Undermining the integrity of elections is a key part of President Donald Trump’s playbook, according to Massachusetts Rep. Jake Auchincloss. But the congressman says he knows how Democrats can get ahead of Trump’s strategies before a critical midterm season.
“There’s never been an example of him accepting the outcomes of an election result that’s not to his benefit,” Auchincloss, 38, said on The Daily Beast Podcast. “So I think we have to assume he’s going to try to steal it.”
The Democratic congressman said that Trump, 79, has already played his hand twice before. In 2020, Trump tried to steal the election through his claims of widespread voter fraud, and in 2016, he was prepared to do the same if he didn’t win, Auchincloss argued.
The president has already laid the groundwork for undermining the midterms, stating during his State of the Union address on Feb. 24 that “cheating is rampant in our elections” and blamed the supposed “cheating” on Democrats.
“They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat,” Trump bellowed during his record-breaking 108-minute-long speech.
He has also continually pressured lawmakers to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a GOP-led bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship for federal voter registration and showing photo ID at the ballot box.
Though Trump has framed the measure as a way to prevent voter fraud, the bill faces opposition from Democrats who fear it could disenfranchise millions of American citizens who lack easy access to their documentation.
However, the lawmaker said that there are two ways Democrats can get ahead of Trump’s scheming.
“One, we should push for passage of the Bivens Act,” he told host Joanna Coles, “which is basically a law that would allow federal officials to be held liable in state courts for violating the United States Constitution.”
“That would really help prevent some of his henchmen under the color of law from going to the states which administer our elections and bullying them for those infamous ‘find me 11,000 votes’ kind of thing,” he continued. “We allow state officials to be held liable for violating the Constitution in federal courts, but we don’t do the opposite. And that’s a loophole that should be closed.”
In November, Democratic congressmen Hank Johnson and Jamie Raskin reintroduced the Bivens Act, which seeks to expand the 1971 Supreme Court ruling in Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents that would allow suing federal officers for misconduct.
The act seeks “To provide a civil remedy for an individual whose rights have been violated by a person acting under Federal authority, and for other purposes.” The bill remains in the House Committee on the Judiciary, where it was assigned.
“Number two,” he said, “we need to pre-butt his gaslighting.”
“What Democrats need to do is hold a bunch of election war games this summer,” Auchincloss continued, “to show, here’s the phone calls he’s gonna make, here’s the county clerks he’s gonna bully, here’s the votes he’s gonna try to find, here’s why he’s lying.”
The congressman said that if Democrats can “inoculate the American public against those lies” in the media, similar to how former President Joe Biden declassified intelligence to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans to invade Ukraine, then the same strategy could work against Trump.
“We’re up against this guy who’s going to lie about what’s right in front of people’s eyes,” Auchincloss added. “And we just have to say it over and over and over again. He is lying. And do it before he starts lying.”
Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: “Anything said on the Daily Beast podcast is equivalent to screaming into the void. No one listens to this Trump Derangement Syndrome therapy session full of bizarre Blue Anon conspiracies.” The latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast has reached over 145,000 views on YouTube alone since Sunday.
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