It's been nearly a year since former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to now-President Joe Biden, which means it's been nearly a year since Trump and his allies began broadcasting the delusion that victory was "stolen" from Trump through Democrats engaging in widespread election fraud.
Trump's election fantasies wreaked havoc on the nation, using lies to erode public trust in American elections, culminating in a deadly failed insurrection against the United States Capitol.
Yet an unignorable number of Republican elected officials have entertained or outright embraced these election delusions, and in some ways, it's beginning to backfire.
Back in January, as Trump ramped up his campaign against the legitimacy of American democracy ahead of the joint congressional session certifying Biden's victory, the runoff elections for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia were set to occur. Sure enough, both seats went blue.
Make no mistake, this was possible due to Black voting rights advocates in Georgia mobilizing Democratic turnout at unprecedented levels, but also because 752,000 Georgia Republican voters who cast ballots in the November 3rd election between Trump and Biden stayed home in the Senate races.
This was after Trump had publicly slammed Georgia Republican governor Brian Kemp and Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger for not doing enough to overturn the results of Georgia's presidential election results. It was also after pro-Trump extremists like Lin Wood told Republicans not to vote in a "rigged election."
Now, Trump—still the most beloved figure among Republican voters—is threatening to do it again, saying in a statement:
"If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in '22 and '24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do."
In other words, if Republicans don't overturn the 2020 election results to deliver Trump a victory, the party's voters will stay home in the midterms and the 2024 presidential election.
With Democrats facing grim prospects in the midterms, Trump's critics predictably had no problem with this.
Trumps latest statement, and it is a doozy, basically warns the GOP to somehow overturn the last presidential election, or else Donald will be instructing his loyal followers to sit out the next few elections. \n\nI like it!!!https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Algernon Blackwood (@Algernon Blackwood) 1634167626
How to destroy the Republican Party - Tell Republican voters not to vote based upon a hoax. From a guy who's been a Republican for barely five years. \nTrump is the Trojan Horse gift that keeps on giving...to the Democratic Party.https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Paul "nothing but trouble" Boyer (@Paul "nothing but trouble" Boyer) 1634186624
Oh god don't do this we will be so owned oh godhttps://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Max \ud83e\udd70\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Max \ud83e\udd70\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1634158325
Here it is straight from their cult leader via his spokesperson: \n\n"Republicans will not be voting in '22 or '24" !!\n\nThis is FANTASTIC!\n\nLet's see Repubs scramble to fix this. https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— ReneeGA21 \ud83c\udf0e\ud83c\udf0a (@ReneeGA21 \ud83c\udf0e\ud83c\udf0a) 1634160581
Others surmised that Trump was merely encouraging Republican state legislatures to pass more voter suppression laws, while some warned this path could result in flipped red states like Georgia.
I have seen a lot of people freaking out about this. Trump is doing this so election reform can take place at state levels. Furthermore Trump is seeing who is loyal and who is not loyal. Trump campaign for both Perdue and Loeffler. Trump will not stop this in 2024 once he runs.https://twitter.com/reallizusa/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@The Calvin Coolidge Project) 1634161896
This is dumb and counterproductive, assuming you want to be productive. Intentional or not, this attitude and looseness with language is what gave Democrats 2 Senate seats in Georgia.https://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Derek Hunter (@Derek Hunter) 1634171619
He's literally just warning republicans to do what some of the base wants (voter ID and other reforms) or things will end up like the GA situationhttps://twitter.com/realLizUSA/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Real Nixon Politics (@Real Nixon Politics) 1634165881
This statement may be the worst thing Trump\u2019s done since he sabotaged the Georgia runoffs, and that\u2019s saying a lot considering how downhill he\u2019s been going lately. This is bad, even for Donald\u2019s low standardshttps://twitter.com/reallizusa/status/1448382199078719488\u00a0\u2026— Mike Lee Fan (@Mike Lee Fan) 1634158885
We won't know for sure until November of next year.
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