Homeland Security warns Congress about potential danger of Trump reinstatement claims

The Department of Homeland Security warned lawmakers on Wednesday that it is monitoring online discussion of the claim that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated as president later in the summer.

According to Politico, during a members-only briefing of the House Committee on Homeland Security, John Cohen, the DHS assistant secretary for counterterrorism and emerging threats, said that department officials are highly concerned about the possibility that the ongoing discussion of the reinstatement claim might fuel violence on the part of those who believe it, along with the false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.

Politico says that the department is currently not aware of specific threats of violence linked to the theory.

Trump continues to promote the lie that he actually won the election but that the victory was stolen from him.

In an interview with the right-wing Real America’s Voice network on Monday, Trump was asked about his possible reinstatement. In response he said, “If the election was fraudulent, people are going to have to make up their own minds,” adding, “It’s not going be up to me. It’s going to be up to the public. It’s going to be up to, perhaps, politicians. I don’t think there’s ever been a case like this where hundreds of thousands of votes will be found. So we’ll have to see what happens.”

Trump concluded a statement he released on June 22 with the phrase “2024 or before!”

The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman recently reported that Trump “has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August,” an account which was confirmed by the conservative National Review.

QAnon conspiracy theory supporters have been reportedly repeating online the claim that Trump will be reinstated.

There is no provision in the U.S. Constitution for reinstatement of an incumbent president who has lost reelection. Trump’s loss to Biden was certified by Congress, and Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 20.

Trump’s claims that the election was stolen from him fueled the mob of his supporters that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

He repeated them his speech at a rally that immediately preceded the riot.

Trump and his allies in the Republican Party and conservative media have also supported so-called audits of election results in a number of states where they claim there was election fraud. The new audits come after many of the states that swung from Trump to Biden — Georgia, Arizona, and Michigan — have already conducted repeated counts showing that Biden legitimately won.

A poll published by Politico/Morning Consult on June 9 shows that while the vast majority of Americans accept the reality of Trump’s loss, 29% of Republican voters believe Trump’s falsehoods.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.