The Trump Campaign's Chaotic Closing Strategy [View all]
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/how-army-trump-could-spread-disinformation/616943/
MCKAY COPPINS
OCTOBER 31, 2020
Excerpt:
. . . In the coming days, thousands of pro-Trump poll watchers are set to fan out across battleground statessmartphones in handand post themselves outside voting locations to hunt for evidence of fraud. This army has been coached on what to look for, and instructed to record anything that seems suspicious. The Trump campaign says these videos will be used in potential legal challenges; critics say their sole purpose is to intimidate voters. But in recent conversations with a range of unnerved Democrats and researchers, I was offered another scenario: If the president decides to contest the elections results, his campaign could let loose a blizzard of misleading, decontextualized video clips as proof that the vote cant be trusted.
The goal here is really not producing evidence that stands up for any length of time, Laura Quinn, a progressive researcher monitoring election disinformation, told me. Theyre interested in sowing just enough doubt
to develop this narrative of fraudnot only so that he can contest the election, not only so that he can refuse to concede a loss, but also so that some portion of his supporters will remain embittered and be able to say the results were illegitimate. (A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story.)
Partisan poll-watching has a long history in American politicsTrump did not invent it. But this is the first presidential election since 1982 in which the Republican National Committee is allowed to organize such activities without permission from a federal court. For nearly four decades, the party was restricted by a consent decree issued after a New Jersey election in which Republicans allegedly hired off-duty police officers to patrol minority neighborhoods wearing National Ballot Security Task Force armbands. The decree expired in 2018.
This history, combined with the presidents support among militias and other extremist groups, has fueled fears that the Army for Trump could lead to confrontation and even violence at the polls. In September, a noisy crowd of Trump supporters was accused of intimidating voters and disrupting an early-voting location in Fairfax, Virginia. (The Virginia Republican Party responded to these complaints on Twitter: Quick! Someone call the waaaambulance!)
But the poll watchers real influence may not be felt until they go home and start uploading their videos. Three Democratic strategists who are involved in post-election scenario planning told me thatbarring a blowout on Election NightAmericans should expect a last-ditch disinformation blitz from Trump and his allies to create the impression of wide-scale cheating. (The Democrats requested anonymity to candidly describe strategy discussions.)
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