Rebelote in 2024? Donald Trump has still not conceded his defeat in the presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020. And the ex-president and his entourage have already suggested that they would be ready to contest the result of the next election.
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Enough to raise concerns about the state of democracy in the world’s leading power before this revenge on November 5 between the Republican billionaire and his Democratic successor.
Refusing to commit to respecting the result of this presidential election has almost become a rite of passage for any Republican official who has his sights set on the post of vice president alongside Donald Trump.
Like Marco Rubio, senator from Florida, who told NBC on Sunday that he would not accept an “unfair” election.
Donald Trump claims that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and has since the proclamation of the results aimed to raise doubt about the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory.
But years of investigation and more than 60 court complaints have yielded no evidence of notorious fraud.
On Friday, he again claimed in Minnesota to have won a “crushing” victory four years earlier in this northern state, where the gap was 200,000 votes against him.
“If everything is honest”
Accused of illegal attempts to overturn the result of the presidential election in 2020, two trials await Donald Trump, one at the federal level in Washington and the other in the state of Georgia.
The ex-president, however, seems to want to persist for 2024, refusing on several occasions to commit to respecting the result.
In early May, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he would accept the results only “if everything is honest,” adding that he would “fight” if he suspected any fraud.
A balancing act adopted by Republican officials who hope to be chosen by the billionaire to be a vice-presidential candidate.
Elise Stefanik, elected from New York to the House of Representatives, was the first of the candidates for this position to refuse to commit to recognizing the results.
She declared in January that she would only accept a “legal and valid” election, without dwelling on what she meant by that.
JD Vance, a former Donald Trump critic, best-selling author, and now a Republican senator from Ohio, followed suit, telling CNN he would only accept the results if the election was “free and fair.” .
“Sect”
Another favorite of bookmakers, Tim Scott was asked several times in an interview with NBC if he would recognize a victory for Joe Biden in November. In vain, the African-American senator from South Carolina preferred to kick in.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who was once a candidate like Tim Scott in the Republican Party presidential primaries, also prefers to abstain from any commitment.
For Charlie Kolean, head of strategy at the conservative political consultancy RED PAC, Republicans must adopt a position of defenders of “election integrity” – and therefore potentially contest the results.
Becoming “a recognized voice” on this subject “dear to voters” will strengthen Donald Trump and his vice-presidential candidate ahead of the November election, the consultant told AFP.
But for Nicholas Creel, political scientist at Georgia College University, this vagueness maintained by the Republicans reflects the impossibility of recognizing the defeat of Donald Trump in 2020 without it calling into question their position within the party.
The Republican Party “is no longer attached to an ideology but to idolatry, which makes it more of a sect than a political party,” added the researcher.
