During an appearance on CNN on Sunday, Yale professor Timothy Snyder, an authoritarian regime expert, argued that Donald Trump is attempting to create a crisis to “cling to power.” As reported by Raw Story , the historian’s analysis came after the president suggested America delay the November election due to concerns over the security of vote-by-mail.
“The tweet of July 30th was a very clear statement, but he has literally, dozens of times before said he wouldn’t,” Snyder said. “There is nothing in his career that indicates he actually likes democracy.”
The professor pointed to Trump’s tweet and claimed the real estate mogul was talking about a problem that he has contributed to as president. Notably, the historian highlighted possible delays with postal votes that are allegedly the result of Trump’s postmaster general, as well as America’s purported history of making it more difficult for African Americans to be heard at the ballot box.
“So, he’s talking about problems he caused himself, then claiming they’re an emergency, and using that as a reason to claim power himself. That’s a manufactured emergency and that is, in fact, a prime historical fascist tactic.”
According to Snyder, fascists often create crises and then place the blame on their opposition so they can harness the situation for their own benefit. In the current scenario, Snyder believes that Trump is attempting to demonize mail-in voting while himself undermining the process — all the while claiming that Democrats are trying to use the process to rig the election in November.
The American author ended his segment by claiming that supporters of Trump understand he is no longer trying to win the presidency via democracy.
“His main task for you now is to find someone who can mess up the election so we can cling to power.”
Despite Trump’s purported attempts to undermine mail-in voting for his own benefit, former Republican lawmaker David Jolly suggested that his efforts may backfire. Jolly pointed to the significant GOP support for vote-by-mail in states like Florida and argued that the president could lose the state due to his recent attacks on mail-in voting. Notably, three CNN/SSRS polls showed Trump behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the region.
Per CNN , Trump’s intelligence officials have contradicted his claims of possible fraud with vote-by-mail. According to the report, U.S. intelligence community’s top electoral official, Bill Evanina, did not raise the possibility in a recent closed-door House of Representatives briefing.