Republicans are obeying President Donald Trump not simply out of loyalty, but out of fears that his supporters will resort to violence against them, election law strategist and Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace on "Deadline: White House" on Tuesday.
This comes as Indiana state lawmakers advance an extreme mid-decade gerrymander that deletes every Democratic district in the state at Trump's direction, despite a large number of GOP state senators vowing to vote against it — and facing terroristic threats.
"Let me just press you on the broader political moment," said Wallace. "So Trump is at 36 percent and falling. The elections one month ago were a clear repudiation, rejection of Donald Trump and Republicans who have acquiesced to everything he wants him to do, even though all those things are very unpopular politically ... How successful could even their wildest redistricting fantasies be in this worsening political climate?"
"So it's getting harder and harder for them, for sure," said Elias. "You know, I used to think that the reason why Republicans fell in line was they were afraid of losing their primaries. I've actually talked now to enough Democratic members of the House and Senate who have told me that, no, actually, what they fear is physical violence at the hands of Donald Trump's supporters. So everyone should just digest and live with that for a moment, that these are elected officials who are fearing physical safety if they do things like not illegally gerrymander their states in the middle of the cycle."
"But as Donald Trump's poll numbers fall, as he becomes less popular, as they have more close, you know, close scares or actual scares, we're just going to see his tactics get more and more authoritarian, worse and worse," Elias warned. "For democracy, that means more extreme forms of gerrymandering. It means more extreme forms of voter suppression. It means election subversion, it means frivolous lawsuits. And as we saw after the 2020 election, it ultimately led to violence that he instigated around certification."
"So, you know, we are on this path that we are able to now warn people in advance that this is where we're headed," he added. "The more unpopular Donald Trump is, the more extreme his behavior will be, and the more extreme his supporters' behavior will be."