Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has expressed more concern than most Democratic officials about Donald Trump’s potential plans for the 2026 midterm elections. Last May, for example, pointing to the president’s hostility toward democracy, the senator told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace, “There’s no guarantee that we are going to have a free and fair election in 2026.”
A month later, Murphy made related comments, telling MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, “We can’t be preparing for the 2026 election. It might not come.”
The comments came to mind watching Donald Trump address the House Republican Conference at the Kennedy Center. Time magazine reported:
President Donald Trump on Tuesday floated the idea of canceling future U.S. elections, elevating a longstanding concern among critics of how he might try to limit threats to his power in his second term.
Trump brought up the idea while speaking to House Republicans at their annual retreat, and then quickly insisted he was not calling for such a move, casting his remarks as a critique of Democrats rather than a proposal.
In context, the president was rambling about his contempt for Democrats, which led to related electoral thoughts.
“How we have to run against these people,” Trump said incredulously, as if Democrats were unworthy opponents. “I won’t say, ‘Cancel the election, they should cancel the election,’ because the fake news will say, ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’”
In isolation, comments like these might seem easy to overlook, were it not for the Republican’s larger record.
In August, for example, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — whose country cannot hold elections during Russia’s deadly war — Trump said, “Say, 3 1/2 years from now, so you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections.” This is the same American president who has repeatedly talked about ignoring the U.S. Constitution and seeking a third term. Trump has similarly discussed “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions and creating a temporary American “dictatorship.” What’s more, the president’s comments at the Kennedy Center came on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack — political violence Trump instigated as part of an effort to overturn the results of an election he lost and to remain in office despite the will of American voters. So when Trump starts musing about canceling elections, it’s difficult simply to shrug one’s shoulders and laugh it off as meaningless nonsense.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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