Trump is increasingly sowing doubts about the possible election results

As Election Day approaches, former President Donald Trump is warning that he should cheat if he loses.

“You will cheat. They cheat. That's all they want to do is cheat,” Trump said of Democrats during a rally this month in Juneau, Wisconsin. “This is the only way they will win. And we can't let that happen, and we can't let it happen again. We won’t have a country.”

Last week at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, he looked into the crowd and asked Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, “They're trying, but they're not going to get away with it. “Right?”

And at a rally in Prairie du Chien, In September in Wisconsin, Trump claimed he would win despite fraud and then prosecute those involved in the alleged voter fraud.

“If we win, we will prosecute those who commit fraud in this election. And if we can, we will go back to the last one if we are allowed to,” Trump said, referring to the 2020 election. “We will prosecute people so that they at least know that this is going to happen.”

Trump has long falsely claimed he was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, and false claims of Democratic interference have been a centerpiece of his campaign this cycle. But by preemptively stoking doubts about the results, Trump is creating the conditions for a possible challenge to the result and the electoral system being plunged into chaos once again.

An NBC News analysis found that Trump mentioned the likelihood of Democratic fraud in the November election at 14 of his last 20 rallies. In comparison, Trump only referred to fraud attempts by the Democrats in the 2024 election campaign five times in 20 campaign speeches over the summer.

Democrats are already preparing for Trump to either declare an early victory on election night or challenge the results in court if he loses. Some of Trump's allies have also speculated to NBC News that they expect he could declare himself the winner even if the results are not yet clear.

“Of course,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview with NBC News last Tuesday when asked if her campaign was preparing for such a scenario. “This is a person, Donald Trump, who tried to overturn a free and fair election, who still denies the will of the people, who incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol and assaulted 140 police officers .”

Trump's comments that he may not accept the election results are not new; It is the frequency that has increased. In May, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “If everything is honest, I would happily accept the results. If not, you have to fight for the law of the land.”

In late April, he didn't want to dismiss the possibility of political violence, telling Time: “If we don't win, that's what matters.” It always comes down to the fairness of the election.”

Campaign signs scattered throughout the arenas, echoed in speech after speech by the former president, include the phrase “too big to tamper with”; The point is to ensure that so many voters go for Trump that it dwarfs any possible fraud by the Democrats.

However, in recent weeks, Trump has frequently raised the possibility that Democrats will perpetrate widespread fraud:

In an interview on the Sid Rosenberg podcast on October 7, Trump said: “These guys are going into an election and their first meeting is to get Marc Elias (the Democratic lawyer) and all these people they have and figure out how to cheat.” How do we cheat? And that's all they think. For them it’s a passion.”

Last month, Trump made the baseless accusation that Democrats planned to use a decades-old law that allows Americans living abroad to vote by mail to “cheat.” In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “Democrats talk about how hard they are working to get millions of votes from Americans living abroad.” In fact, they are preparing to FRAUD! …They want to dilute the TRUE voice of our wonderful military men and women and their families….”

Trump has repeatedly said, without evidence, that Democrats are registering undocumented immigrants to vote illegally. “They're actually using it to cheat,” Trump said Oct. 8 on Los Angeles radio station KFI AM 640. “I think they're putting a lot of people on the voter rolls and trying to get them to vote.”

Last week, Trump asserted at a campaign rally that he would even win California this November and claimed that he would win it in 2020 as well, although he actually lost it to Joe Biden by 5 million votes – a claim he has since has repeatedly made since he left office.

“If Jesus came down and was the vote counter, I would win California,” Trump told Phil McGraw in a September interview.

Trump's vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and his billionaire ally Elon Musk have made similarly misleading claims about voter fraud.

At Trump's return to Butler, Pennsylvania, this month, the Tesla CEO took the stage, encouraged the crowd to vote and warned them that if Trump lost, it would be the last US election ever.

“Get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know and get them registered to vote,” Musk said. “Make sure they actually vote. If not, this will be the last election,” he said.

That same day, Vance falsely claimed that Democrats were working to give millions of undocumented immigrants the right to vote in U.S. elections.

“One of the things you've seen is the amazing willingness of the Democratic leadership in this country to talk about giving millions and millions of illegal immigrants the right to vote,” Vance claimed. “Giving the right to vote to millions of people who shouldn’t be here fundamentally deprives American citizens of their constitutional right to vote.”

However, so far, Trump's campaign has been unable to find any evidence that the 2024 election would not be free and fair, even when asked for comment on this article.

Trump himself admitted that he has not found a single instance of fraud in the 2024 election when asked by NBC News in Swannanoa, North Carolina last week whether he had any specific allegations.

“Well, I didn’t,” Trump replied. “Unfortunately I know the other side and they are not good. But I didn't see it. Michael, did you see anything suspicious? We are still at the very beginning of the process.”

He then turned to Whatley, the RNC chairman, who replied, “Yes, we are still very early in the process and are currently tracking all 50 states to make sure the systems we want to have in place.” and place. And we are very happy with the initial results.”

Trump had similar mixed messages about early voting. He is still skeptical of the practice and has suggested on a few occasions that fraud occurs when early voting occurs.

“You have early voting and late voting, everything is so ridiculous,” Trump said on stage in Palm Beach, Florida, in July. “We should have one-day voting, paper ballots, voter ID and certificate of citizenship. And that’s what we strive for.”

But Trump has also spoken positively about early voting, usually in more choreographed situations. Trump has posted a TikTok video urging people to vote early, and he occasionally delivers prepared remarks in campaign speeches that encourage early voting without reservation. Trump also voted early in Florida in September.

Trump also expressed doubts about the federal government's disaster relief efforts in particularly rural, conservative areas of North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene in September, suggesting that the Biden-Harris administration has tried not to help victims in “Republican areas.” .

However, when asked last week whether he had any concerns or reasons to question the credibility or legitimacy of North Carolina's election results due to the storm's impact, Trump replied that he did not.

“No, I think in some ways the opposite is true,” Trump replied. “I mean, we're so impressed and I think they've got a pretty good system here. Michael Whatley was responsible to some extent, and the new people who took Michael's place. I don’t think I’ve heard any complaints about it.”