In an alarming report, veteran polling firm Rasmussen revealed this week that a majority of Democrat voters (57%) would support Democrats in Congress for “refusing to certify” the November presidential election results if Donald Trump wins back the White House.
In 2021, Democrats condemned the notion of Republicans refusing to certify the election of Joe Biden. Now, with the possibility that Trump could regain office in November, the proverbial shoe is on the other foot and Democrats would be doing the protesting.
Back in 2021, as Business Insider reported at the time, there was pressure on Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to declare the election of 2020 was not “stolen.” But Jordan put them off, and it infuriated them in the process. Now, it appears Democrats may be laying the groundwork to make the same claim if Trump wins Nov. 5.
Support for Trump’s return to office is gaining momentum among conservatives, and particularly gun owners and Second Amendment activists who are furious about what they see as the Biden administration’s outright war on gun rights. His creation of a “White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention,” coupled with the appointment of Steve Dettelbach to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and his reiteration of a plan to ban so-called “assault weapons” made during his State of the Union address leave no doubt about Biden’s intentions if he is re-elected.
Evidence that gun control will be a major plank of Biden’s re-election platform is the announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on March 23 in Parkland, Fla. It was here in February 2018 that a former student opened fire with a semi-auto rifle he legally purchased and killed 17 students and staff.
As noted earlier this year by NPR, “Harris is taking a more front-and-center role on addressing gun violence, a key issue for young voters in 2024”.
Trump, on the other hand, was more pro-Second Amendment than any of his recent predecessors. Although he took action against “bump stocks,” Trump appointed some 300 conservative judges and three Supreme Court justices during his term in office. It was those high court appointments that made the 2022 Bruen decision possible, further restoring the Second Amendment to its original status, say many in the firearms community. Rather than talk about gun control, Trump routinely mentions the importance of the Second Amendment during his speeches.
Democrats who favor restricting Second Amendment rights do not want him back in the Oval Office, where he could nominate more conservative judges to the federal bench.
As Rasmussen recalled, “In January 2021, many Republican voters wanted Congress to refuse to certify the presidential elections results because of suspected election fraud. Voters are evenly divided over whether Republicans in Congress should have refused to certify the election if they believed the results were fraudulent, with 41% in favor and 40% against the idea. Another 19% are not sure.”
According to Rasmusen, an alarming 35 percent of likely voters say if Trump wins this year’s election, “they would support Democrats in Congress refusing to certify the election results, including 20% who would Strongly Support such a move.” The numbers go up when just talking to Democrats. The report noted how, prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump could not be removed from the Colorado ballot, a whopping 57 percent of Democratic voters “would support such a maneuver, including 34% who strongly support it.”
For U.S. gun owners, there is much at stake in this fall’s election. If Biden wins, he will almost certainly be able to fill one or perhaps two vacancies on the Supreme Court, which could tilt the court back into liberal (make that anti-gun) territory. He would definitely continue appointing liberal judges to the lower federal courts, where groups such as the Second Amendment Foundation have been finding much success in challenging state-level gun control laws.
According to Rasmussen, 78 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of Independents oppose the idea of refusing to certify the election if Trump wins.
Just as interesting—and telling—is Rasmussen’s revelation that 80 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Independents concur that states cannot keep Trump off the ballot, while “a majority (52%) of Democrats disagree with the Supreme Court, including 34 % who strongly disagree with the ruling.”
Last month, The Atlantic published an article headlined “How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump if the Supreme Court Doesn’t.” Such notions only serve to provoke distrust in the electoral process, and with the election seven months away, it is alarming that such a suggestion is even being discussed.
A separate Rasmussen poll shows only 29 percent of likely voters think the U.S. is headed in the right direction. A whopping 64 percent believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, Rasmussen said. A year ago, 39 percent said the country was going in the right direction, and 56 percent said it was going the wrong way.
Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll for March 12 revealed only 22 percent of likely voters “strongly approve” of Biden’s job performance, but 45 percent “strongly disapprove.”
The only poll that will really count comes on Nov. 5, when U.S. gun owners will have the opportunity to make their voices heard officially.
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
