Right now I'm remembering a call I had with a CNN anchor months ago in which I tried to convince him that Trump would try to delay the election. He was skeptical. I guess being one of the most prolific biographers of the Trump presidency does teach you something about the man.
Trump doesn't have the authority to delay the election—even if his son-in-law recently implied Trump thinks he does. But that's not the point. The point is that a White House that believes it has autocratic powers it does not have can plunge the country into chaos and destroy it.
Anyone who thinks this tweet is merely a "distraction" needs to Google "Overton window" right now. In the digital age, the ability to shape reality through language is a currency. With one tweet, Trump has changed the possible futures for this country in obscenely dangerous ways.
In my conversation with the CNN anchor the second concern I expressed was that Trump would orchestrate the contestation of individual slates of electors (through legal and political challenges) in a way that disrupted the ability of Congress to determine who had won the election.
With his tweet today, Trump has made clear that every scenario that's been put forward by anyone in which Trump attempts to delay the election or destroy the nation's ability to determine who won the election should be considered a "live" possibility America must defend against.
The notion that with less than a hundred days until a presidential election America must expend substantial material resources defending against possible futures in which the president seeks to destroy our democracy underscores the need for a new impeachment inquiry immediately.
This isn't something a president can "float," and here's what I mean by that: the mere fact Trump posits this as in the range of things he thinks can and should happen in America marks him as a clear and present danger to America—because as POTUS he has unique, dangerous powers.
In the call, I told the CNN anchor that integral to Trump's plan to delay the election would be a claim the country is in an emergency due to COVID-19.
Reading this thread now, I'm sure most of us have the same reaction: wasn't *all of this* actually pretty obvious to all of us?
Reading this thread now, I'm sure most of us have the same reaction: wasn't *all of this* actually pretty obvious to all of us?
