Trump is casting false accusations of massive fraud in mail-in voting, though has now reversed his position on the practice in must-win Florida, leaving the absurd impression it's only fair in states with Republican governors.
"I'm doing our country a big favor by bringing it up, and you know, from a common sense standpoint, if you look at it just out of common sense and pure basic beautiful intelligence -- you know it can't work," Trump said Wednesday.
Trump has baselessly claimed that the result of the November 3 vote will not be known for "years" -- apparently seeking to discredit in advance an election that polls suggest he is currently losing to Democrat Joe Biden.
His campaign has now also initiated a new attempt to wring advantage from the customary arrangements for three presidential debates, after laying false claims that Biden wants to opt out. He's also submitted a list of potential moderators, including Fox News hosts, conservative commentators who've given him easy interviews, and opinion journalists who have published work supportive of his presidency.
Now the President says he may deliver his speech to the virtual Republican National Convention from the South Lawn of the White House, obliterating the tradition of presidents seeking to safeguard their office from politicization.
Some of these steps, like trying to shape the conditions of mail-in voting, are not necessarily sinister and fall more into the category of legal challenges frequently made by both parties to win advantage within the structure of elections. But others come across as the actions of a campaign that believes its own claims it is winning.
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Demanding more debates -- as Trump is doing -- is a time-honored tactic of a trailing candidate needing a game-changer. The upshot of Trump's complaints on mail-in voting often appears to be an attempt to limit the number of people can vote -- when they may fear showing up to a polling place during a pandemic exacerbated by his own mistakes. There is also a key attempt by the Trump campaign to lay the groundwork for legal and political challenges that could discredit Biden's victory if he wins and to give Trump's ego an out if voters reject him.
None of this is surprising. After all, the President made inaccurate claims of massive voter fraud in the popular vote in the election that he won in 2016.
The evidence in the impeachment trial strongly suggested that the President used his power in an attempt to coerce a foreign power into interfering in the election based on false claims of corruption against Biden.
And as President, Trump has relentlessly attacked institutions that have held him to account and countered his false narratives, including the courts, the press, US intelligence agencies and independent government watchdogs. Casting doubt on election institutions is consistent with his normal behavior.
For his entire life in business before he entered politics,
