Donald Trump's six-hour Madison Square Garden rally Sunday night, filled with "anger, vitriol and racist threats," began almost immediately with the "joke heard around the world"—an attack calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean"—and ended with 80 minutes of Donald Trump telling “scores of lies.”
The racist broadside was from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who also told the MAGA crowd: "And these Latinos, they love making babies, too, just know that. They do, they do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country."
As Mediaite reported, Hinchcliffe, pointing to a Black man in the audience, "went with what seemed like an off-the-cuff 'joke.'"
“That’s cool," he said, "a Black guy with a thing on his head. What the hell is that, a lamp shade? Look at this guy! Oh, my goodness. Wow! I’m just kidding, that’s one of my buddies. We had a Halloween party last night. We had fun — we carved watermelons together. It was awesome!”
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The New York Times called it: "Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism."
"The inflammatory rally was a capstone for an increasingly aggrieved campaign for Donald Trump, whose rhetoric has grown darker and more menacing," the paper of record declared.
But during those 80 minutes Donald Trump made one statement that has constitutional law and other experts concerned.
Referencing Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Trump said: "I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House, our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over."
Suggesting the comment was "potentially...sinister," Politico Playbook reported it "could be a reference to the House settling a contested election."
Historian Heather Cox Richardson in her popular Substack newsletter wrote: "It seems possible—probable, even—that Trump was alluding to putting in play the plan his people tried in 2020. That plan was to create enough chaos over the certification of electoral votes in the states to throw the election into the House of Representatives. There, each state delegation gets a single vote, so if the Republicans have control of more states than the Democrats, Trump could pull out a victory even if he had dramatically lost the popular vote."
"Since he has made virtually no effort to win votes in 2024," she added, "this seems his likely plan."
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Professor of law Melissa Murray, a constitutional law expert and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, appears to agree.
"So, the plan is to have an Electoral College tie (which will likely require contesting swing state vote counts)," she writes. "A tie in the Electoral College will then require a vote in the House of Representatives, where the GOP, led by Speaker Johnson, has a (thin) majority...."
Harvard University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus Laurence Tribe, considered "the Nation’s preeminent constitutional scholar," delivered a warning.
"At his racist MSG rally, Trump spoke of the 'little secret' he and Mike Johnson would unveil after the people’s Nov 5 votes have been cast. He made clear it would involve the House — and how he plans to use its 50 State delegations to wreak havoc and hand him back 'his' power."
Attorney Jacob Glick, who served as investigative counsel on the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack wrote: "Trump hinting at 'secret' with Mike Johnson to be revealed post-election."
"Clearest indication yet that if Trump loses," Glick added, "the plan is to sow enough doubt about election results in key states so that the House can declare a contingent election and proclaim Trump the victor."
Constitutional and civil rights attorney Andrew L. Seidel, pointing to the clips of Trump's remarks, wrote: "I *think* this was to Mike Johnson and, if so, he's signaling that Republicans will try to do the thing that keeps me up at night: screw around with the Electoral College votes so that the House itself votes on the president instead. Each state gets one vote. Trump wins with 26."
"This is known as the Contingent Election of the President and was—although many people still don't fully realize it—part of the goal behind January 6th," he added.
The Nation's justice correspondent, Elie Mystal, pointing to the clip below, asked: "What is he confessing to here?"
Watch the video below or at this link.
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