“There is a procedure — it’s a very elaborate procedure — in every state for resolving disputes by the date of the so-called safe harbor on December 8th,” Tribe explained. “So, really, all of the efforts that Trump is making to both pretend that he can extend the date of the election, which everyone understands he can’t do that. That date is set at November 3rd by act of Congress.”
“All of that is designed simply to cast doubt in the way that Putin wants to and the way that Bannon has tried to do from time to time on the ability of our system to work,” he said. “They’re trying to make it look chaotic but there’s a fail-safe mechanism built into the constitution itself. That is no matter how much dust he throws into the gears, at high noon on January 20th, 2021, if there has not been a new president elected, at that point, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House become president of the United States. And all of these enables and I very much agree with Tom Nichols that the most dangerous of them is not one of the clowns, but is William Barr.”
“All of the enablers at that point would risk committing federal felonies if they were to exercise power which they no longer have because Trump would no longer be president,” Tribe said. “That’s the fail-safe. The constitution is not designed to self-destroy but it’s designed to self-preserve. The real game that I think Trump is playing is a game of making us all doubt that the system will hold. Making us doubt that the center will hold. Making us doubt all of our institutions. And by sowing doubt and sowing division and distracting us with phony claims about delays the election, the president is really doing Putin’s bidding of shaking our system and making us lose faith in all of our institutions. That’s been his game from the start. Undermining our traditions, undermining our institutions. I think in the end the hard-wired elements of the system will hold.”
