Trump allies sow the seeds for election violence

Donald Trump’s allies have set the stage for contesting November’s election—and doing so violently. Following a bonkers war-games presentation Thursday—including scenarios in which Barbra Streisand is kidnapped by Hamas and Trump wins but is immediately arrested by the FBI—the Heritage Foundation declared that the election is already being rigged against Trump and made more threats of violence. “As things stand right now, there’s a zero percent chance of a free and fair election,” said Mike Howell, executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project. That project is “technically independent of the Heritage Foundation,” The Washington Post reports, “but included multiple Heritage employees.” “I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election,” Howell continued. “If we see the kind of manipulations that we saw in 2020, I wonder if average Americans who are supporters of the president [Trump] will swallow that so easily as they did in 2020,” Adam Ellwanger, a rhetoric professor at the University of Houston-Downtown who helped lead the presentation, said. That’s a not-so-subtle call to arms for MAGA world. Worse, it follows last week’s declaration from Heritage President Kevin Roberts. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” he said on a right-wing news channel.  During Thursday’s presentation, Howell accused the Biden administration of a “coordinated invasion over our southern border for the purposes of impacting this election.”  Not to be outdone, extremist GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that it is a "virtual certainty" that Democrats are registering undocumented immigrants to vote, and will “harvest the ballots” and “Democratic operatives will fill those out.” Obviously, none of these conservatives has presented any evidence for their claims. Heritage released a report Thursday stating that President Joe Biden could try to hold the White House “by force” if he loses in November, and that “the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president.” This is the very narrative that the Trump campaign and allies have been setting: that the election is rigged against Trump, and if he wins despite that, Biden will use his “weaponized” government to prevent Trump from taking office. Note that Biden, of course, has said he will accept the results of the election, while Trump has repeatedly refused to do so. As if we need more evidence of Trump’s ties to Heritage and Project 2025 (and there are more every day), they are working together to lay the groundwork for contesting the election—again—but this time, they are putting the threat of Jan. 6-style violence front and center. RELATED STORIES: Trump isn't preparing to win—he's preparing to lose Trump ally threatens to kill 'the left' if it doesn't comply Trump’s denial generates a surge of reporting on diabolical Project 2025 Campaign Action