US election officials and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign on Monday (9) condemned Donald Trump’s threats to arrest “corrupt” election officials if he wins on November 5, accusing him of intimidation and inciting potential violence.
They were responding to a social media post by the Republican presidential candidate on Saturday (7) in which he threatened to sue a number of people if they engaged in voter fraud in the 2024 election. Studies have found that voter fraud in the US is extremely rare.
Trump wrote: “We cannot allow our Country to become even more of a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T! Beware, as this legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials. Those engaged in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, captured, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never before seen in our Country.”
Trump also repeated his baseless claim that his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was due to fraud, the same message he delivered to supporters before the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and secretary of state in the battleground state of Arizona, described Trump’s post on his Truth Social account as “tyrannical” and said it had the potential to incite political violence.
“Unfortunately, security is now one of the primary considerations in election administration,” Fontes, Arizona’s top election official, told Reuters.
“Trump’s comments give bad actors the opportunity to frame them as a call to arms. We need to protect our election workers. We need to be prepared for anything.”
A Republican county official in Michigan, who did not want to be identified, objected to Trump’s comments and said he did not want to further elevate Trump’s post by commenting on it. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amman Moussa, a spokesman for Harris, called Trump’s comments “extreme and unhinged,” adding: “Donald Trump is escalating his dangerous threats of revenge and retribution even further.”
Trump and Harris are locked in an election battle that opinion polls show is tight. Harris has erased the lead Trump enjoyed over Biden before the Democratic president dropped out of re-election in July and she became the party’s candidate for the White House.
Since his 2020 defeat, Trump has regularly made false claims about election officials cheating to secure his victory. Many have received threats.
In response to Trump’s Saturday post, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, posted on X: “My duty — and that of every election official in this nation — is to rise above the noise and continue to ensure that our elections are fair, secure, accessible, and that the results are accurate. No amount of lies, illusions, or threats will distract us from that purpose.”
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This content was originally published in Electoral authorities condemn Trump’s threat to arrest them if he returns to the White House on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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