A couple of weeks ago, Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance appeared on “Meet the Press” and heard a good question that too often goes unasked.
“Why is Donald Trump casting doubt on the election before it’s even happened?” NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked.
“I don’t think that’s what Donald Trump is doing, Kristen,” the Ohio senator replied.
It is most definitely what the former president is doing. Consider this item that the GOP nominee published to his social media platform over the weekend:
An interview by Tucker Carlson of an election expert indicates that 20% of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. Here we go again! Where is the U.S. Attorney General and FBI to INVESTIGATE? Where is the Pennsylvania Republican Party? We will WIN Pennsylvania by a lot, unless the Dems are allowed to CHEAT. THE RNC MUST ACTIVATE, NOW!!!
To be sure, Trump publishing weird election-related claims online is not altogether new, but what struck me as odd about this one was that it’s literally impossible.
The first 2024 ballots started going out to Pennsylvania voters late last week. The former president would have Americans believe not only that ballots were returned within one day, but also that an “election expert” has already determined that 1 in 5 of the unopened and unprocessed absentee ballots are “fraudulent.”
Trump, in other words, wants the FBI, federal prosecutors, the Republican National Committee and the state GOP to leap into action in response to a strange claim that couldn’t possibly be true. So much for the idea that the former president isn’t casting doubt on the election before it’s even happened. But stepping back, the problem isn’t just that Trump is undermining confidence in the election based on obvious nonsense. Making matters considerably worse is the Republican vowing to impose long prison sentences on those involved in the elections — from election officials to lawyers to donors — whom he suspects of “unscrupulous behavior.” In other words, it’s tempting to shrug off the GOP nominee’s ridiculous claims, but his radical vision and authoritarian-style threats make this impossible.
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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