President Donald Trump's "Plan B" to hold on to power after he loses to Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden on November 3 apparently calls for him to use his emergency powers to declare a failure of elections.
This stark possibility was raised by House majority whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), who believes Trump has no intention of peacefully transferring power to Biden. The former vice president is leading Trump in all major polls on U.S. citizen's choice for president.
"I don't think he plans to leave the White House," asserts Clyburn. "He doesn't plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold on."
Indications of Trump's mindset of not conceding defeat to Biden have been emerging over the past few months. He first sought to delegitimize the legality of universal mail-in or absentee voting by claiming this voting method, which is the only way to vote in five states, "will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history."
Legal experts point to studies showing the claim to be completely false. There has been no widespread fraud in U.S. elections. A review of the 2016 presidential election won by Trump found only four documented cases of voter fraud, two of which were committed by Trump voters who tried to vote twice for him. Research into the 2016 election also found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Trump last week tried another tack, saying he'd postpone the November election using his executive powers. He falsely claimed the November election will be marred by widespread voter fraud since millions of Americans will cast their ballots using mail-in voting because the COVID-19 pandemic will make in-person voting dangerous in many places.
The U.S. Constitution says only the House of Representatives can change the official date of the U.S. presidential elections. Republican leaders in both houses of Congress blasted Trump for his push to postpone the November 3 general election – which most polls predict Trump will lose to Biden.
On the other hand, Democrats and Trump critics among the GOP are saying Trump's stubborn claim Democrats will cheat him of victory in the election by using massive mail-in voting fraud is only an excuse for Trump to not accept defeat on November 3.
The Republican leadership ganged up on Trump last week for his threat to postpone the election. GOP bigwigs led by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) publicly repudiated Trump's call to delay the election.
"Never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions and the Civil War, have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time," said McConnell. "We'll find a way to do that again this November 3rd."
McCarthy brushed aside Trump's call to delay the election.
"Never in the history of federal elections have we ever not held an election and we should go forward with our election," he said. "No way should we ever not hold our election on the day that we have it."
