How the GOP is gearing up to challenge election results • FRANCE 24 English

vice president kamla Harris and former president Donald Trump both have their eyes on key Battleground States today Trump will be heading west to Arizona while while Harris will be in North Carolina to give rallies as she looks to capitalize on the momentum from Tuesday's debate that she's widely considered to have dominated well the state of democracy in the US was a key question during the debate Donald Trump often speaks in glowing ter terms when talking about dictators and has been running what some experts describe as an openly authoritarian campaign Monty Francis tells us what some experts on Democracy have to say about that when Donald Trump spoke to a gathering of chrisan supporters in Late July he said something that even for Trump seem so overthe toop it left many wondering what exactly he meant Christians get out and vote just this time you won't have to do it anymore four more years you know what it'll be fixed it'll be fine in four years you don't have to vote again we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote Democrats said the comments signaled his plans to be a dictator while the Trump campaign claimed he was just talking about uniting the country former Republican representative Liz Cheney who chaired the January 6th Committee in Congress has been warning for months if Trump wins a second term he would refuse to leave office after his term expires in four years our nation can survive and recover from policy mistakes we cannot recover from a president willing to torch the Constitution Donald Trump is the first US president to refuse to accept the outcome of an election to falsely insist the 2020 race was stolen from him and to encourage his followers to contest the results as they did violently on January 6th Trump also has an affinity for authoritarian leaders and has said he would be a dictator on just the first day if he's reelected whether Trump wins or loses experts say there are numerous warning signs that American democracy is in danger because the Republican party is now an autocratic party that has election denial and Corruption and lying about elections baked into it so if the election has an outcome that isn't favorable to Donald Trump they're telling us that they're not going to accept the results what will happen after that uh some form of violence it would be larger than January 6 because Trump has been um radicalizing his followers but experts say the threat to democracy is broader than just Trump and point to a recent ruling from the US Supreme Court as a major obstacle the justices have effectively shielded a president from Criminal prosecution for official acts which as one dissenting Justice pointed out could even include executing one's political opponents the Supreme Court's decision on immunity is an extraordinarily Broad and sweeping one and really elevates the president to a kind of King figure uh which is clearly not something that the framers would have uh wanted having just defeated a king experts also say the court has left the door open for a president to abuse his power Trump who is the first former president to be a convicted felon has also suggested if he's reelected he would use the FBI and justice department to indict his political enemies Trump has dismissed all such concern claiming it's the Democrats who are the real threat and that he's the one who actually took a bullet for democracy when someone tried to assassinate him at a campaign rally well Monty Francis joins me in the studio now it's good to see you Monty you too so he just mentioned in that report that many experts considered Donald Trump a threat to democracy see how is the Republican Party under Trump preparing to contest um the election results if he loses in November well this follows a very familiar pattern for Donald Trump and it begins by sowing doubt about the fairness and integrity of the election he did that in 2016 which he ended up winning he did it in 2020 and now he's doing it in 2024 and he's really intensified those efforts he says things like the election is rigged by a corrupt media it's a rigged system he makes these kinds of accusations on a daily basis on the campaign Trail you may recall after the last election Trump's own Homeland Security officials called the election the most secure election in American history his very own attorney general Bill bar at the time said there was no evidence of of substantial fraud and the Trump team lost dozens of lawsuits that were disputing the results so sewing doubt is a familiar tactic what's different in this election is in this election cycle is that the Republican party is already preparing to test the results before the voting has even begun for one thing Trump has essentially taken control of the Republican Party apparatus his daughter-in-law Laura Trump now co-chairs the Republican National Committee which has installed a senior Council for election Integrity uh to prevent election cheating and that is a Woman by the name of Christina Bob and she has a lawyer who has been indicted in Arizona uh for trying to overturn the election results there in 2020 and she actually faces possible life in prison if she's convicted for her part in that scheme and one of their tactics have has been to file dozens of lawsuits on Election rules so they filed at least 90 lawsuits in many states across the country and the outcomes of these lawsuits could happen near the election and potentially could affect the results and what is the goal of these lawsuits what is the RNC hoping to accomplish here well so the lawsuits are mostly aimed at mailin voting which is the preferred method of democ rats just to give you an example the RNC is suing in Nevada so in Nevada you can U have your ballot counted four days after the election up until four days there's this grace period but the RNC wants to do away with that grace period so in the midterm elections in 20 2022 tens of thousands of ballots were counted during that grace period so if that lawsuit is successful it would essentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of Voters and when you're talking about a that is this close as it appears to be between Donald Trump and KLA Harris that could really make a big difference but filing lawsuits is not the only tactic that the RNC is taking there's also an effort to disrupt how the election will be certified in several swing States is that right well that's right I think the best example of this is what's happening in the state of Georgia you'll remember this is a state that Joe Biden won by 11,000 votes in the last election and Donald Trump was indicted for trying to overturn the results in that state there was that Infamous phone call between Donald Trump and the Secretary of State in Georgia Brad raffensberger where he's asking raffensberger to quote find 11,000 votes for him raffensberger refused now he remains the Secretary of State but he is no longer head of the election board there it is a five member board and Republicans in the state have installed three Trump loyalists to that board in fact at a recent rally in Georgia Trump called them out each by name calling them quote pitbulls who were fighting for victory now they are election deniers meaning that they believe the lie that Donald Trump won in 2020 and they've already voted to change their role in certifying the results in 2024 normally this is a board that has no authority to block the certification it's just a ministerial function but the board has passed these new rules enabling members to conduct what is called a quote reasonable inquiry before certifying the results without defining what reasonable inquiry means which of course could create a delay it could SE more doubt about alleged fraud and Democrats have have sued to challenge this move and Brad raffensberger who should we we should remind people is a republican has said these rule changes have invited chaos into the process now we're seeing similar things happening in Arizona and Michigan so this really sets the stage for what could be a long and drawn drawn out fight over certifying the results even if KLA Harris were to win uh divisive decisive Victory Monty Frances thank you so much for that piece of analysis there well