Thom Hartmann for BuzzFlash: Trump Has Told Us How He and the Republicans Plan to Steal This Election. Can We Stop Him and Save Our Republic?
September 23, 2020
Donald Trump has openly signaled to the press that he plans to use either Congress (via the obscure 12th Amendment) or the Supreme Court, with its likely newly appointed Trump loyalist justice, to be declared “the winner” of the 2020 presidential election. In fact, he may use both to try and achieve his goal of stealing a second term. (The White House)
By Thom Hartmann
Donald Trump became president by exploiting a loophole called the Electoral College. The majority of Americans did not want him or vote for him as president, but he’s there anyway.
Now he’s planning on using a different loophole, the 12th Amendment, to hang onto power.
Back in the election of 1876, the Democrat, Samuel Tilden, won both the Electoral College and the national popular vote. But four states claimed that occupying union troops were engaging in voter fraud, so they submitted electoral college slates for both candidates. With these competing Electoral College slates, neither candidate won the majority needed to take the Electoral College and become president.
As a result, the election got thrown to the State legislatures via the House of Representatives, and they chose the Republican who had lost the election, Rutherford B Hayes, as president.
Donald Trump proclaimed, during a rally a few days ago, that he and the Republican Party are planning a very similar strategy, as I wrote about back in March of this year.
All nine swing states have Republican-controlled state legislatures, and the Constitution gives state legislatures the final say in what their Electoral College vote is. They have the ability to completely ignore how the election turned out, and simply choose any presidential candidate they want.
It’s pretty clear now that the Republicans in those states are planning to do what Republicans did in 1876, and have their state legislatures direct their electoral vote for Donald Trump, even though Joe Biden may have won more votes in their states.
When this happens, Democrats will claim that Republicans are trying to steal the election, but Republicans will say they’re simply doing what the law allows, just like happened in 1876 when Rutherford B Hayes lost the election but still ended up in the White House.
Democrats will then sue the Republicans, and the election will end up before the Supreme Court. Thus Trump, at another rally, said that he needs one last vote on the Court who is loyal to him, who was appointed by him.
This is why Republicans are pushing so hard to get a Supreme Court nominee on the bench before November 3.
This election is now in our hands.
If we push hard enough on our senators, we may be able to stall or slow down Trump’s plan to line up the Supreme Court to help him steal the election.
If we show up in large enough numbers to vote, particularly in-person voting and particularly in those nine swing states, and our vote is so overwhelming that nobody can deny that Trump lost, we will have a better defense in the court of public opinion against Trump’s attempted theft.
It’s come down to us. We are the last bulwark of democracy in America.
The fascists, neo-Nazis, and shills for right wing billionaires and foreign oligarchs are planning a full-scale theft of the American presidency.
We must stop them.
Go to IWillVote.com and make sure that Republicans have not removed your name from the voting rolls. Plan now to make sure your vote is counted.
This election may be the last chance to prevent America from sliding irretrievably into fascism. We must do everything we can to save our republic.
Thom Hartmann is a talk-show host and the author of The Hidden History of the War on Voting and more than 30 other books in print. His most recent project is a science podcast called The Science Revolution. He is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute.