Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
Trump Hints He Won’t Acknowledge Harris’ Victory Republican candidate accuses the White House of plans to rig the presidential election results.
At a rally in North Carolina, Trump pointed out to his supporters the enemy attempting to steal victory from them.
With just two weeks remaining before the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump hinted that he might not accept the results if Kamala Harris is declared the winner. The Republican candidate informed his supporters that Democrats are preparing to manipulate the voting results. This has raised the likelihood that the election’s outcome will be decided in the courts, or even in street confrontations.
The possibility of a repeat of the events from four years ago, when Trump refused to concede defeat to Joseph Biden, accusing him of fraud, has been discussed by the press and political analysts since the beginning of the campaign. However, there were no direct indications that the former president had learned nothing from that episode and was prepared to repeat it. There were only indirect hints.
Despite failing to prove election fraud in any court over the past four years, Trump continues to insist that he won the 2020 election, not Biden. In the memorable June debate with the sitting president, Trump declared that he would only recognize his opponent’s victory if the election were “fair, legal, and proper.” Legal teams for both Trump and Harris had seemingly been preparing for post-election litigation since the summer. Now, instead of hints, Trump is providing clear evidence.
“Have you ever heard the saying, it doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes? We can’t let that happen. We must stop it,” Trump said at the rally in Greenville, North Carolina. Standing next to him on stage was the head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley. Trump turned to him and asked: “Well, they’re cheating, aren’t they, Michael? They’re trying. But they won’t get away with it, right?” Without waiting for a response, Trump answered his own question loudly: “He said ‘no.’ That’s why I took him.” Trump didn’t explain where he had “taken” Whatley, but his words could be interpreted as a reminder that the formal head of the Republican Party didn’t rise to the top without the support of Trump’s base, meaning the party establishment will back the former president unreservedly this time, unlike in 2020.
Interestingly, Trump, according to his rally speech, expects fraud to occur in California. Although there are regions where Republicans hold strong (the inland areas), this state is considered a Democratic stronghold. They already win comfortably in California in every election, and this year’s Democratic candidate, Harris, hails from the state. She built her career there, becoming the state attorney general and then a senator. But Trump believes that fraud is precisely what will occur in California. At the rally in Greenville, he said, “I would like God to come down and count the votes in California; then everyone would see that Republicans, not Democrats, are winning there.”
Previously, many U.S. experts believed that Trump’s supporters would target the same states as they did four years ago, primarily Georgia. On October 15, the first day of early voting, Georgia set a record with 328,000 ballots cast. This is a huge number compared to the previous record of 136,000, set during early voting in 2020. Back then, Trump suspected fraud in Biden’s favor and unsuccessfully tried to challenge the state’s election results. A similar scenario could play out this time, especially since Trump’s statements in North Carolina resonate well within his own party.
According to a September poll by the World Justice Project, nearly half (46%) of Republicans said they would not accept the results of the presidential election if Harris was declared the winner. Moreover, 11% of them were willing to protest the results, including through legal action or other means. On the other hand, Democrats appeared much more peaceful, with only 27% saying they wouldn’t accept Trump’s victory.
It seems that Trump supporters’ certainty that Harris cannot win fairly has grown in recent days. According to the latest polling data, Harris’ lead over Trump is shrinking. The most recent ten polls show her leading by an average of only 0.8%, which is nearly negligible.
Several outlets, citing sources in Trump’s campaign, report that his team is already preparing a response if Harris wins. The plan would be to first file lawsuits, then appeal to Congress in an attempt to block certification of the election results.
