Former Attorney General Eric Holder joined MSNBC’s Joy Reid in speculating about whether President Donald Trump might use paramilitary forces to suppress the vote.
Holder joined Reid for a Tuesday segment of her new primetime show “The Reidout” on MSNBC, addressing the violence and lawlessness running rampant in major cities nationwide. (RELATED:Obama Claims ‘No Precedent’ In Flynn Dismissal — There Is, And His Own AG Eric Holder Used It)
WATCH:
Reid began by highlighting President Trump’s vocal opposition to the widespread implementation of a vote-by-mail plan and playing a clip of MSNBC National Affairs analyst John Heilemann, who had suggested that the Trump administration might use paramilitary forces to intimidate voters on Election Day.
Noting that Trump had only threatened to send federal forces to quell violence in cities under Democratic control, Heilemann added, “I think we should all take very seriously the prospect that this is, as I say, a dress rehearsal, a trial run for first an attempt at voter intimidation on Election Day … Are these unmarked paramilitary units going to be doing security at the polls in battleground states?”
Reid turned the question to Holder, asking, “Are you concerned about that, that these paramilitary forces will be used to suppress the vote?” (RELATED: ‘Breakfast Club’ Host Says Biden Apology Isn’t Enough: ‘The Best Apology Is A Black Agenda’)
“If you asked me about any other president, I would say of course not, that’s a script from a very bad movie,” Holder replied. “This president has demonstrated that they have a capacity to go lower than we can impossibly imagine.”
Holder went on to claim that Trump’s focus on the potential fraud that could come with widespread mail-in voting was an attempt to “delegitimatize a vote he might lose.”
“If he loses and I expect that he will, then we have to be prepared for what he is going to do in the immediate aftermath of such a loss,” Holder continued, suggesting that Trump could use paramilitary forces to take some unspecified action during the period between the election and January’s inauguration.
“Who knows what he will do and the people who are in, as part of his administration, will support him in doing?” Holder asked.
Reid pressed Holder on one other issue, asking whether he thought Trump might attempt to hold the office by force if he lost his reelection bid in November.
“Yeah, I mean, there are these nightmare scenarios and we can wind them out,” Holder replied. “But I don’t think that should take us away from what our focus has to be. He’s got to be beat, he has to be beaten badly.”