Academic: Republicans preparing to stage an electoral coup in 2024

An American political analyst and academic says Republicans are preparing to stage an electoral coup to put former US President Donald Trump in the White House in 2024.

Rogers M. Smith, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a report which says Trump has dropped the biggest hint yet that he plans to make another bid for the presidency in 2024.

In the video of Trump at one of his Florida golf clubs, one of Trump's golfing partners films him walking up to take a swing, saying: "First on the tee, the 45th president of the United States," according to Business Insider.

"The 45th and 47th," Trump said in response.

For months, Trump has floated the idea of a 2024 rematch against President Joe Biden. But in recent weeks, he has signaled strongly that he may be more likely to run again than not.

Trump dominates the field of potential candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential field, according to a new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.

In a hypothetical eight-people Republican presidential primary, Trump obtains an incredible 57 percent support among Republican voters, according to the survey, shared exclusively with The Hill.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a distant second but he is an early favorite for the nomination in the event that Trump doesn’t run again.  

“There is no real doubt that Donald Trump will run for President again unless health or legal problems prevent him from doing so.  He has an aching, voracious need to be the center of attention, and there is simply no better way to achieve that,” said Smith.

Trump, who believes that the election was rigged by the Washington establishment in favor of Joe Biden, has alleged that the 2020 election was “the greatest Election Hoax in history.”

He said that “many Republicans believe the Big Lie that Democrats steal elections from them, and many more do not care one way or the other but do want power and know they have only minority support in the US, there is a very real danger that they will overturn democratic outcomes in many locations in 2024, staging an electoral coup.  American democracy has never been more vulnerable, but most Americans are still strongly committed to preserving it.  So the danger is real but far from likely to prevail.”

The analyst said that Republicans and Trump are the greatest threat to American democracy.

“It is precisely the danger that they will gain control of numerous elections around the country and stage what you have correctly referred to as an electoral coup in 2024.  There can be no greater threat to democracy than the refusal to recognize the results of free, fair, competitive elections,” he noted.

Poll: 32 percent of American voters believe Biden won the 2020 election by fraud

.About one-third of American voters believe that US President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election by voter fraud, according to a new poll.

Recent opinion polls have depicted a gloomy landscape for Democrats as they gear up for the 2022 midterm elections.

A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found that Republicans maintain a clear lead on the congressional ballot over Democrats as Biden's approval rating plunges to a new low of 38 percent.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, say they do not want Biden to run for a second term in 2024, including a troubling 28 percent of Democrats.

Biden has proven a disappointment for many who voted him into office last year, with 16 percent of those surveyed saying he has done a worse job as president than they expected. Overall, 46 percent of Americans hold that view.

More worrying for Biden, another new survey by the Emerson College has found that Trump would beat the incumbent by two points – 45 to 43 percent - if the election was held today.

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