Even as ballots in the 2020 election were still being counted, Donald Trump claimed to his supporters that he had won, but that “a fraud” was being perpetrated “on the American public” to deprive him of a second term. After it was clear that he had officially lost, Trump:
- Continued to spread baseless lies that the election had been stolen from him
- Blocked federal officials from working with Joe Biden’s transition team
- Demanded Georgia’s secretary of state “find” him the exact number of votes he needed to turn his loss their into a win
- Pressured the DOJ to investigate the absurd claim that Italian satellites had changed Trump votes to Biden ones
- Urged state legislators to “decertify” their election results
- Incited a violent riot that left numerous people dead
- Let said violent riot go on for hours before he half-heartedly told people to go home (and also told the mob, “You’re very special” and “we love you” and “Remember this day forever!”)
- Said Mike Pence deserved the chants calling for his hanging
- Continues, nearly four years later, to claim the election was stolen from him
- Won’t commit to accepting the outcome of the 2024 election
- Says there will be further violence if he loses again
- Regularly threatens to use the government to go after his enemies if he wins
- Said he will be a dictator on “day one” in office
Because of all of the above, and because Joe Biden has notably done none of the above, you might think it would be pretty clear to people that of the two candidates, one of them is good for democracy and one of them is bad, and that the latter is very obviously Trump. But according to the results of a terrifying new poll, that is, somehow, very much not the case.
That poll, conducted by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, reveals that in the six swing states Biden won in 2020, more voters classified as “Deciders”—that is, they are likely to decide the outcome of the election—think Trump is better equipped to handle threats to democracy than Biden.
“Many Americans don’t recognize Biden’s custodianship of our democracy, which is a bad sign for his campaign,” Justin Gest, a professor of policy and government at George Mason University, told the Post, in perhaps the understatement of a lifetime. It’s not clear how the Biden campaign plans to change these people’s minds, but for the actual fate of democracy, it would be great if they could get on that.
Speaking of pants-shittingly concerning news…
Here’s some more worrisome data from the Post:
While the words “a…President Biden victory is plausible” theoretically make the “Donald Trump is leading” part slightly less scary, in reality they absolutely do not.
The Speaker of the House goes to bat for another convicted criminal
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Billion-dollar defamation lawsuits will do that to ya
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