Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork to deny the outcome of the 2024 election.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Senator Sanders said:
Donald Trump
may be crazy, but he's not stupid. When he claims that “nobody” showed up to a 10,000-person Harris-Waltz rally in Michigan that was live-streamed and widely covered by the media, that it was all AI, and that Democrats cheat all the time, there's method behind his madness. Most obviously and dangerously, Trump is laying the groundwork for his ability to contest the election results if he loses. If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally don't exist, it won't be hard to convince them that the election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere are “fake” and “fraudulent.”
That's what destroying trust in institutions is about. That's what undermining democracy is about. That's what fascism is about.
That's why we must do everything we can to defeat Trump.
Trump is trying to delegitimize the Harris-Walz crowds because they are a gateway to delegitimizing the election results. Trump is completely unnerved by Harris' energy and the large crowds, but he also knows that if he accepts these crowds as real, it will be harder for him to deny the election results after a loss.
Bernie Sanders was right. Trump is setting the stage to claim the election was stolen from him and the people who voted for Harris-Waltz aren't real. That's partly because the ex-president has spent his entire life in a delusional fantasy land. And partly because a strong Harris campaign that draws huge crowds makes it difficult for him to deny the results.
Trump works every day to undermine the legitimacy of democracy and he must be stopped.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor's degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and professional memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
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