Trump tells supporters, 'Guard the vote.' Here's the phrase's backstory and why it's raising concern
Source: Associated Press
Trump tells supporters, ‘Guard the vote.’ Here’s the phrase’s backstory and why it’s raising concern
BY ALI SWENSON AND MICHELLE R. SMITH
Updated 2:40 PM EST, December 6, 2023
Former President Donald Trump is urging supporters to “guard the vote” during next year’s election, a phrase that has set off alarm bells among pro-democracy advocates who say it signals permission to take extreme measures that could intimidate voters and threaten election workers.
The phrase is a relatively novel one for Trump, though activists in the far-right movement have been setting the groundwork for it to be deployed more widely.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has spent months repeating the phrase in posts, speeches and interviews. And Victor Mellor, a close Flynn associate, told The Associated Press he has been setting up a new group called “Guard the Vote” ahead of the 2024 elections. Mellor provided AP a video that showed the group’s new “command center” in a Florida building that houses Flynn’s offices.
Trump employed the phrase in Ankeny, Iowa, on Saturday, saying his followers need to “guard the vote” because “we have all the votes we need.” He encouraged his supporters to “go into” cities including Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta to “watch those votes when they come in.”
Experts in political messaging say the context in which Trump uses “guard the vote” primes his supporters to not only expect fraud in diverse Democratic cities next year, but to intervene to ensure Trump wins.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-guard-vote-election-2024-flynn-39d41fe4f7229d4ab7e1956efc428e10
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