“We’re ready for it all…I would just like him to know it ain’t going to happen for him at the end of the day.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been preparing for months for President Donald Trump to try to steal the election.
Still, the longtime California congresswoman said that she is confident votes will be counted fairly when all is said and done and that Trump would fail.
“We’re ready for it all,” Pelosi said in a Friday interview with HuffPost. “I would just like him to know it ain’t going to happen for him at the end of the day.”
For months, Trump has erroneously claimed that the 2020 election will be riddled with widespread fraud, despite reams of data debunking those assertions. During his rallies and campaign speeches, the president has encouraged his supporters to engage in voter intimidation and has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he is not reelected.
READ MORE: Your Most Frequent Questions About the Electoral College Answered
If he does win, Trump is expected to clean house and further gut the federal government. In recent days, Trump has signaled he might try to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. The two officials have frequently butted heads over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
There are also reports that other officials who have frustrated the president could be on the chopping block, which could lead to a confusing reshuffling as the administrations turn over.
Another problem the Biden team is preparing for is the possibility that Trump could block new officials from accessing government resources, which is required by law. According to the Washington Post, top Biden transition members are considering legal responses and other ways to smoothly transition between administrations.
The possibility of a highly volatile transition of power comes at a moment when America is least equipped to deal with it: in the middle of a global pandemic, with an unstable economy, and tensions running high after a divisive year.
READ MORE: You Shouldn’t Panic if We Don’t Have A Winner on Election Night. It’s Normal and Totally Okay.
Pelosi, however, has been working with a team of lawyers, constitutional experts, and institutions to prepare for every scenario on Election Day and the following weeks.
“We have been prepared for the worst for a long time because what we have seen is the worst on the part of this president in terms of his disrespect for the Constitution, his disregard of free will of the people, and his stooping to any level for his own reelection,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi went on to say that she is not particularly worried that the election would come down to Congress calling the winner, which would be historic, but has also prepared for that possibility.
“We have tremendous intellectual, political, and financial resources at our disposal,” Pelosi said. “We have our lawyers poised to move on a dime on Election Day or evening, as we see a problem.”
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