Leaders of leftist influence groups sought to preemptively discredit potential claims of victory by former President Donald Trump and portrayed his supporters as violent in an apparent effort to pave the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to claim victory.
“There is a lot of investment by allies of President Trump to suggest that his victory is inevitable,” said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, which funneled millions in “Zuckbucks” to election officials in 2020. “If he loses the election, or perceives that he’s losing, you can imagine the shock that is going to be felt by his supporters, and how that’s going to be leveraged by grifters to try to anger them, to try to incite them to violence.”
The webinar, which happened Wednesday, was appropriately called “Red, White, and Coup.” It featured Becker; Nora Benavidez, senior counsel for the Free Press (which supports censorship and was founded by a socialist); Heidi Beirich, cofounder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (which smears conservative groups); and Damon Hewitt, president of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (which wages lawfare against conservatives).
Panelists cast a potential Trump claim to victory as illegitimate and suggested his supporters and those with election integrity concerns are “extremists” with a potential for violence, in what appeared to be an attempt to predetermine the narrative and set the stage for Harris to claim victory and suppress dissent.
Discrediting a Trump Victory
Becker suggested two apparent scenarios: one in which Harris seems to win and Trump tries to overturn the results, and another in which Trump prematurely claims victory on election night. In either case, Becker suggested a Trump victory claim would be illegitimate.
If Harris is apparently winning on election night, Becker implied Trump would try to overturn the results. Becker suggested there is a “secret plan for the loser” — presumably meaning Trump — “to steal the election and take office.”
“I don’t think it’s out of the question that the losing candidate may try to create a different impression and may desperately try to grab power in an effort that will fail, but could very likely incite violence,” Becker said. “There might be a plan. It might be attempted. It’s going to fail. The guardrails are in place.”
Becker painted current election integrity efforts as “designed to set the stage for claims an election was stolen later.” Still, he said he was not worried…
The Federalist 
