The GOP’s Former Top Election Lawyer Warns Trump Has Reached a New Low

Florida-recount veteran Benjamin Ginsberg blasts the president’s anti-democratic disinformation.

Christopher Brown/ZUMA Wire

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Voter suppression tactics, sadly, are as old as the United States itself. While the tools used have evolved with time—whether it’s the denial of the right to vote to entire populations, poll taxes, or manufactured long lines—the overall goal of one group of working to limit votes by their opponents, remains the same.

In today’s social media age, one tactic that has come into focus is the use of disinformation to both suppress participation in the process and to call the result into doubt if the election doesn’t go a certain way. And while it’s not new to hear President Donald Trump be accused of leveraging disinformation in just this way, is striking when the criticism comes from Benjamin Ginsberg, a man who was Republicans’ preeminent election law attorney for a generation, most prominently when he helped guide GOP efforts during the 2000 Florida recount.

“I’ve not known of a past election cycle where number one, the president or presidential candidate has said the elections are fraudulent or rigged, with the possible caveat of Trump 2016,” Ginsberg said in response to a question about what distinguishes Republicans’ 2020 strategy from other campaigns.

Ginsberg, who served as the top lawyer for George W. Bush and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns after years working for Republican party committees, has critiqued Trump before, pointing out the utter lack of evidence behind his false claim that voter fraud is a substantial threat to the validity of American elections. In September, after the president encouraged voters to attempt to vote twice to purportedly test states’ ability to stop double-voting, Ginsberg sounded off, publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post noting that “there’s no proof of widespread fraud,” certainly not the type claimed by Trump and Republicans.

“The president’s words make his and the Republican Party’s rhetoric look less like sincere concern,” he wrote, “and more like transactional hypocrisy designed to provide an electoral advantage.”

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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