A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series that serves to remind
us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we encountered
during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others in the MAGA
movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our memory as we
fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming elections.

This week’s Trumptastrophe brings into focus how Trump and his MAGA
Republican enablers sow doubt about our elections – especially for those
that they lose – and how it undermines our election integrity while
fueling right-wing outrage that can sometimes lead to violence:

On February 9, 2017, President Trump [ [link removed] ]told a group of senators that he
would have won New Hampshire in the 2016 presidential election if it
weren’t for “thousands” of people he claimed were bused in from
Massachusetts to vote illegally in the state. Trump offered no evidence to
back up his claim.

A few days later, Trump adviser Stephen Miller was asked about the bogus
claim by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” Pressed repeatedly by
Stephanopoulos on the lack of evidence for Trump’s claim, Miller doubled
down, saying it’s “widely known by anyone who’s worked in New Hampshire
politics,” and declaring, “It’s very real; it’s very serious.” Miller went
on to claim that there are “massive numbers of noncitizens in this country
who are registered to vote.”

Miller’s amplifying of Trump’s false claims led Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New
Hampshire to [ [link removed] ]respond on social media, “As everybody knows, Stephen
Miller has no evidence of voter fraud in NH. This has been debunked.” She
noted that Trump had not called for a recount in the state.

This wasn’t the first time since his inauguration that Trump made false
claims about the election in which he lost the popular vote by about 2.9
million votes while winning an Electoral College majority. A few weeks
earlier, he told congressional leaders that he only lost the popular vote
because 3 million to 5 million immigrants had voted illegally, a claim the
Associated Press noted at the time had previously been debunked.

Here's how Trump’s lies about the election—an election he won—remind us
how dangerous a Trump victory this year would be:

* Trump has always been willing to undermine public faith in democracy
for his own benefit—sometimes just to soothe his ego. When Trump lost
the 2016 Iowa caucus to Ted Cruz, he [ [link removed] ]accused Cruz of winning by
fraud. He took to social media demanding that a new election take
place or Cruz’s victory be nullified.
* Pro-Trump political operatives were scheming to mobilize opposition to
the 2016 election if Trump lost. Political dirty trickster Roger Stone
had formed “Stop the Steal” that April as a “[ [link removed] ]force of intimidation”
to Republican officials who might try to deny Trump a victory at the
Republican convention. Leading up to the 2016 general election, Stop
the Steal “used incendiary rhetoric to motivate members to turn up at
contested areas” on Election Day. “In court filings, Democrats argue
Stop the Steal’s exit polling operation serves no legitimate purpose,
but is merely a pretext for harassing and intimidating likely
Democratic voters of color,” ABC News [ [link removed] ]reported. Shortly before the
election, a federal judge [ [link removed] ]issued an injunction against Stone, Stop
the Steal, and the Trump campaign barring them from intimidating
voters at the polls.
* Leading up to the 2020 election, Stone urged Trump and his supporters
to [ [link removed] ]declare victory on election night no matter what.  A few days
before the election, Trump operative Steve Bannon said that Trump
would declare victory even if he hadn’t won. “When you wake up
Wednesday morning, [ [link removed] ]it’s going to be a firestorm,” he said.
* MAGA activists, including Ali Alexander and white nationalist Nick
Fuentes, reenergized Stop the Steal after Trump refused to accept his
2020 loss, mobilizing Trump supporters enraged by Trump’s lies about a
stolen election. The lies, the anger they stoked among Trump
die-hards, and the MAGA movement’s organizing to overturn Trump’s loss
led directly to the violent Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, an
effort to stop the peaceful transfer of power to the winner of the
presidential election.
* After Trump’s loss, and the failure of the insurrection, MAGA
Republicans in state legislatures used Trump’s false claims about
election fraud to justify a wave of restrictive voting laws.
* Trump and his allies continue to lie about the 2020 election,
suggesting that President Joe Biden is “illegitimate.” Other MAGA
candidates now resort to the same playbook to keep supporters fired up
after they lose an election, a strategy that failed 2022 Arizona
gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is now employing in her race for the
U.S. Senate.

Undermining faith in elections is bad for democracy. Thanks to Trump’s
dishonesty, one-third of Republicans, and 41 percent of Trump supporters,
[ [link removed] ]told pollsters last fall that “true American patriots may have to
resort to violence in order to save our country.”

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through this week’s recap, and then
make a plan for how you will fight back this week, this month, this
election cycle.

For members who are interested in sharing the weekly Trumptastrophe
series, you can [ [link removed] ]find all previous editions on our website! This post
will be published by Thursday so you can share with your friends and
family and remind them of the importance of ensuring that Trump is
defeated again this November.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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