What if Trump won't accept 2020 defeat?

[Celerity]

The situations all seem far-fetched, but the president's comments have people chattering in the halls of Congress and throughout the Beltway.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/21/trump-election-2020-1374589

In 2016, Donald Trump waffled over whether he would accept the election results if he lost.

Since then, Trump has repeatedly joked about staying in office beyond the two terms the Constitution allows. Jerry Falwell Jr., Trump’s most prominent evangelical supporter, has suggested Trump should get two years tacked on to his first term as “pay back” for the Mueller investigation. The president’s own former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has warned that “there will never be a peaceful transition of power” should Trump fail in his reelection bid.

The scenarios all seem far-fetched — “It’s almost a question for science fiction movies,” cracked a former top Secret Service official — but the constant drumbeat nonetheless has people chattering in the halls of Congress and throughout the Beltway: What if Trump won’t accept defeat in 2020?

And one scenario in particular has Democrats nervous: the lawsuit-happy Trump contests the election results in court.

“It’s been a worry in the back of my mind for the last couple years now,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat. California Rep. Ted Lieu, a frequent Trump critic and early impeachment inquiry supporter, acknowledged the same concern but said he trusted law enforcement “would do the right thing” and “install the winner” of the election. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told her party to prepare for the possibility that Trump contests the 2020 results.

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[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. On January 20, 2021, he becomes a private citizen.

No matter how much he whines and threatens to sue, on that date he becomes a trespasser on government property, and the federal marshals can haul his ugly orange ass right out of the WH.

[wryter2000]

4. Yup

And I imagine that if he tried to sue to stay in office the court would hear the case quickly and boot him the Hell out.

[TwilightZone]

2. It's just a fantasy.

We should treat it as such. It's not worth wasting time worrying about.

We should focus on turnout - if the election margin is large enough, he won't have a basis for lawsuits and his protestations won't be taken seriously by anyone. We managed that in 2018. We need a repeat in 2020.

[Thekaspervote]

5. Agree!!!

[onecaliberal]

3. I've been asking that since dump first started squatting in the oval.

[Downtown Hound]

6. Not this shit again.

[Igel]

13. Yes, precisely.

Bush II wasn't going to leave office, and had all the machinery in place to ensure martial law if he (or his) were defeated. And yet ...

I read (R) saying the same crap about Obama. I could swear they cut-and-pasted the very DU texts, replete with pictures of the empty concentration camps, for their own use. Except they also showed mastery of the global "find and replace" function, so it said all the same things about Obama that many said about Bush II.

And, yes, there were (R) concerns--we're talking "loony (R)" here, more than 3 standard deviations from the mean--about Clinton/Gore.

It does seem a bit early this time 'round.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Trump will leave. It's the fucknuttery from his followers I worry about.

I could see a lot of little 'rebellions' going on around the country. The FBI will have its hands full for a while.

[gratuitous]

8. We are under no obligation to adopt Trump's delusions as our reality

This is a concept that utterly baffles some otherwise canny people in our country right now.

[Brawndo]

9. Then we'll find out just how devoted his cult truly is

[customerserviceguy]

10. I posted about that scenario a couple of days ago

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12200830

It occurred to me that Trump will not go quietly into that good night.

[struggle4progress]

11. Then he can go noisily. But he's going: quietly or noisily or whatever

[customerserviceguy]

12. Yes, but what does he take with him?

I fear that it will be national unity.

[struggle4progress]

14. Well, we can at least hope he'll take all his portraits!

[customerserviceguy]

15. Arghhh! My eyes!! n/t

[SammyWinstonJack]

17. SpongeDonnie SquareHead. Ugly.

[Codeine]

16. Nonsense.

People said this shit about Bush and about Obama. It doesn’t sound any less silly now.