Democratic congressman Rep. Eric Swalwell said during an interview on MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday, promising that The House is ready to intervene if Donald Trump tries to steal the election after the president refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses the November contest and saying that “there will be no transition, but a continuation.”
A series of disturbing reports surfaced today, detailing a plot Republicans are attempting to have state legislatures declare the election “failed” so they can hand the vote to Trump whether he wins or not.
The frightening scenarios were then followed by Trump saying at a press conference that ballots should be thrown out and he wasn’t willing to commit to a “peaceful transfer of power.” It was enough for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to tell Americans that their country needs them.
Rep. Swalwell first explained that there is an “army of lawyers” in the wings waiting to be deployed and outsmart whatever Trump can throw at them.
“But we have an army of voters,” he said. “The March For Our Lives generation that came out of Parkland, the people who won in Virginia in the off-year, who won in Kentucky. We have an army of voters. So the best way out is to overwhelm the ballot box because Donald Trump is a coward and he will vanish if the result is so overwhelming.”
If Trump tries some corrupt scheme with state Republican legislatures and electors, Swalwell said Congress is prepared to step in.
“If he’s going to play games and encourage people not to send electors, well, the House of Representatives then would determine who the president is,” he said. “As long as we win in the House, we can counter Donald Trump’s corruption. Lawrence, this is what a democracy looks like when you have a president who will go to jail and face criminal charges if he’s not re-elected. He’s going to test us and he will not let ourselves be paralyzed by fear to register to vote and then have agency and make sure we hold our leaders accountable after the election.”
Watch the discussion below:
