President Donald Trump appears to have set a "five-alarm fire" ahead of the upcoming midterm election, and it ought to give Democrats the reality check they need, according to one expert.
Marc Elias, a voting rights attorney, warned on a new episode of the "Democracy Watch" podcast, co-hosted by Brian Tyler Cohen, that Trump's recent claim that he will "do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections" should be a hair-raising alarm for anyone concerned about democracy. Not only does it signal that Trump will challenge the midterm election results if Republicans suffer losses, but it also reveals that Democrats need a new strategy to counter Trump, Elias argued.
"We all need to take this very, very seriously," Elias said. "This is a five-alarm fire. This is an alarm in the middle of the night that is warning us that the arsonists are on the loose. They are pouring gasoline on the foundations, and they are lighting matches."
Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out sending federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the National Guard to monitor polling places across the country. Last week, Trump was asked again about his plans for the midterms, at which point he uttered his "do anything" comment.
At the same time, Elias noted Democrats appear to be relying too heavily on American institutions like the courts to thwart Trump's assault on democracy. Elias added that it shows Democrats "don't want to accept that things are as dire as they are."
"They want to assume that the institutions are strong," Elias said. "They want to assume that the guardrails will hold. And you and I have been doing this long enough to know that the guardrails are not holding. The institutions are not that strong, and some of them are in complete collapse because they've capitulated."