Former Acting U.S. Attorney General Neil Katyal on Wednesday sounded the alarm about the potential danger surrounding the 2024 election cycle, saying the “crisis” could be even worse than the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. I was warned that it was sexual.
“We think there is a very high possibility of a constitutional crisis and January 6, 2021 will be like a dress rehearsal,” Katiyal said. in an interview Wednesday morning on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” “And this year, the thugs turned pro and spent four years perfecting their big lies.”
He joined the outlet to discuss his new editorial The article was published in the New York Times on Wednesday, in which the former executive questioned President Trump's efforts to stay in power in 2020 and raised new challenges with less than three weeks until Election Day. was predicted.
“So I wrote this sentence, and I think it's the most important sentence I've ever written, because I really want to remind the American people that on November 5th and in the days that followed, I want to warn you about what might happen,” he said to Katyal and his master. “And we shouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump sends in lawyers to contest everything.”
His comments come less than a month after Democratic secretaries of state joined together to create the Democratic Legal Defense Fund. The fund would support election officials should a “malicious” legal challenge be filed against them during this election cycle.
Katyal also criticized the former president Wednesday for choosing Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, arguing that it only strengthens Trump's claims of election fraud.
“Vance couldn’t even admit that Trump lost in 2020. And remember, in 2020, [President] Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. So all of the 60 different challenges that he filed… you know, he had to run the table and win a lot of electors. This election may be coming soon. I am also very concerned about this possibility. ”
Republicans have already filed a series of lawsuits related to absentee voting, noncitizen voters and election certification. Katyal said more could happen in the future.
“In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which requires the governor, rather than local boards, to certify electors unless the state appoints a different official in advance. We tried to reduce the risk.” But the governor may also step in to solve the problem or succumb to a pressure campaign,” Katiyal, now a professor at Georgetown University, wrote in an op-ed.
Despite the latest guidelines enacted after the Capitol riot, Katyal said he still believes state officials may be able to circumvent certain requirements.
“The harsh reality is that there is no immediate solution to a potential election crisis. The resources to cause this are nearly all in place: the courts, the legislature, and the executive branch,” he later added.
