President Donald Trump may have just laid down the tracks for one of his boldest election plots yet, according to one political analyst.
Read more ‘Don’t know when they are going to learn’: Republican laments MAGA election wins on MS NOW
John Heilemann, an MS NOW political analyst, said on Sunday’s broadcast of “Deadline: White House: Weekend” that Trump’s recent national address about election security was an attempt to “lay down the tracks” for his next wave of lies about the election results.
“I think he’s just trying to lay down the tracks on which he can make false claims in the future,” Heilemann said. “For him, it’s enough to have said those things publicly so that when he does what he’s going to do, whatever that turns out to be in November, he can look back and say, ‘I told you so. I said, this was rigged. You didn’t believe me. You didn’t listen to me. But it was rigged then, and it’s rigged now … This is an illegitimate election. And here’s what we’re going to do going forward.'”
Read more Trump allies offering startling advice to GOP candidates with midterms just 100 days out
Heilemann noted that recent polling appears to back up his assertion. A recent poll from The Economist and YouGov found that 67% of Americans, including 77% of independent voters, thought Trump was trying to sow doubt about American elections during his national address rather than back up his claims of election interference with concrete facts.
“So, all of this is about pretext, not about persuasion, and not about some kind of good faith attempt to govern,” he added. “It’s about … laying the groundwork for what comes nextcomes next.”
Read more Jared Holt: Republicans have disinformation researchers in their crosshairs
