Top Dems Threaten Not To Certify A Trump Election Victory

Despite continually disparaging anyone who questioned election outcomes, Rep. Jamie Raskin and a few of his colleagues told Axios they can’t say with certainty whether they will certify the results if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election.

Raskin told Axios in an interview that he would “obviously accept” the results of the election if it were a “free, fair and honest election.” But he then claimed that he “definitely” does not take for granted that Trump will, as described by Axios, “use free, fair and honest means to secure a victory.”

Raskin also told Axios that Trump “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments.”

For years, Raskin and his fellow Democrats have continually labeled Trump and anyone who questioned the results of the 2020 election a “threat to democracy” and an “insurrectionist,” but Raskin’s comments signal that the whole “denying election results is a threat to democracy” schtick may be falling by the wayside.

Raskin wasn’t alone in his election denialism, with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who objected to the 2005 electors for George W. Bush, saying she doesn’t trust Trump and that “we would have to, in any election … make sure that all the rules have been followed.”

House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (who objected to Trump electors in 2017), told Axios Democrats would certify a Trump win “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.”

“We have to see how it all happens,” McGovern told Axios, adding that he expects Democrats “would” certify the results.

Election denialism is nothing new for Democrats. In fact, their performative Jan. 6 Committee appointed Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson as chairman — but Thompson denied the results of the 2004 election and voted against the Ohio certification of Bush’s win. Raskin himself challenged the certification of Trump’s victory in 2017, arguing that “10 of the 29 electoral votes cast by Florida were cast by electors not lawfully certified because they violated Florida’s prohibition against dual officeholders.”

Despite their own election denialism, Democrats have resorted to lawfare and bullying to force Republicans into relinquishing their right to question problematic election administration.

Attorney General Merrick Garland recently boasted that his office has prosecuted nearly 1,500 Americans for protesting the 2020 election and warned others they will face similar lawfare should they dare question the administration of the upcoming election.

Meanwhile Republicans who question the conduct of questionable election practices are smeared by the propaganda press and their Democrat allies as election “deniers.” It’s a tactic designed to silence legitimate concerns about election administration.

Surely if Democrats have legitimate cause for concern about the integrity of an election they reserve the right to question the administration, but if they were legitimately concerned about “free” and “fair” elections, they’d be sounding the alarm about unsafe election practices right now.

Consider, for example, that the Georgia State Election Board found in May that Fulton County double-scanned more than 3,000 ballots during the 2020 presidential recount. In the wake of finding such insecure election practices, the State Election Board passed a series of rules designed to ensure that ballot counts are accurate before certification. Except Democrats, backed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, have sued the board because of the new rules. If Raskin is so deeply concerned about “fair” elections, surely he would defend the state board’s efforts to ensure that all legitimate votes are counted, right?

Wrong. Instead, Raskin smeared the Georgia process while speaking to Axios.

“[Trump] is doing whatever he can to … [manipulate] vote count in Georgia,” Raskin reportedly said.

It’s because Raskin doesn’t actually care about free and fair election practices. He simply cares about denying Trump a potential second term — all the while serving on a committee that sought to have people jailed for doing less than what Raskin tells Axios he might do should Trump win this November.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2