Thursday during an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), formerly a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said he was “worried” President Donald Trump would not leave office if he lost the November 3 election.
Sanders told Maddow of the often-discussed scenario in which Trump could appear to the winner on election night but late-arriving ballots would swing the election for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, and Trump would not accept the results.
“I am worried and have been worried for a long time that we have a president who will refuse to leave office if he loses the election,” Sanders said. “And what I believe we have got to do is listen carefully to what he says. I know there are people out there, ‘Oh, Trump’s crazy, he says this, he says that don’t take him seriously.’ Take him seriously! He says that he’s not sure if he will leave the presidency if he loses the election. He says that the only way, Rachel, the only way that he can possibly lose is that the election is rigged, no other way. And if that is what he believes and he loses, that means the election is rigged, and he is not going to leave office. And right now, as you know, he’s mounting a massive assault on so-called voter fraud. Only problem is, study after study had shown we have virtually no voter fraud in the United States.”
“That’s something that his attorney general confirmed today, Benjamin Ginsburg. You may remember that name. He was the lead Republican election official during the 2000 Gore versus Bush recount in Florida. This is the lead Republican guy on these issues. He said voter fraud in America is virtually non-existent. So, why is Trump doing all of this? And here’s the answer. For whatever reason, and we don’t have to discuss why it turns out that Republicans are far more likely to walk into a polling booth and vote than Democrats. Democrats are far more likely to use mail-in ballots. So, what could very well happen is on election night, when you’re sitting there moderating the show, it appears that Trump is winning in Michigan and Wisconsin and Florida. People see it, oh my goodness, Trump is ahead. And then at 10:00 at night, Trump announces, I won the election. And, by the way, my attorney general has told me this massive fraud with the mail-in ballots. And we got to stop counting those ballots. Thank you, America, I won. Have a good night.”
“And then the mail-in ballots keep coming in, and Trump’s lead disappears, and Biden becomes the leader, and then you have massive chaos and conspiracy theories,” Sanders added. “And that is the nightmare that I worry about.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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