No reporter wants to sit through a Donald Trump campaign rally and not have some new outrage to take away from it and keep the news cycle rolling. Trump’s rally in Altoona, Pa., Friday night didn’t exactly produce anything as dramatic as his assassination threat against Hillary Clinton, so reporters instead focused on his suggestion that everybody be watching to ensure he wasn’t “cheated out of this election.”
Donald Trump solicits election observers to beat 'rigged election' https://t.co/YqExSNhmrR pic.twitter.com/JKB3X44bsQ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 13, 2016
As Twitchy reported earlier, MTV’s Jamil Smith pointed out the form on Trump’s campaign website asking supporters to register to serve as election observers, adding, “campaigns simply don’t do this.” Actually, they do: tweeters pointed out that Hillary Clinton’s website features a similar sign-up sheet to be part of her “Victory Counsel” and posted pictures of the “Election Observer Manual” for members of the Obama Voter Protection Program.
Some suggested that Trump go all out and call in the United Nations to observe the election.
maybe we need UN observers
— Justin Kiggins (@neuromusic) August 13, 2016
Trump campaign doubles down on election fraud claims @CNNPolitics https://t.co/imOkn9BmeC How about unbiased UN observers?
— Louise Storm (@4whatitsworth2) August 13, 2016
are we going to wind up with National Guard manning polling places in November? UN observers? Nah, they're globalists
— Rob Ayala (@ayalar314) August 12, 2016
@joshtpm If Trump is so concerned about a fair election, expect his call for impartial non-partisan UN observers in 5…4…3…
— Wallace Ritchie (@WallaceRitchie) August 13, 2016
Why doesn't Trump ask for independant UN observers if so concerned? Because it's just another DT conspiracy theory? https://t.co/7h5Ju9u67m
— Dragon Jo (@J0ann3) August 13, 2016
Actually, asking for the United Nations to observe the election in November would be about as unprecedented as Trump’s solicitation of volunteers.
https://twitter.com/ibisman98/status/764542194342436864
In 2012, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the NAACP, the ACLU and other groups sent a request to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a partner group of the United Nations, to monitor U.S. polling stations and be on the lookout for “a coordinated political effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans — particularly traditionally disenfranchised groups like minorities.”
The OSCE obliged and promised to dispatch 44 observers from countries such as Germany, France, Serbia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to the United States to monitor polling places.
https://twitter.com/CoFemale/status/764487237832675328
So, if as CNN reports, Donald Trump is “increasingly casting doubt on the legitimacy of the presidential election” by asking supporters to keep an eye on polling places, what were liberal-leaning groups doing in 2012 when they invited U.N. observers to look out for “systematic efforts to suppress minority voters likely to vote for President Obama”?
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