MILWAUKEE — Four years ago, Republicans sought to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election and disenfranchise millions of Americans based on false claims of widespread voter fraud, sparking a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Despite Trump’s spectacular return to the top of the Republican Party and polls showing him in a position to retake the White House, election fraud has been a consistent theme at Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
And there’s one group that Republicans are stoking fears about more than any other ahead of the November election: illegal immigrants.
“The millions of illegal immigrants they allowed to cross our border, harm our people and undermine our election will not be tolerated. We will not tolerate it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who led the legal effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, said in a speech on Tuesday.
Other Republican leaders were even more explicit in alleging Democrats were plotting to inject illegal voters into the country.
“Democrats have cynically decided they want the votes of illegal immigrants more than they want to protect our children,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in his own remarks Tuesday night.
“[Democrats] “Now that we’ve opened the border, we want illegal immigrants to vote,” added Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
It is illegal for foreigners to vote in federal elections. They rarely do soJohnson It was approved earlier this year He said his illegal voting conspiracy theory is “not easily provable,” but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from talking about it.
Republican presidential candidate Trump, who has been impeached and criminally charged with trying to steal the election, said in a recorded speech that he now accused Democrats of doing the same thing. video Message displayed to RNC delegates.
“We must use every appropriate tool to defeat the Democrats. They are destroying our country,” Trump said. “We must not take our eyes off them. They want to cheat, they are cheating, and frankly, that’s the only thing they’re good at.”
Donald Trump Jr. Axios He said Tuesday that if his father loses in November, it will be because of “fraud.”
In Milwaukee, West Virginia, Republican Gov. Jim Justice spoke in ominous terms Tuesday about the 2024 election, despite calls from Republicans to tone down political rhetoric following the assassination attempt on President Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
“The bottom line of everything that’s happening in this great country today is that if Donald Trump is not elected in November, we’re totally screwed,” Justice, a Republican Senate candidate considered the favorite to replace Sen. Joe Manchin (I-Vermont), said in a speech on Tuesday.
In addition to the apocalyptic tones of some of the speakers at the Republican convention, Trump’s repeated Vague commitments to accepting the results of the 2024 election pave the way for a January 6th-style crisis, made even more so by President Trump’s decision this time to surround himself with more true MAGA supporters than he has during his presidency.
For example, President Trump’s new running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), said earlier this year Would not have certified the 2020 presidential election This is as required by the Constitution and as done by former Vice President Mike Pence, who has been effectively excommunicated from the Republican Party and skipped this week’s convention.
“If I were vice president, I would have told Pennsylvania, Georgia and many other states that they needed to have multiple electoral votes and then the Congress would take that from there,” Vance told ABC News in February.
The 2020 “Fake Electors Plan” backed by Trump and his allies was to send a fake slate of electors to Congress in the hopes of subverting the Electoral College process and blocking Biden’s victory. If that didn’t work, they wanted to bring the debate to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Trump would have won the debate because each state is given one vote and more state delegations were controlled by Republicans.
On Wednesday at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, two of the plot’s architects, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and longtime Trump aide Roger Stone, were given a hero’s ovation by thousands of cheering delegates. Navarro, who is serving a federal prison sentence for failing to comply with a congressional subpoena on Jan. 6, spoke onstage just hours after his release, He boasted about his participation in the project..
“They convicted me, they put me in jail, but guess what — they didn’t break me… I went to jail so you wouldn’t have to go to jail. I’m a wake-up call for you,” Navarro declared, pumping his fist in the air as the crowd roared in approval.
Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and other charges but whose sentence was later commuted by President Trump, was treated like a celebrity, mobbed at the convention by delegates demanding selfies and expressing gratitude.
“I think it’s disingenuous for Republicans to report that there was a lie about there being something wrong with the election, when there really was,” said Dave Donley, a Republican representative for Alaska, referring to changes to voting procedures made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Texas Delegate Mirinda Morris said she was worried Democrats would win the November election and suggested Republicans wouldn’t accept that.
“We must defeat their fraudulent actions with our votes to ensure victory. We can’t let our guard down or take anything for granted,” she said.
“If this election is stolen, Trump won’t need to call a meeting,” she added. “The American people will show up on our doorstep in Washington, D.C. This is where we draw the line. They will never do this again, and if they do, we’ll have to do something.”
