'If he tries he wont succeed': Biden's lawyer warns they're ready for Trump to challenge election results
A lawyer on Joe Biden’s campaign team has said they are ready to deal with any attempt by Donald Trump to dispute the election outcome, and that “if he tries, he won’t succeed.”
Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel in Barack Obama’s administration, has been with the Bidean campaign for several months, working to prepare for any legal battles that could arise following the 3 November vote.
The Republican president, Donald Trump, has likewise prepared his own team of lawyers, having spent months delegitimising mail-in ballots amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Trump may fantasize or claim he has all sorts of ways of stomping out the election results, terrorising polling places and the like, and that’s just not the case,” said Mr Bauer, in an interview with Reuters. “If he tries, he won’t succeed.”
The New York University Law School professor, whose career has been spent in political law practice, also worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
He admitted that the 2020 presidential race, in comparison, is “a pretty heated environment,” but that Democrats were prepared to counteract any unprecedented challenges.
“We don’t want there to be undue concern and alarm that would discourage people from voting,” said Mr Bauer, amid president Trump’s calls for his supporters to act as so-called “poll watchers”.
“We can respond anywhere in the country to these issues immediately,” he added.
Trump campaign spokeswoman, Thea McDonald, said people should be concerned about the possibility that “Biden doesn’t accept the results when president Trump wins reelection.”
“The president and the Trump campaign have long fought for a free, fair, transparent election,” Ms McDonald said.
But, in a Twitter post on Friday, Mr Trump once again attacked state procedures for counting mail-in ballots, saying “The Election should END on November 3rd.”
The Supreme Court decision on North Carolina allows officials to count ballots postmarked by Election Day, up to nine days after 3 November, and follows similar measures in Pennsylvania.
Mr Trump, however, suggested that the extended deadline to count ballots was illegitimate, saying: “Can you imagine what will happen during that nine day period.”
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