When Donald Trump looks like he’s gearing up to meddle in an election, still-raw history suggests he should be believed.
He showed yet again Monday he’s obsessing about the midterm elections — two days after a Democratic upset in a reliably Republican state Senate district in Texas offered another ominous sign for the GOP in November.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump said. “We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won, that show I didn’t win.”
Trump’s warning was one of his most overt efforts yet to create a narrative of suspicion around November’s elections in case the Republican Party does poorly because of his tanking poll numbers. This is a familiar tactic. Trump laid groundwork for his false claims the election was stolen in 2020 months before the first votes were cast in his defeat to Joe Biden.
I feel like even if he does get impeached, he might simply…ignore it. Not for long, not with literally everyone else salivating at the thought of being king instead of him, but he could theoretically ignore it, the enforcement mechanisms to remove him forcibly from power (like the military or the DOJ) are pretty clearly compromised.
A lot will depend on the new President / former VP. One would think they would be eager to start their new gig. But what if the VP is complicit? What if he says “Yeah, I know you all impeached him, but I need him for stuff. He gets to keep his security clearance and will be my special advisor” Who’s gonna stop that?
Presumably, none of this happens unless Democrats retake at least the House. And if the office of the VP is ever vacant, the position can only get filled through a vote in both houses. So, Democrats will likely invoke the “McConnell Rule” to never bring it for a vote. Which means that no Republican will vote to impeach President Vance, when that will lead to President Jeffries.