As odd as it is to see Trump tell the public that the GOP presidential ticket doesn’t “need the votes,” it’s the message behind the message that makes the rhetoric so much worse.

You don’t need to be an expert in electoral politics to understand Rule One of any campaign: Candidates should pursue as many votes as possible. In a democracy, it’s common sense: The more votes a campaign has, the greater the chance of success.

With this in mind, Donald Trump appears to have a counterintuitive rhetorical habit. The New Republic noted:

On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida.

As a clip from the show makes clear, the former president didn’t appear to be kidding: https://x.com/atrupar/status/1816482779581775943

If the phrasing sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. The day after last month’s presidential debate, for example, Trump held a rally in Virginia and told attendees, “We don’t need votes.”

  • Triasha@lemmy.world
    1·
    5 months ago

    They don’t need a riot this time. Mike Johnson will refuse to recognize the results and then the house will vote for the next president with each state receiving one vote. Republicans control a majority of house delegations, so they will vote for Trump.

    The riot was a smokescreen. It was to buy time to strong arm the state legislatures and convince Mike Pence to not certify the results. With Johnson on board, they can forget the smokescreen and just steal the election in plain sight.

    They only need the house of representatives to steal a presidential election. The only thing that could stop it is some house Republicans voting with Democrats to remove Mike Johnson as speaker. (Or, I guess, finding their conscience and voting for Harris as a state delegation.