes declare victory before these calls are made, it is unusual to do so before the winner is at least demonstrably clear.

“We are unfortunately ready if he does that, and if we know that he is actually manipulating the press and trying to manipulate the consensus of the American people … we are prepared to respond,” Harris said in an interview with ABC on Wednesday .

She did not provide details on those preparations, but six Democratic Party campaign officials and Harris said the first battle against an early victory claim by Trump would take place in the court of public opinion. They plan to flood the social media and television airwaves with demands that all votes be counted before victories are declared.

“As soon as he (Trump) falsely declares victory, we are ready to go on TV and tell the truth and tap into a broad network of people who can use their influence to push back,” said a top official at the Democratic National Committee. said in an interview.

A senior Harris campaign official said in a conference call with reporters on Friday that they “fully expect” Trump to falsely claim victory on Tuesday evening, before all votes are fully counted.

“He did this before it failed. If he does it again, it will fail,” the official said.

In 2020, Trump declared himself the winner in the early morning hours after Election Day, three days before the first television networks called. He ultimately lost to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. He never accepted the result and continues to falsely claim it was stolen from him through widespread fraud.

Steve Bannon, a key Trump ally, said Trump should quickly declare victory.

“He should stand up and say, ‘Hey, I won this,’” Bannon told a New York Times reporter on Tuesday, shortly after he was released from a federal prison where he had served four months for defying congressional subpoenas on January 1. 6 2021 attacks on the US Capitol.

The Trump campaign told Reuters that the Republican candidate would fight for all the votes until the polls closed, but did not immediately answer whether Trump planned to declare victory again before the race was called.

One Trump donor, Bill Bean, who has sometimes been critical of the former president, told Reuters he hopes Harris or Trump will win by wide margins so that the results are as widely accepted as possible.

NO REPUBLICAN FIREWALL

In 2020, Trump’s declaration of victory was condemned by Democrats and many high-profile Republicans. Markets reacted with a shrug, with major stock indexes rising modestly in the days after the election.

But this time it could be different.

The former president has consolidated near-total control of the Republican Party in the intervening years, meaning many influential conservatives could be more willing to go along with his claims, several political strategists said.

“We’ve seen plenty of evidence that he has complete control of the party … and we’ve seen no evidence that party officials or elected officials will push back,” said Chip Felkel, a longtime Republican strategist critical of Trump.

Trump and his Republican allies have also spent months laying the groundwork for challenging a loss by claiming that non-citizens might try to vote for the Democratic Party and preparing an army of lawyers to go to court to take action to challenge the results.

At his rallies, Trump often tells them to make sure their victory is “too big to manipulate.” REUTERS