Mike Segar / Reuters
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The war of nerves begins immediately. Before the end of the ballot count, Joe Biden says he is “on the road to victory”, but “the election ends when the last vote is finished.” Fuse for Donald Trump: “They are trying to steal the elections from us. Votes cannot be cast after the polling stations close! ”. He has it with the postal vote that would favor the Democrats and that in some states can also be expressed up to 12 November. Twitter still descends into the political arena and reports the president’s twittering: “Deceptive”. He will later do so with a tweet from Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša, Trump supporter. Shortly thereafter, Trump declares “victory” from the White House, asks to stop counting the postal vote, agitates the “appeal to the Supreme Court”.
The United States is getting dark: the risk of an overseas institutional crisis also worries the rest of the world, starting with Europe, where the markets are feeling the effects of the new uncertainty.
Even Vice President Mike Pence must have noticed. Surprisingly, Trump calls him to intervene, after having incited the crowd against the Democrats who are still there to “count the votes”, after having accused them of “fraud”, of attempting to “steal the elections” while he, ‘the Donald ‘, he would have already “won”. Pence is surprised. He seems to have the suspicion (evidently well founded) that the president wants to pull him into the battle. But he doesn’t get carried away. It dissociates itself. Pence does not talk about victory, he goes so far as to say that “we are on the road to victory” to counter Biden. But it does not ask for a stop to the counting of votes, in the face of millions of ballots that still have to be scrutinized. “The right to vote – he says – is at the heart of our democracy”.
Chaos announced. It is the picture that was feared, at least since Trump began to raise doubts about the postal vote, accusing the Democrats of fraud for some time. So much so that, on the eve of the vote, Trumpists and anti-Trump are fervent in preparations for demonstrations in support of one or the other side. If the end result is unfavorable to the president, his people will take to the streets but, Huffpost learns, Biden’s supporters also intend to demonstrate: in Washington on Sunday.
By the end of the week the result will be clear. But the tension triggered by a Trump determined to contest a possible defeat heralds complicated days on the brink of an institutional, social, political abyss for the USA and for the international partners of a global world.
Within hours, the challenge between Trump and Biden becomes the war between those who contest the counting of the votes and those who ask that it be counted to the last vote. As if to say: between those who do not respect the law – just like that – and those who appeal to the law to feel guaranteed.
The ongoing escalation undermines respect for the rule of law in the United States: while prone to hazards of this kind, never before has Trump gone so far into the ‘off limits’ area of a real’ far west ‘in a modern way. Biden responds by threatening legal action. Will that be enough to calm a country in turmoil?
The sad prophecy of the ‘old’ Democrat Bernie Sanders is coming true. He explained it well on TV last night, with polling stations still open. “Every vote must be counted – he says – There will be states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin where millions of voters vote by correspondence and it could happen that the first votes to be counted will be those of those who went to the polling station. So, my fear is that after this partial count, Trump may go on TV to thank the voters for re-election and then, when the count is closed, he may scream at the scam, of the ‘I told you it was a scam! ‘. This is my concern … “.
The count isn’t over but Donald is already screaming.
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