As early voting begins this week in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump posted another warning to cheaters on Truth Social.
“CEASE & DESIST,” the 45th president posted Tuesday. “I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation!”
Trump’s post comes on National Voter Registration Day, which falls on the same day this year as Constitution Day.
Trump, a Republican who faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, vowed that 2024 would be different from 2020.
For this election cycle, the Republican National Committee launched the Protect the Vote initiative. Under the initiative, the RNC has filed more than 100 lawsuits across 25 states and recruited more than 150,000 lawyers and volunteer poll watchers across the country.
Trump stated that because he and the RNC are watching, “the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”
“We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T!” Trump continued. “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
Trump posted a near identical message on Sept. 7 on Truth Social, warning that election cheaters will be prosecuted. This came a day after early and mail-in voting began in North Carolina, also a battleground state.
In response to Trump’s initial Truth Social post about prosecuting those who cheat in elections, Minnesota’s Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, the president of the National Association Secretaries of State, asserted that Trump is a threat.
“Threatening people with punishment for cheating is deeply disturbing if ‘cheating’ simply means that you don’t like the outcome of the election,” Simon posted on X, formerly Twitter. “I trust the integrity of our election officials, who will keep delivering elections that are fair, accurate, honest, and secure.”
Trump challenged the outcome of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won. Trump had previously prepared for a rematch with Biden after both won their party primaries convincingly. Democrats switched out to Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden’s poor performance in a June debate with Trump.
