Thursday Briefing: Trump Threatens ‘the Enemy From Within’

Briefing|Thursday Briefing: Trump Threatens ‘the Enemy From Within’

Trump stepped up threats against his opponents

Donald Trump is pushing a menacing political threat to the forefront of his campaign before the Nov. 5 election: that he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with him.

In a recent Fox News interview, Trump framed Democrats as a pernicious “enemy from within” and speculated that they would cause chaos on Election Day that the National Guard would need to handle.

Never before has a presidential nominee — let alone a former president — openly suggested turning the military on American citizens simply because they oppose his candidacy.

Your questions:

We’re asking readers what they’d like to know about the election and taking those questions to our reporters. Today, we gave one to Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court.

What scenario could lead to the presidential race being contested where the Supreme Court of the United States would get involved? — Stephanie, Calabasas, Calif.

Adam: There are countless ways in which the outcome of the election could effectively be decided by the Supreme Court, but almost all of them hinge on three factors in combination: a very tight race in one or more battleground states that could determine the national result where voting procedures are open to plausible legal challenge.

All those factors were present in Bush v. Gore, the 2000 decision that delivered the presidency to George W. Bush. They may recur this year, but that is hardly certain, as the 2020 election demonstrated. That year, in a brisk and dismissive order, the Supreme Court refused to throw out the results in four battleground states that Trump had lost. There is little reason to think the court is eager to get involved this year, either.

Indeed, some justices may be reminded of the election administrator’s prayer: “Lord, let this election not be close.”