WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Askume) – U.S. election administrators and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign on Monday condemned Donald Trump ‘s threat that he would go to jail for “corruption” if he won on Nov. 5. Election officials accused him of intimidation and inciting potential violence.
He was responding to a social media post by the Republican presidential candidate on Saturday in which he threatened to sue several people if they engage in voter fraud in the 2024 election. Studies have found that voter fraud is extremely rare in the United States .
“We cannot allow our country to degrade further into a third world country, and we will not! Please note that this legal risk extends to lawyers, politicians, donors, illegal voters, and corrupt election officials,” Trump wrote. “Unethical behavior will unfortunately be pursued, caught, and prosecuted like never before in our country.”
Trump also reiterated his baseless claims that his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was due to fraud, echoing his remarks to supporters before the deadly storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The message conveyed by both is the same.
Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state in the battleground state of Arizona, described Trump’s posts on his Truth Society account as “atrocious” and said they had the potential to incite political violence.
“Sadly, security is now one of the prime considerations in election administration,” Fontes, Arizona’s top elections official, told Askume.
“Trump’s rhetoric could lead bad actors to take this as a call to arms. We need to protect our election officials and election workers. We need to be prepared for anything.”
When asked about Trump’s comments, Seth Bluestein, a Republican member of the Pennsylvania state board of elections, said: “I know every election official is focused on doing their job, and unfortunately, that includes being prepared for threats of violence.”
“President Trump believes that anyone who breaks the law, including those who engage in election fraud, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Trump campaign national press secretary Carolyn Levitt said in a written statement to Askume Criminal Justice.
Harris’ spokesman Amman Moussa called Trump’s comments “excessive and out of control”, and added: “Donald Trump is escalating his dangerous threats of retaliation.”
Trump and Harris are locked in an election battle that polls show is very close. Harris had erased Trump’s lead over Biden before the Democratic president abandoned his re-election bid in July, making Harris the party’s White House nominee.
Since his defeat in 2020, Trump has frequently made false claims that election workers cheated and prevented him from winning. Several people have been threatened .
In response to Trump’s Saturday post, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, posted on X: “My job — and the job of every elections official in this country — is to rise above the noise, continue to ensure that our elections are fair, secure, accessible and that the results are accurate, and no amount of lies, confusion or intimidation will distract us from that goal.”
Michelle Huff, elections director for Surry County in North Carolina, said she worried Trump’s comments would deter people from becoming election workers.
“It just discourages good volunteers,” said Huff, a former Republican who became an independent.
