In the midst of a pandemic, Donald Trump has done everything he can to sabotage the safest means for Americans to cast their votes. He’s put a man in charge of the Post Office who is determinedly tearing down that institution, slowing mail delivery, and flat-out telling states that their ballots won’t arrive on time. Trump has also waged a concerted, evidence-free, campaign on the reliability of mail-in ballots, making hundreds of false claims about fraud. His efforts have definitely succeeded among his supporters, with a majority of Republican voters not just saying they’ll vote in person, but telling pollsters that they won’t accept an election decided by mail-in ballots.
All of that is disturbing and infuriating, but what if it’s not enough? What if Democratic voters decide to follow the advice given by Michelle Obama—to put on their masks, pack a lunch, and stay in line as long as it takes to cast a vote? Even as Joe Biden was delivering a fantastic speech to accept the Democratic nomination, Trump was signaling to Fox News that he had that base covered, as well, by making sure that polling places were flooded with “law enforcement.”
As The New York Times reports, Trump has completely ignored the tradition of staying relatively quiet during the week of the opposing party’s convention. Instead Trump has been waving a metaphorical “look at me!” sign as he’s done every possible to step on Joe Biden’s week. That includes traveling to Biden’s home town to speak in front of thousands hundreds dozens of people and explain how Biden “abandoned” Pennsylvania by staying with his parents when he was 10.
During the interview that Fox lined up for the evening, Hannity walked Trump carefully through his talking points, including multiple offers for Trump to swing away at Biden’s mental fitness—a point that would be a hard sell to anyone who actually watched Joe Biden’s speech. And, as expected, Hannity and Trump spent considerable time passing false statements about mail-in voting.
That included Trump declaring that an undefined “they” were going to send out “51 million ballots,” a number he apparently pulled from his … hair. But those ballots wouldn’t be going to everyone, lied Trump. “Unfortunately, they may have a very good idea, the people sending them. They may send them to all Democrat areas, not to Republican areas, as an example. Could be the other way, too, but I doubt it.”
But once they had piled on a sufficient weight of false claims about mail-in voting, Hannity and Trump turned to making in person voting seem as unpleasant as possible, with Hannity asking if Trump intended to “monitor” polling places.
“We’re going to have everything,” said Trump. “We’re going to have sheriffs and we’re going to have law enforcement and we’re going to have hopefully U.S. attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals.”
Of course, Trump doesn’t actually control sheriffs or attorneys general—unless he has a terrifying army of Bill Barr clones stashed away. Trump didn’t quite say that he was prepared to send his mixed army of camo-wearing knuckle breakers to tear gas the polls, but the implications of Trump “monitoring” the election with “everything” certainly suggests some frightening possibilities.
In rational times, the idea of sending such forces to police voters at polling places should be ridiculous for multiple reasons, not least of which is that there are more polling places than members of Trump’s patchwork force. But considering what was seen in the primaries—such as in Louisville, Kentucky, where the entire city was forced to use a single polling place—that may no longer be true.
In any case, Trump’s threats are intended to have the same effect as his lies about mail-in ballots: intimidation. Trump wants to create a situation where Republican voters, and only Republican voters, get to vote. It’s up to everyone to see he is disappointed.
