Arizona's GOP mayor warns Trump's already planning to 'foment insurrection if he loses'
Several of the speakers who endorsed presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago were conservative Republicans, including former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), former Trump White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, ex-Mike Pence national security aide Olivia Troye, and Mesa, Arizona Mayor John Giles.
Like other pro-Harris Republicans, Giles believes that former President Donald Trump is fundamentally anti-democracy. And the Mesa mayor is warning that Trump and his MAGA allies will fight the election results if Harris wins in November.
The Guardian's Peter Stone, in an article published Tuesday, points to Giles as one of the people who is sounding the alarm about the extremes Trump is willing to go to.
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If Trump loses, Giles predicts, MAGA Republicans "will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks."
The Mesa mayor warned, "They'll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I'd be surprised if Trump doesn't try to foment insurrection if he loses the election."
Stone cites Turning Point USA and True the Vote as some of the "MAGA stalwarts" who have been "spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses."
Former Rep. Dave Trott (R-Michigan) told The Guardian, "Trump continues to encourage his supporters like Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA to question the integrity of our elections. He has no evidence or basis for claiming fraud and is only perpetuating these lies so he has a plan B to disrupt democracy in the event he loses."
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David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research is worried as well, telling The Guardian, "A lot of false claims are masquerading as efforts to change policy to improve election integrity when in actuality, they're just designed to sow distrust in our system if Trump loses. This is all designed to manufacture claims that if Trump loses, the election was stolen and to sow discord, chaos and potential violence.”
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Read The Guardian's full article at this link.