Conservatives are reeling because Trump stopped attacking Hillary last week, and instead has consistently attacked the “media”. Of course it won’t help him win the election, but at this point, nothing will. Incredibly, the key focus of the Trump campaign has shifted from any possibility of winning to protecting his own fragile ego. This is why over the next two months you’ll hear constantly from Trump supporters that the media is “out to get him” and that the elections have to be “rigged”. Trump didn’t even think of this so-called “strategy” himself—Roger Stone did.
Longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone admitted over two weeks ago that claiming election fraud would be a last-ditch “strategy”. Although he was smart devious enough to suggest the state where this might actually work: Florida.
“I think we have widespread voter fraud, but the first thing that Trump needs to do is begin talking about it constantly,” Stone said. “He needs to say for example, today would be a perfect example: ‘I am leading in Florida. The polls all show it. If I lose Florida, we will know that there’s voter fraud. If there’s voter fraud, this election will be illegitimate, the election of the winner will be illegitimate, we will have a constitutional crisis, widespread civil disobedience, and the government will no longer be the government.’”
In an interview with ABC News, Stone, a longtime political consultant, said Trump’s discussing voter fraud is "absolutely" a smart strategy.
"If you raise this question after you’ve been cheated, everybody will say you’re only challenging the election because you lost. I think you have to get the American people used to the idea that this is a possibility," he said.
Pretty low to resort to fake election fraud, but anything to help Trump’s ego. Hell, our idiot, trump-supporting governor even indicated that he would play along, regardless of how stupid it makes him look. (You appoint the state’s election chief, you dolt.)
Thankfully, Trump is as stupid as he is reckless. He decided to make his stand on a state that hasn’t gone GOP since 1992, and where Hillary is now leading by double digits: Pennsylvania. (Hillary is actually leading right now in every single swing state, BTW.) Yet here is Trump accusing Hillary of election fraud on an election that hasn’t even happened yet:
“We’re gonna watch Pennsylvania. Go down to certain areas and watch and study and make sure other people don’t come in and vote five times…. The only way we can lose, in my opinion – and I really mean this, Pennsylvania – is if cheating goes on. I really believe it. Because I looked at Erie and it was the same thing as this….
“[L]et me just tell you, I looked over Pennsylvania. And I’m studying it. And we have some great people here. Some great leaders here of the Republican Party, and they’re very concerned about that. And that’s the way we can lose the state. And we have to call up law enforcement. And we have to have the sheriffs and the police chiefs and everybody watching. Because if we get cheated out of this election, if we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state, especially when I know what’s happening here, folks. I know. She can’t beat what’s happening here.
“The only way they can beat it in my opinion – and I mean this 100 percent – if in certain sections of the state they cheat, OK? So I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th, go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it’s 100 percent fine.”
Right now on Trump’s website, he is appealing to his supporters to sign up to be “Trump Election Observers” in Pennsylvania. The white supremacists that make up his base are enthusiastically signing up, and you can just imagine the problems they will cause on Election Day. This whole exercise is a thinly veiled attempt to racially profile and harass minority voters.
It is also illegal.
The Democrats won a major court settlement over 30 years ago to keep the GOP from refraining to undertake “any ballot security activities” after the GOP hired off-duty, armed cops in New Jersey to patrol polling sites in black and Hispanic neighborhoods. The cops even wore armbands reading “National Ballot Security Task Force”, and signs were posted designed to threaten voters in those districts. The GOP was not only smacked down in Court, but Pennsylvania also passed a law expressly forbidding police from engaging in the behavior that Trump is calling for.
So far, no GOP politician has been willing to step up and demand a stop to Trump’s form of voter suppression going on in PA. One need to look no further than any given rally to see Trump supporters' penchant for violence. As a result, the GOP will directly be responsible for the behavior of Trump’s carnies this election.
Perhaps the GOP is staying silent because part of them hopes that it will be at least somewhat effective. After all, voter caging and intimidation was widespread as recently as 2004. But a lot has changed since then. Allow me to point out to the GOP that they stay silent at their own peril. In case they haven’t learned by now, in today’s age of social media and Black Lives Matter, minorities are completely through with being intimidated.