Rehearsal for Biden victory?
Politicians flee from Trump supporters at meeting
Fears of a second Donald Trump presidency and the impact on world politics and the global economy are growing. But what threatens America if Joe Biden wins the US presidential election? An escalation in Arizona could provide a foretaste.
At an election campaign appearance at the weekend, Trump shocked everyone by using the word "bloodbath" as a consequence of defeat - which his supporters subsequently talked down as being "taken out of context" and "only having an economic impact on the car industry". But even if you leave out horror scenarios such as armed riots or a second storming of the Capitol - thanks to the election fraud lie Trump has been spreading since 2020, die-hard MAGA fans will never accept a defeat of their idol as legitimate.
The impact this could have in the individual states can already be seen in the example of Maricopa County in Arizona.
Four years ago, Biden won a narrow majority in Arizona's largest county, winning the southwestern state's electoral college by just 10,457 votes (out of 3.4 million cast). Trump's supporters challenged the elections and had the counts audited for alleged vote rigging - with the official result of the Maricopa County government that everything was correct.
Death threats, insults, heckling
The Republican-majority Board of Supervisors (the members of the county government) were then publicly pilloried by Trump activists. Some received death threats for their refusal to nominate Trump as the winner anyway. Since then, Trump activists have repeatedly heckled and insulted the supervisors at public hearings of the county government.
Since Trump's coronation as the Republican presidential candidate, MAGA supporters now feel emboldened to escalate their anti-democratic disruptive actions. At a public meeting on February 28, a dozen of them stormed the podium in Maricopa County, shouting "revolution" and causing the politicians to flee through a back door.
Just the MAGA faction's dress rehearsal for elections and beyond?
Before the live broadcast cut off, Michelle Klann, founder of a pro-Trump group, took the mic and yelled, "This is a riot. Because of voter fraud, you are not our elected representatives." An insider later told the Washington Post that the security team had been caught completely off guard by the coordinated action: "I fear this is just the MAGA faction's dress rehearsal for the election and beyond."
The escalation of pressure on democratic institutions by pro-Trump activists - from school boards to election commissions - is being reported from all over the country. The rural districts of California and Texas are particularly affected. The consequence in the case of public meetings in Maricopa County is that from now on they will only take place in the presence of a dozen police officers in the auditorium - and the SWAT team special unit is on standby outside the county government building.
As Republican Supervisor Thomas Galvin walked to his car after the last meeting, he was shouted at by an activist: "Wait and see, you'll be replaced very soon, as soon as our president is back!" And if he does not make it back to the White House, it is very unlikely that Klann and Co. will simply accept it.
We can only hope that Trump's bloodbath prediction - in whatever form - was just one of his typical verbal exaggerations.
Kommentare
Da dieser Artikel älter als 18 Monate ist, ist zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt kein Kommentieren mehr möglich.
Wir laden Sie ein, bei einer aktuelleren themenrelevanten Story mitzudiskutieren: Themenübersicht.
Bei Fragen können Sie sich gern an das Community-Team per Mail an forum@krone.at wenden.