Donald Trump won’t succeed if he tries to stir a violent overthrow of the 2024 presidential election results for one “essential” reason—he’s not in power, Kamala Harris’ senior campaign officials said Sunday.
One senior Democratic political operative said the campaign is “ready for it” and “won’t be surprised” if Trump repeats his 2020 playbook, especially after he declared earlier Sunday that he “shouldn’t have left the White House” after Joe Biden defeated him.
“Currently we have a president in the White House who respects elections, respects the will of the voters, respects the rule of law and instead of advancing and supporting a coup is going to use the federal government to ensure that everything happens as smoothly and peacefully in the transition of power as it should,” the official told reporters during a call.
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When Trump was still in office on Jan. 6, 2021, he was in control of the D.C. National Guard, which he did not deploy to fend off his violent MAGA attackers who stormed the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election results. This time around, Biden will be in the White House—and his administration has designated Jan. 6, 2025, when Congress will once again meet to fulfill its constitutional obligation, a “National Special Security Event.”
“So that is an essential difference,” said the Harris campaign aide, one of two senior officials who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely about election updates.
Planning has been underway for months between the U.S. Secret Service and federal, state and local law-enforcement partners to develop a comprehensive security plan to prevent another insurrection, Eric Ranaghan, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in September.
But Trump’s multiple expletive-laden rants at rallies over the weekend have raised concerns.
“He’s worried he can’t win,” one of the Harris campaign aides said Sunday.
Trump alleged the election is already being “stolen” from him and falsely claimed states are adding 12 more days to the election. He has also told his supporters that poll workers asking to see voters’ IDs are being jailed, and that voters wearing suits and ties are being turned away from polling places.
“It was pretty unhinged. None of those things are true,” the Harris team operative told reporters. “What is true is that Donald Trump and his allies are in overdrive trying to attack the integrity of our election despite the fact that the election has not happened yet.”
All in one weekend, the former president fumed and cursed at separate rallies about the quality of his microphones—including a bizarre phallic freakout that made SNL’s “Weekend Update” hit list. He joked about gun violence against the media, said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after Joe Biden defeated him in 2020 and slammed a shocker poll showing Harris leading him in deep-red Iowa as the work of a “Trump hater.”
All of that followed two potentially fatal blunders by the Trump campaign: the Puerto Rico-bashing Madison Square Garden rally where a standup comic’s “floating island of garbage” slur stung Latino voters, and Trump’s violent comments about Liz Cheney, the former GOP congresswoman from Wyoming who served on the House special Jan. 6 committee and has endorsed Harris for president.
Trump called Cheney a “radical war hawk” and said, “Let’s put her with the rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. OK, let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
“He really is closing his campaign with total darkness and anger,” one of the Harris campaign officials said.
In the closing hours of the presidential campaign, the two Harris campaign officials said they are encouraged by the early voting numbers, mainly among women and college students in the key battleground states.
“Obviously and ultimately this is a very close race,” one said.
