the first attack was Donald Trump’s dress rehearsal for his return

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Washington: A year after thousands of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Donald Trump plans to mark the anniversary on Jan. 6 with a news meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

It will not be mea culpa.

In a statement released before Christmas, the former president clarified that he would use the event to re-assert his false statement that the election was “stolen”, and launch another attack on the bipartisan select House committee investigating in the incident.

“Until then, remember, the insurrection took place on November 3rd,” Trump said, referring to the 2020 election day.

“This is the completely unarmed protest of the rigged election that took place on the 6th of January.”

The insurgency left many people dead, about 150 policemen injured and a country shocked and divided.

But there’s every reason to think that the January 6 attack was just the beginning for Donald Trump and his allies-and this time, they’re more organized.

Twelve months after America’s chamber of democracy was raided by soldiers of a former president trying to cling to power at any cost, Trumpists and partisan state legislatures are now working to undermine election processes in throughout the US.

They are less violent than an angry mob that descends on Congress after saying “fight like hell” – but more deceptive, strategic, and potentially damaging to democracy in the longer term.

In fact, last month, at least 262 bills were introduced in 41 states that would interfere with election administration, according to a joint report released by the United States, Law Forward, and Protect Democracy-three non-partisan group aimed at improving election security. .

Choking the vote

These include a raft of voter suppression laws that would impede the ability of millions of Americans to vote early, by mail, or on Election Day itself.

Take the sunbelt state of Texas, which already has some of the toughest voting barriers in the country. It has now introduced a ban on overnight early voting hours and drive -through voting – both of which have proven popular with voters of color.

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In Kansas, people can face criminal charges for returning preliminary ballots on behalf of voters who need help, such as people with disabilities. In Georgia, people can now be charged with a crime for providing food and water to people waiting in line to vote.

Electoral boundaries have been redrawn to give Republicans an advantage in new districts ahead of this year’s important midterm elections. Both parties have a history of gerrymandering maps to improve their numbers in Congress, but Republicans have become more successful in recent decades.

And despite losing dozens of legal challenges centered on baseless claims of a fraudulent outcome, Trump and his supporters are now working to elect myth advocates to powerful positions at the level. state and national.

If elected, these candidates, who say the 2020 presidential election was stolen, could have huge influence to help topple the next presidential election result.

Not surprisingly, democracy groups, political academia, and former military leaders are warning about America being on the brink of a constitutional crisis.

“The battle of our lives today, of this generation, is to get voting rights and get a peaceful transfer of power. That shouldn’t be a partisan issue, ”prominent presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told CNN this week.

RINOs and revenge

In Alaska, Trump seeks to oust moderate Republican senator Liz Murkowski by supporting his main challenger Kelly Tshibaka, a former state bureaucrat who promoted Trump’s theory of election fraud.

In Michigan, the former president put his weight behind state politician Steve Carra, who led the local push for an audit of 2020 election results, rather than veteran congressman Fred Upton, who voted for Trump’s impeachment.

Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, Republican royalty and son of former vice-president Dick Cheney, was called RINO by Donald Trump (Republican in name only) for voting to impeach him. Credits: AP

And in the state of Wyoming, Trump endorsed local attorney Harriet Hagemen in her GOP bid to oust fellow Republican Liz Cheney, the son of former George W. Bush vice president Dick Cheney, and a explicit member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 event.

“Harriet is all in for America First,” Trump said in a statement in September, denouncing Cheney as a “RINO” – slang for “Republican in Name Only” – and describing him as “the Democrats number one provider of sound bites. “

Cheney, who responded to 60 Minutes, said he knew full well that his former safe seat would soon be a litmus test for Trump’s dominance in the party.

“This will be the most important House race in the country in 2022,” he said. “This will be one where people will have the opportunity to say: ‘We want to stand up for the constitution.'”

Other Trump loyalists have also been endorsed as candidates to become chief election official, known as secretary of state. Major contests will take place in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia, the southern state that helped bring Joe Biden to the presidency – partly because its incumbent secretary, Republican Brad Raffensperger, has refused to give in to Trump’s demands that “find” 11,780 votes to overturn the election result.

Georgian congressman Jody Hice voted to overturn the election result after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. Credits: AP

Instead, the former president and his allies support U.S. congressman Jody Hice, who voted against confirming Biden’s victory, running against Raffensberger for the critical position.

“Jody will stop Fraud and be honest with our Elections!” Trump declared in 2021.

What about Trump? Even without the megaphone of Twitter and Facebook (which banned his accounts), he has nonetheless spent the past 12 months pushing his message through targeted emails, rallies and interviews with Fox News and others. more friendly outlets.

It could be Trump’s fundraising

In fact, a quick tally shows that since the Capitol attack, nearly 1000 campaign emails have been sent from Trump’s office or his Save America fundraising committee.

At the end of July, the last reporting date, Trump’s three major fundraising organizations had declared more than $ 100 million ($ 138 million) in revenue. The Washington Post reported in October that the former president raises more than $ US1 million per week.

And while 700 people have now been charged in the Jan. 6 attack, it’s unclear whether anyone from the White House and Trump’s networks is responsible.

The House -appointed committee did some careful work in an attempt to build a picture of how the insurrection took place, but Republicans and Democrats knew it didn’t benefit the cooperative’s witnesses, much less the luxury of the time.

Donald Trump still led Save America rallies months after losing the election. Here, he was at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Ohio in June. Credits: AP

Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and political strategist Steve Bannon have already refused to submit subpoenas, and if Biden loses control of Congress in the midterm elections, which are widely expected, questioning will be put aside.

None of this should come as a surprise if you go back to the pattern that emerged in 2020.

Although it will take until the November election that year for Trump to mark Biden as an illegitimate president, the seeds of doubt have been deliberately planted for months, starting with a Tweet in July in which he said that mail-in voting will result in “the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in history”.

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On Election Day, millions of Americans truly believe that the only way to defeat their president is if the system is deceived.

More than a year later, 68 percent of Republicans still think the election was “stolen” from Trump, according to a poll in November from the Public Religion Research Institute. Eighteen percent of survey respondents also agreed with the statement: “Because things have gone so far down the path, true American patriots may need to use violence to save our country.”

Enough for you to wonder: were the events on January 6 just a dress rehearsal for the main event?

Time will tell. But in the battle between democracy and authoritarianism, the re -emergence of Donald Trump and his influence in the Republican Party will be one of the most important political events to watch as 2022 opens.

The first exam is next week.

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