Is that how this works?
The 2020 election was unique in all of American history that it was the one election that was illegal to question. Doing so was an “attack on democracy”.
Claiming that Republicans and Jeb Bush stole the 2000 election was fine. Challenging the 2004 election by claiming ‘voter suppression’ was patriotic dissent. And setting off an entire international investigation and threatening social media companies over claims that the Russians stole the 2016 election for Trump with ‘fake news’ was absolutely serious business that required the resources of the entire country.
But the 2020 election was sacrosanct. Any questions about an election conducted during the pandemic with ad hoc partisan rules, as many ballots as could be sent in, and no security, was an attack on democracy and the deadliest threat since the Civil War and the First Barons War.
What about the 2024 election? Can that be challenged? Will that be ‘election denial’ and subject to a nationwide FBI manhunt and arrests of people at the state level for participating in election challenges? Will lawyers be disbarred for simply participating in election challenges?
As with everything, it depends on who wins.
House Democrats railed against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for hedging on whether a GOP-controlled House would certify a Kamala Harris victory. But some of their senior members are playing a similar game.
Raskin, the House Oversight Committee ranking member and former Jan. 6 committee member who objected to Trump electors in 2017, told Axios in an interview that if Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.”
However, Raskin said he “definitely” doesn’t assume that Trump would use free, fair and honest means to secure a victory.
Trump “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments,” Raskin said.
House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), who also objected to Trump electors in 2017, said Democrats would certify a Trump victory “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.”
“assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.”
What else needs to be said?