Counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance had a troubling warning for the country on Saturday: Donald Trump’s team will try to steal the 2020 election using more help from foreign adversaries.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, Nance said that while Rudy Giuliani may have been caught before going to Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, it’s still a signal that the president’s personal lawyer and campaign team will have no reluctance to have other people do the dirty work for them.
“What Giuliani is saying by canceling his meeting is that he personally is not going to go out and do this,” Nance said. “He will have other people go out … and find that information … and he will steal or impact this election in some way that will fundamentally break our electoral process.”
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.@MalcolmNance says the United States is in “very serious trouble” as the Trump team looks eager to use foreign help to win in 2020. #ctl #p2 #amjoy pic.twitter.com/bljX3ASu62
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 11, 2019
Nance said:
I fear for this nation. We are in very, very serious trouble. When now we have a president and his personal team have decided that laws that are out there like campaign finance laws, accepting information, you know, reporting on espionage — and can I just point something out about the Barr statement? … He was very explicit in saying his answer was related to foreign intelligence agencies, not foreign governments. And this is what Russia did. They partially relied on the foreign intelligence agencies but they used intelligence subcontractors, oligarchs and people of influence to really carry out that campaign. What Giuliani is saying by canceling his meeting is that he personally is not going to go out and do this. He understands that the Mueller report defined conspiracy in a very specific way and he is not going to meet that standard. He will have other people go out that we will not hear about for years, go out and find that information and carry out this new apparently, you know, as secretary of dirty tricks for Donald Trump, and he will steal or impact this election in some way that will fundamentally break our electoral process.
The Trump campaign will go back to its 2016 playbook
Without Russia’s help in 2016, it is almost a certainty that Trump wouldn’t be sitting in the White House today. The margin in the three swing states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – that gave Trump his electoral college victory was razor-thin.
With the margin in next year’s election likely to be similarly close, the only way Trump can win is to follow the same playbook. After all, he can’t win if the election is a referendum on his disastrous presidency and morally bankrupt character, so he is hoping more foreign meddling can sink his eventual opponent.
It’s unclear if it will work in 2020 as Democrats are as clear-eyed and vigilant as ever – but the Trump campaign knows it’s their best shot at holding the White House.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
