How Trump would fight a 2024 election loss
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Summary
The morning after the 2020 election, then-president Donald Trump prematurely declared victory and claimed that a “fraud” was being perpetrated on the American public. He would go on to wage a campaign against the 2020 results, which culminated in rioters storming the U.S. Capitol.
Now, with Trump back on the ballot, experts are concerned that Trump and his allies may use the same playbook they did in 2020 to challenge the 2024 results. Trump has already suggested that the 2024 election would be stolen from him and has continued to press baseless claims about election fraud.
Today on “Post Reports,” Martine Powers speaks with reporter Patrick Marley about how Trump tried to contest the 2020 results, what has changed in the past four years, and what may play out in 2024.
Today’s show was produced by Peter Bresnan, with help from Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Monica Campbell, with help from Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Jenna Johnson.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thank you. This is without question the latest news conference I've ever had. |
| 0:09.0 | This was four years ago the morning after Election Day 2020. It was a little |
| 0:17.2 | after 2 a.m. when then President Donald Trump gave a speech. And we were |
| 0:21.8 | getting ready for a big celebration. |
| 0:26.2 | We were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off. |
| 0:30.7 | The election hadn't been called yet, but immediately Trump began suggesting that the results were not accurate. |
| 0:37.0 | This is a fraud on the American public. |
| 0:41.0 | This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready |
| 0:46.9 | to win this election. Frankly we did win this election. He didn't stop there. For months after, Trump waged a campaign |
| 1:01.6 | against the 2020 results. |
| 1:03.4 | This included legal battles and lawsuits and culminated in riders storming the U.S. Capitol. |
| 1:10.3 | Trump ultimately wasn't successful in overturning the 2020 election, but that hasn't made the issue go away. |
| 1:18.0 | And the big question in this year's race is how he might handle a potential election loss. When Trump has |
| 1:25.5 | been asked about this he said that he would accept the results with one caveat |
| 1:29.0 | as long as the election is free and fair. If it's a fair and legal and good election absolutely if |
| 1:35.7 | it's going to be a fair and free election the answer is absolutely I will and |
| 1:39.4 | the implication there is that if he loses he's going to think the election was not free |
| 1:43.8 | and fair. Patrick Marley reports on voting and democracy for the post. He says that |
| 1:49.2 | Trump's statements fit into a broader pattern with many others in the GOP also sewing doubt about the upcoming election. |
| 1:57.0 | And now, experts are concerned that Trump and his allies might use the same playbook as they did in 2020 to challenge the |
| 2:05.6 | 2024 election results. I think the main thing that experts who've looked at this say |
| 2:11.4 | is that they are certain that Trump will declare victory before |
... |
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