US elections : Experts fear more legal challenges after Nov 5

 

MOSES MATENGA IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN

 

Experts say former President Donald Trump is likely to mount a series of legal challenges if he loses Tuesday’s election.

 

This comes as the former President’s team has already sued CBS News alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of a recent one hour interview with Harris that allegedly misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him.

 

CBS News has called Trump’s claims “completely without merit”.

 

The news outlet says it will vigorously defend the lawsuit.

 

Todd Helmus, a senior Behavioral Scientist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School told Business Times that though disturbances like the ones that rocked Capital Hill in January 2021 were unlikely, a number of court challenges were likely.

 

“There are concerns about some folks not adhering to the law,” he said. “This election is going to have a lot of court cases. We are not going to have an attack like what happened last time.”

 

He was referring to protests by pro-Trump activists who stormed government offices protesting over the outcome after incumbent Joe Biden stormed to victory.

 

Experts say the result may go either way and therefore difficult to predict a clear winner.

 

Helmus say it may take days before the outright winner is known.

 

The Los Angeles Times also reports that Trump has spent months laying the groundwork — just as he did in his campaign four years ago — to challenge the results of the 2024 election if he loses.

 

He has made election lies central to his campaign, issuing fevered and false warnings about fraud while promising to take retribution against people he sees as standing in his way.

 

At rally after rally, the Republican urges his supporters to deliver a victory “too big to rig,” telling them the only way he can lose is if Democrats cheat. He has repeatedly refused to say whether he will accept the election results regardless of the outcome. And he has falsely claimed that cheating is already underway, citing debunked claims and outrageous theories unsupported by evidence.

 

The only thing that can stop us is the cheating. It’s the only thing that can stop us,” he claimed at an event in Arizona Thursday night.

 

In 2020, Trump declared victory before votes were counted, then launched a legal and political effort to overturn his loss to Biden.

Related