A veteran attorney battling the Trump administration in court argued the president's election-season tricks reveal something he refuses to admit to voters.
In a column for The Contrarian on Saturday, Norm Eisen, a Democracy Defenders Fund attorney who served as former President Barack Obama's White House ethics czar, and pro-democracy content creator Jess Craven said Trump is "terrified" of the power of Americans' votes. They argued MAGA is now betting everything on scaring voters into staying home ahead of Tuesday's midterms.
"So MAGA's best hope is to scare you into not casting a ballot in the first place," the pair warned.
Eisen and Craven pointed to a string of moves from the president, including lawsuits he has filed from California to Alaska targeting voters, election officials and candidates, as well as "observers" he is dispatching to polling places nationwide. They also noted Trump has said he regrets not seizing election materials in 2020.
"He's undoubtedly planning other anti-democratic shenanigans like that in this cycle," they added.
Still, the pair insisted those efforts are falling flat in court. On Friday night, they explained, Democracy Defenders Fund and its partners won a federal court order shutting down administration threats against election officials and election workers. Earlier in the week, the group helped defeat a Justice Department lawsuit that sought to block ballots from 20,000 alleged unauthorized voters in California.
With Trump's unpopularity at record levels and Republicans trailing in key races across the country, Eisen and Craven predicted the GOP's power will be "drastically diminished" once every ballot is counted. That, they argued, is exactly why Trump wants people too frightened to vote. Eisen and Craven also stressed that the Constitution gives the president no role at all in running elections.
"Your vote is powerful, and Trump is terrified of that power," they wrote.