Donald Trump Is Still ‘Desperately’ Looking For A Way To Overturn The Election, Columnist Says

In a Monday piece for Raw Story, columnist Amanda Marcotte argued that Donald Trump is still “desperately” looking for a way to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Although she noted that his recent campaign against the election is also an attempt to “defraud people,” she argued that he is also looking for a legitimate way to maintain power in the White House.

Marcotte pointed to the recent piece in The New York Times that covered Trump’s alleged discussion about naming Sidney Powell to head a special counsel into election fraud and consideration of a military coup to cancel the election. While the writer acknowledged that some people are contending that the purported coup plan is not troubling because the U.S. leader doesn’t have the power to enact it, she argued otherwise.

“The story isn’t just alarming because Trump is flirting with violence, either. It’s alarming because it’s proof that Trump is continuing to push these idiotic conspiracy theories because he really, truly does think there’s still a way for him to steal this election.”

According to Marcotte, Trump truly believes there is a “‘Get Out Of Democracy Free’ card” that he has yet to discover, pointing to longtime Republican operative Scott Jennings. Jennings, who is close to the president’s team, told Politico that he has a “supreme confidence” that things will work in his favor — not matter how long it takes.

The columnist concluded her piece by arguing that Trump would be restricting himself to fundraising, tweeting, and golfing if his battle against the election was “just a grift.”

“But he’s still actively looking for buttons to push — and entertaining violence as a way to get his way — and he still has many weeks left in office in which he can use his existing power to continue undermining democracy.”

The New York Times’ reporting claimed that Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, opposed Trump’s proposal to create a Powell-headed special counsel to focus on voter fraud. Powell made headlines when she pushed unfounded conspiracy theories about fraud in the election, including one that suggested Joe Biden’s victory was linked to a Venezuelan plot to rig America’s electoral process.

As reported by ABC News, outgoing Attorney General William Barr on Monday pushed back on Trump’s purported plan to use the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seize voting machines. In particular, Barr said he sees “no basis” for seizing voting machines at the moment.

Trump has pushed back against claims that he is planning to impose martial law to overturn the 2020 election.