Former President Donald Trump is pushing for “long term prison sentences” for anyone who commits fraud in the 2024 election.
Mr. Trump, posting on Truth Social, repeated his unproven claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him through Democratic cheating and said this cycle would be under “professional scrutiny,” which he defined as attorneys and legal scholars.
“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Mr. Trump wrote.
He insists his defeat to President Biden in 2020 was due to Democratic chicanery. He protested the results’ certification for weeks and addressed supporters near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some of his supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol later that day, and Mr. Trump faces an indictment alleging he conspired against U.S. voters through efforts to pressure state officials or set up a false set of electors.
Election integrity is a key issue for Republican lawmakers and voters, particularly after Democrat-led states used the coronavirus pandemic to relax rules around voting methods such as drop boxes and mail-in ballots in 2020. Mr. Trump’s pledge to watch this election closely should animate his base.
Others, however, could see his pledge of prosecution as a strongman tactic that augurs a repeat of the upheaval when Mr. Trump lost to Mr. Biden.
Some Republicans say they cannot vote for Mr. Trump this time because of the 2020 turmoil.
“When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point,” former Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, told CNBC in a recent interview.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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