Trump Suggests Violence If He Loses. Believe Him

Political polls typically sample voter opinion about candidates and issues. In June, a CNN poll asked this question: If Donald Trump loses the election, do you think he will accept the results and concede once the votes have been certified, or not?

Seventy-one percent answered that Trump would not concede.

I’d never seen such a question on a political poll. Until this year there was no reason to ask it. For nearly 250 years, since the founding of the United States, it’s been taken as a given that once voters have made their decision, power transfers seamlessly and peacefully.

The Unprecedented Question

In 2020, many in the Republican hierarchy were shocked at Trump’s attempts to invalidate the certified results of the presidential election. The Republican speaker of the House and majority leader of the Senate, and countless other Republican leaders roundly rebuked Trump for inciting a mob to attack the Capitol.

This year, Republican leaders not only have held their tongues while Trump continues to claim the 2020 election was “rigged,” many of those leaders have joined Trump in refusing to agree to accept the results in November if Trump loses.

Election denialism has been normalized and the promise of widespread violence has escalated. At J.D. Vance’s first rally after joining Trump’s ticket, Ohio State Sen. George Lang, said, without rebuke from Vance or any other speaker, that if Republicans fail to retake the White House in November, “it’s going to take a civil war to save the country — and it will be saved.”

The Threat of Violence

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, on a recent podcast said, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” In other words, if the right doesn’t get control, there will be violence. The Heritage Foundation has published a 900-page plan for radically changing America. Authors of the plan are deeply embedded in the Trump campaign.

Violence is the subtext of Trump’s frequent warnings of what would result if he fails to win at the ballot box. Since he incited violence once, his warnings must be believed. In 2020, he didn’t want to give up power. This time, facing serious felony charges, he doesn’t want to go to jail.

Everyone needs to take this threat far more seriously.

Media and Public Responsibility

The first questions in every media interview with Trump should ask, specifically, how he thinks 2020’s election was rigged, and why he thinks 2024 will be. The media must demand specifics, not generalities. What is he hinting at when he leaves the door open for violence? Again, specifics, not generalities. 

Those same questions should be asked of Vance and any candidate running for office who denies the result of the 2020 election. The answers should be prominently published, not treated as an afterthought. Without a clear understanding that losers will concede and disavow armed resistance, other issues become meaningless.

By his words and action Trump has made armed resistance to defeat the primary issue.

The media, the political opposition, Trump’s own Republican party, and all Americans need to treat it with the importance potential blood-letting deserves.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net