Clash over voting: Trump's plan to declare victory with the polls still open
The Republican leader may attempt to agitate the public square after having already filed a flurry of appeals. Harris: 'We are ready to fight back'
from our correspondent in New York Luca Veronese
3' min read
3' min read
Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly ready to declare victory as early as Tuesday night, before the official confirmation, before the votes are counted. The New York Times writes this, explaining that the campaign strategy of the populist right follows the subversive moves used by Trump four years ago to try to overturn the results after his defeat against Joe Biden. With an escalation that led - more or less directly - to the storming of Parliament by the most exaggerated supporters of the right, on 6 January 2021, in one of the darkest pages in the history of American democratic institutions.
"Trump should just stand up and say: hey, I won," Steve Bannon, one of Trump's closest and most talked-about advisers, said a few days ago after serving a four-month prison sentence for defying Congress on the very facts of January 2021.
On the Democratic side, they have already factored in a desperate attempt by the right to contest the vote if they are defeated. "We are sadly prepared," said Kamala Harris. "Should Trump declare victory without waiting for the results," the Democratic nominee added, "and should we see that he is manipulating the media and the consensus of the American people... we are ready to respond.
The big difference to 2021 is that then Trump was in the White House and had the strength to obstruct the democratic transition of power. Congress with the Electoral Count Reform Act has also introduced regulations that should bring clarity to the final certification of results. In Kamala Harris's staff, however, they fear pressure on local administrators, on state election offices.
Deployments of lawyers recruited by Trump have been at work for months. And in individual states, challenges and appeals have already begun - with early voting and preparations for the electoral roll and ballot boxes on 5 November: made with the aim of fuelling doubt and preparing the ground for recount requests and possible lawsuits against the 'stolen election'.
