Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Candidates must disavow accusations that endanger election workers

People Vote in Midterm Election at Boulevard Mall

Wade Vandervort

A person receives an I Voted sticker after voting at a polling site on midterm Election Day at the Boulevard Mall Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022.

For disgraced former President Donald Trump, it’s long past time to shut up. That’s especially true now that he’s directly targeting the heroes of the Clark County election officials and workers, people who defend our democracy.

Trump’s dangerous rhetoric is stoking the fires of violence against election workers, elected officials and their families.

For three consecutive election cycles, Trump made baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and conspiratorial cover-ups by elections officials in states across the country. We call them “baseless claims” but let’s be honest, dangerous and delusional bald-faced lies is more accurate.

We have rejected Trump’s brand of conspiratorial extremism in three consecutive elections. He struck out while swinging for the fences and should not be allowed to receive another pitch. The only question remaining is whether he shambles back to the dugout or charges the mound, bat in hand, threatening the lives of public officials guilty of nothing more than doing their job and fulfilling their civic duty.

Or for that matter, perhaps he’s more like the red-faced and bug-eyed parent at a youth sports game, screaming from the sidelines of democracy. We can’t quite decide which fashion of baseball belligerence is more appropriate for Trump at this juncture in his self-debasement. After all, Trump is nearly a flipbook of repugnant behavior.

His lies are nothing new. Trump built a television career and short-lived political empire on the myth — the lie — that he was a successful businessman. In reality, the only thing he seems truly successful at is pulling off the greatest series of “dine-and-dash” schemes in U.S. history — using his father’s name and fortune to convince people to give him loans, products and services, and then running out the door to the U.S. bankruptcy court every time the bill came due. He’s a living testament to why the bankruptcy system should be overhauled.

But we digress. While the fabrications of his past caused tremendous financial stress to the many hardworking Americans he weaseled out of paying, his more recent lies are much more dangerous.

As Reuters reported one week ago, “Election workers in Arizona’s most fiercely contested county faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications in the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, most of them based on election conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies.”

Trump continued stoking the flames after the election, posting multiple times to his Truth Social platform alleging that the situation in Maricopa County, Ariz. was a “complete Voter Integrity DISASTER.”

“They are trying to steal the election with bad Machines and DELAY. Don’t let it happen!” he said.

Now he’s coming after us in Nevada, targeting Clark County election workers with unfounded claims of “corruption.” He hasn’t presented any evidence to support his claims because there is none. It’s a lie. Hard stop.

No reporting suggests that the lead-up to Nevada’s elections experienced the same level of violent threats as Arizona. But in a time when MAGA-world seeks to stoke political violence, many observers are concerned that the continued chorus of conspiracy theories could lead to violence against election workers.

Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and U.S. Capitol Police issued a warning that domestic extremists pose a “heightened risk” and may find elections workers and officials to be “attractive” targets.

NBC News reported that election officials in Nevada and Arizona were “bracing for a new wave of conspiracy-fueled threats — even as they remain confident in their ability to do their jobs under heightened scrutiny.”

Meanwhile, as Trump was standing with violent extremists and conspiracy theorists, Nevada State Democratic Party Chair Judith Whitmer was standing with election workers.

“We absolutely condemn Donald Trump’s inflammatory and untrue statement labeling Nevada’s election count as ‘corrupt,’ ” she said. “Our election workers are committed to ensuring that every Nevadan has their ballot counted. Those incredible efforts deserve our respect and support, not baseless attacks from a disgraced ex-president who lost in Nevada twice.”

Despite being significantly behind in multiple elections at the time that statement was made, the Democratic Party made sure everyone knew that they stood behind election workers. Meanwhile, Republican leaders were at best silent and at worst complicit in spreading Trump’s lies.

When will Trump’s MAGA base say enough is enough?

It’s one thing to disagree on issues of policy or call for greater transparency, communication and community outreach around how elections are conducted. Democratic candidate for secretary of state Cisco Aguilar has done exactly that by advocating that state officials must do more to rebuild trust in the electoral process. But it is quite another to spread lies and promote violence that targets election workers who are just trying to do their jobs.

Dozens of courts have found that Trump’s claims of election fraud have no basis in reality. Some of the judges in those cases are conservatives appointed by Trump in the first place. Yet they have all reached the same conclusion.

Bellowing from his inner darkness, Trump has not figured out that America is done with his lunacy. However, now at this moment, there is an immediate need for Trump’s minions like Adam Laxalt, Joe Lombardo, Michele Fiore, Jim Marchant and Arizona’s Kari Lake and Blake Masters to announce that the election process is legitimate. They must do it now, as election workers need these statements for their safety. If they don’t do so, irrespective of the outcome of their races, they will have shown themselves unfit for leadership in a democracy.