“Stop the Steal” or Donald Trump’s stolen election strategy

Photo: Spencer Platt Archives Agence France-Presse Trump supporters as they gathered outside the U.S. Capitol following a “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Donald Trump used the strategy of doubt during his three presidential campaigns: 2016, 2020, 2024. A reminder of the facts in three parts.

“We are going to stop the steal. Today, I am going to present some of the evidence that shows we won this election…” — Donald Trump, January 6, 2021, Washington D.C.

On January 6, 2021, in Washington, in a long speech, Donald Trump claims that massive electoral fraud caused him to lose the presidential election. He encourages his supporters to go protest in front of the Capitol, where Congress is meeting to certify the election of Joe Biden. Protesters storm the Capitol to block the ceremony.

The first protester to enter by force is Michael Sparks, 47, a factory worker in Kentucky, a white man, like the vast majority of the rioters. He is wearing a tactical vest.

Inside, he chases a police officer and shouts: “This is our America!” About ten minutes later, he leaves the scene.

On August 27, at his sentencing, Michael Sparks told the judge that he still believes the election was ruined by fraud and the American public was cheated. “I feel remorse that our country is in the state it is in.” »

He was sentenced to 4 years and 5 months in prison.

The January 6 riot was the culmination of a deliberate strategy by Donald Trump and his allies: to sow doubt about the integrity of the electoral system so that he could challenge the results if he lost.

Sowing Doubt in 2016

« Of course, large-scale voter fraud occurs on and before Election Day. » — Donald Trump, Twitter, October 17, 2016

During his first campaign, Donald Trump and his supporters regularly spoke of election fraud.

His adviser Rudy Giuliani tells CNN: “Dead people generally vote for Democrats rather than Republicans.” He implies — without evidence — that votes are cast on behalf of dead people.

In the United States, the president is not elected directly by the people, but by the electors of the Electoral College. A specific number for each state that casts the votes of the citizens. The votes of the electors are sent to Washington, where Congress ceremoniously counts them to confirm the election of the president.

In 2016, Donald Trump won a majority in the Electoral College, but Hillary Clinton got more votes: 2.9 million more. This is the fifth time a president has been elected without winning the popular vote. Donald Trump writes on Twitter. “In addition to a landslide victory in the Electoral College, I won the popular vote if you subtract the millions of people who voted illegally.”

He creates a Commission on Election Fraud. It is dissolved without providing evidence.

Sowing doubt in 2020

“The only way we lose this election is if the election is rigged.” — Donald Trump, August 17, 2020, Wisconsin

Donald Trump is running for a second term in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. In 7 months of campaigning, he posts 70 messages on Twitter about the alleged corruption of the electoral system, according to the BBC.

New information was released on October 3 in a document by Special Counsel Jack Smith. He is in charge of the legal proceedings against Donald Trump, accused of obstructing the 2020 election process. The case is still ongoing and this evidence has not been tested in court.

We learn in this document that before the election, Trump campaign leaders warned him: the race is close, the winner may not be known on election night because of the counting of mail-in votes, which are very numerous due to the pandemic. He could be ahead, but then lose it because Democratic voters favor mail-in voting. Donald Trump privately says that if that happens, he will simply declare victory before all the ballots are “counted and a winner is projected.”

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In the months leading up to the vote, Donald Trump sowed the seeds of this strategy: he claimed that mail-in ballots were conducive to fraud, that he could only lose the election if it was rigged, and refused to say whether he would recognize the results.

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At 2:20 a.m. on November 4, with millions of votes still to be counted, he declared himself the winner. “This is a fraud on the American public. This is a disgrace to our country… Frankly, we won this election.”

Four days later, Joe Biden was declared the winner.

Over the next two months, Donald Trump and his machine challenged the election results in every way they could. They filed 42 lawsuits and lost the vast majority of them, according to a Brookings Institution review.

Federal judge Matthew Brann wrote in one of these decisions: “This case, like the Frankenstein monster, was sewn together haphazardly.”

The tactics used in Georgia are particularly telling. Joe Biden won this southern state and its 16 electoral votes by 11,779 votes. On December 14, the 16 Democratic electors certified his victory. Their votes are sent to Congress.

This text is part of our Perspectives section.

On the same day, 16 Republican “alternative” electors secretly sign documents certifying the victory… of Donald Trump.

His team’s argument: If an expected decision by the US Supreme Court invalidates Biden’s election, these “alternative” votes could be brandished in Congress and stop Joe Biden’s certification. But three days earlier, on December 11, the Supreme Court had refused to hear the case. Most of the Republicans concerned were not informed. The signed documents were sent to the vice president, Mike Pence, who was responsible for the ceremonial count in Congress.

The scheme was deployed in 7 key states with 84 “alternative” electors, enough to give Donald Trump the victory.

Four days before the January 6 congressional ceremony, Donald Trump made a famous attempt. He had a private phone call with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State responsible for elections. For more than an hour, he tried to convince him to change the results of the vote, claiming fraud. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes…” One more than Joe Biden’s majority! Raffensperger, unfazed, refused. The next day, the recording is released and causes a scandal.

On January 6, Donald Trump personally speaks to his vice president, Mike Pence, to persuade him to use the fabricated documents of the “alternative” electors to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as president.

In his speech that day, he repeats to the crowd: “If Mike Pence does the right thing, we will win the election.” Mike Pence rejects the ruse.

Trump supporters attack the Capitol. And when an aide comes to warn him that his vice president is in danger, he responds: “So what ? [So what ?] »

Donald Trump, his lawyers and “alternative voters” still face charges in Georgia in the case.

Sowing Doubt in 2024

“Beware of voter fraud… Without voter fraud, we win easily. » — Donald Trump, September 6, 2024, North Carolina

Third presidential campaign, and Donald Trump continues to sow doubt in all directions.

He denounces fraud committed by the Democratic Party, illegal immigrants who vote en masse, the manipulation of mail-in votes. On October 21, when a journalist asked him if he had seen any evidence of what he was saying, he replied: “Well, I haven't seen any. Unfortunately, I know the other side, and they are bad [they are not good]. “

Republicans are storming the courts to challenge every detail of the vote. In April, the Republican National Committee boasted that it had filed 82 lawsuits in 25 states to “protect election integrity.” There have been dozens more since then.

Republicans have also tried to take over the electoral machinery in key states. Again, Georgia is a case in point.

Votes are counted by election workers. The results are certified in each county by a bipartisan committee, then by the state Election Commission. Normally, this is a formality. Trumpists jostled for a majority on the commission and wanted to change the rules of the game. The commission voted to give local officials the power to make “reasonable inquiries” if they have doubts about the results. In an absolute sense, they would have the power to refuse certification and derail the vote.

The courts have ruled this rule unconstitutional. Any irregularities must be reported to law enforcement, and commission members are required to certify the results.

In April, the Republican campaign announced plans to recruit 100,000 volunteers and lawyers in swing states to monitor every vote, every step of the way, in every county.

Many of Donald Trump’s supporters believe that their vote was stolen in 2020. They feel it is their patriotic duty to prevent it from happening again, and they have prepared for it. This belief, even if unfounded, is a powerful political lever.

74% of Americans believe that Donald Trump will not concede victory if Kamala Harris is declared the winner on November 5, according to a Pew Center poll published on October 10. Donald Trump has never committed to doing so.

The attack on the Capitol remains fresh in people’s minds. In the seven swing states, 57 percent of voters fear Trump supporters will turn violent if he loses, according to a recent poll by the Washington Post-Schar School.

In 2020, American democracy held up, thanks in large part to Republicans. Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who refused to “find votes,” Mike Pence, who resisted pressure from Donald Trump and certified Joe Biden’s victory.

November 5th could be another test for the American electoral system, the heart of its democracy. In the atmosphere of doubt of these elections, the peaceful transfer of power no longer seems a given in the United States of America.