“Stop counting!”.
Donald Trump does not stop anymore.
After proclaiming his victory on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday even though many votes remain to be counted, he has never ceased to denounce an election
"stolen"
by the Democrats, multiplying legal remedies.
The worst-case scenario, which almost looked like science fiction a few months earlier, is finally happening: an extremely close election, an endless vote count and, above all, a president who by his speeches and his legal actions, clearly chose the strategy of chaos.
A strategy he has meticulously prepared for months.
Read also: The Republican Party united behind Donald Trump in his legal challenge to the ballot
“He always knew he couldn't get a majority of the popular vote
.
So he worked to get 270 voters at all costs, including fueling uncertainties about the sincerity of the ballot, as in Pennsylvania for example, ”
says Sanford Levinson, professor at the University of Texas Law.
"He has been preparing for months now,"
adds Bernadette Meyler, professor of law at Stanford.
He has targeted postal voting in particular, trying to question its legitimacy. ”
As Donald Trump knows, the postal vote generally favors the Democratic candidate.
From this observation, the American president has not ceased to attack this voting method - particularly privileged in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic since more than 100 million people voted by mail.
He did not hesitate to refuse the support plan of 25 billion dollars desired by the Democrats to support the American Post, for example.
Its new director, Louis DeJoy - a generous donor to Trump - has even imposed numerous restrictions in an attempt to cut costs.
Restrictions which resulted in mail delays for several days.
Enough to guarantee that the American postal service is not ready to welcome the torrent of bulletins sent.
“Postal votes, they cheat. Ok, people cheat. Postal votes are a very dangerous thing for this country because they cheat, ”
he also accused in April.
Not to mention the many tweets on this subject denouncing
“proxy voting forms”
sent
“illegally”
to Michigan or Nevada, denouncing at the same time the
“greatest electoral fraud for the state and the United States”.
Judicial battle
Enough to prepare minds for a fierce challenge in order to fight against this election which will necessarily be fraudulent in the mind of Donald Trump.
And it was not lacking.
The day after the elections, the outgoing president denounced on Twitter
“surprise votes”
:
“Yesterday evening, I was in the lead, often with a solid lead in many key states, in almost all cases led and controlled by democrats.
Then, one by one, they began to magically disappear, as surprise ballots were counted.
VERY STRANGE".
"Donald Trump's strategy has been thought for a long time and he announced the color long before the ballot,"
said Marie-Christine Bonzom, political scientist and journalist, former correspondent for the BBC in Washington.
There have already been more than 300 challenges, administrative and judicial appeals made in the states even before November 3. ”
The president also launched several lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada while also calling for a recount of the votes in Wisconsin, won by his Democratic rival.
According to the states, he has asked to suspend the counting of votes by correspondence, especially those arriving after November 3, in others he has denounced fraud, as for Nevada.
Donald Trump even went so far as to warn Joe Biden, promising him that he would launch legal actions in all the states won by the former vice-president of Barack Obama.
“On the ground, Donald Trump's strategy seems to have two axes,”
explains Marie-Christine Bonzom.
In Arizona
,
for example, he asks that all the votes be counted since Joe Biden is currently in the lead.
In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, he will challenge the validity of a maximum of ballots in order to obtain a recount.
He will especially contest postal votes on very technical points such as the verification of signatures for example.
"
Multiplying these actions, the American president of the Supreme Court in his sights.
Already on Tuesday, he announced to seize the highest judicial institution in the country.
"He cannot say that the Court will take up his case,"
challenges Sanford Levinson.
But it will multiply the legal actions in the States, which it can then bring before the Supreme Court of each State, then, possibly, the Supreme Court could seize.
But she doesn't have to.
Donald Trump will however do everything to get his attention. "
Battle of public opinion
And then, Trump is not satisfied with the legal ground.
"This kind of battle is played not only in the courts of the States but also in public opinion",
agrees Marie-Christine Bonzom.
Here again, Donald Trump had announced the color long before polling day.
At the end of September, Donald Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the event of defeat.
"We will have to see what is happening,"
he said when questioned by a journalist who asked him to commit to ensuring a transition without violence.
Once again, he kept his promises on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday when he took the floor to announce his victory.
"As far as I'm concerned, we have won"
, he said, regretting the stopping of the vote count:
"We were winning and we had to suspend everything".
"It's terrifying, Trump is trying to undermine democracy,"
worries Bernadette Meyler.
During the first debate, he refused to guarantee that he would admit defeat if he did not win.
If he loses and all his remedies fail, I'm not sure he would quit.
And, in this case, the Constitution does not say what to do even though it would probably be Congress that would have the final say. ”
And Sanford Levinson to add:
"Trump is not doing it because he exaggerates but because he tries to delegitimize the elections".
Words that also raise fears of violence.
During the campaign, Donald Trump had sent a timid warning to the Proud Boys group - an armed far-right organization which has multiplied the regroupings in recent months - urging them to stay away but also to
"be ready ".
And, this in the same sentence.
Tensions have erupted in recent days in several American cities such as Phoenix, Arizona, where dozens of pro-Trump gathered outside a polling station to demand a stop in counting.
In Portland, Oregon, far-left activists protested before the situation got out of hand and guns were seized
.
Joe Biden ready for battle with his 600 lawyers
The fact remains that, if it retains the support of its fervent supporters, the silence of the Republican Party remains deafening.
"Among the party apparatchiks, in particular the Republicans of Congress, nobody supported him openly"
, specifies Marie-Christine Bonzom recalling that even Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey close to Donald Trump, was critical vis- vis-à-vis the latter.
"It's a bad strategic decision, a bad political decision
," he blurted out, criticizing Trump's decision to claim victory.
However, without the support of the "Grand Old Party", it is rather clear, according to Sanford Levinson, that Trump will not be able to hang on for very long in the event of defeat:
"I think he will be the worst loser in the world. but he cannot stay in power without the support of the governors.
However, state officials have little respect for him and I don't think they could take extraordinary steps to keep him in power. ”
The American constitutional expert refers to article 2 of the American Constitution which stipulates that the state legislature (the legislative branch of each state) has the power to appoint the voters.
Nowhere in the US Constitution does it state that the electorate should be elected.
"He can always ask them, I'll be really surprised if they do, I don't think the Republican Party wants to start a civil war"
, wants to believe Sanford Levinson.
Especially since the Democrats do not intend to let it go.
According to the Reuters news agency, Joe Biden surrounded himself with a team of 600 lawyers, anticipating the - or rather the - legal battle to come.
“The Democratic camp brought together electoral law experts from such and such a state or even from such and such a constituency,
laughs Marie-Christine Bonzom.
But, for the moment, it is not known who is part of Donald Trump's protest team.
What we know is that it is led by Rudy Giuliani who is certainly a lawyer, a former prosecutor, but who is not a specialist in electoral law in Pennsylvania, for example.
It's a pitfall for Trump if he doesn't have these specialists.
He will have problems to progress. "
As an omen, the appeals of the Trump camp in Michigan and Georgia were rejected this Thursday by two judges.
Appeals will probably come to which will be added new legal remedies.
The main objective now is to delay the proclamation of the winner as much as possible.
