Democrats have spent the last four years demonizing President Donald Trump and his supporters as so-called “election deniers.”
However, the possibility of Trump’s comeback has some Democrats changing their tune about accepting election outcomes.
One of the leading Democrats on the anti-Trump January 6 committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), suggested his party may not automatically accept the results of the presidential election if it doesn’t go their way.
Yet, the call undermines Raskin’s own narrative that Trump is a “threat to democracy.”
Democrats frequently criticize Trump for placing conditions on accepting the results in 2024.
Nonetheless, Raskin did just that during an interview with Bill Maher.
Using rhetoric that many Democrats have called “extreme” when used by Trump, Raskin said Democrats would only accept the results if they are “free and fair.”
Raskin told Maher:
“No, we’re not going to allow them to steal it in the states, or steal it in the Department of Justice, or steal it with any other election official in the country.
“If it’s a free and fair election, we will do what we have always done — we will honor it,” Raskin said.
In October, Raskin told Axios that he would “obviously accept” the outcome if Trump “won a free, fair, and honest election.”
However, Democrats only view elections as “free, fair, and honest” when their candidates win.
This is not the first time Raskin has hedged on committing to a peaceful transfer of power.
The Democrat drew attention earlier this year for inflammatory talk about a “civil war” breaking out over the presidential election.
Raskin appeared to suggest at the time that Democrats would be justified in blocking Trump’s legitimate victory.
He argued that it would be justified because of the Supreme Court’s refusal to exclude Trump from the ballot to “save democracy.”
“So it’s going to be up to us on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified,” he said at the time.
“And then we need bodyguards for everybody, and civil war conditions, all because the nine justices… simply do not want to do their job.”
After Trump’s 2016 victory, Raskin was one of the Democrats who objected to certifying Trump’s victory against failed candidate Hillary Clinton.
Despite Raskin’s wavering commitment to “democracy,” he – like many Democrats – has regularly painted Trump as a dangerous dictator who led an “insurrection” at the Capitol.
If Trump wins the presidency, will Democrats forget all about their “principles” to try to stop a peaceful transfer of power?
It’s hard to see how Democrats could pull back after comparing Trump to Hitler endlessly.
