 I know that this is kind of old news now, and a lot of you have moved on, but I still really want to talk about Donald Trump's interview with Chris Wallace and Fox News. This was bananas. This was a spectacle. I don't know how to even describe this interview. We can really pick it apart and talk about this for hours, quite literally. But if I had to use one word to describe this, that word would be moist. It would definitely be moist because throughout this interview, Donald Trump was very moist, and I'm not sure why he chose to have this outside. Apparently this was up to him. He claims that he wanted to have Chris Wallace sweat during this interview, but really it was him who was sweating the entire time. I mean, it literally looked like his face was melting. You can tell he was extra hot because he smothered his face with Juergens natural glow self-tanner. Sweat was rolling down his cheeks. His upper lip was especially wet, which kind of grossed me out and made me feel queasy. I mean, goddamn, he looked like shit, but I digress because I'm not actually going to focus on that. But I had to point this out. I mean, disgusting. But there is a portion that is getting a little bit of attention, and I think it really does. It warrants further conversation. And I don't know that I've ever addressed this on the program, but what would we do in the event? Donald Trump lost his reelection campaign, and he just chose to not step down. Now, we already know that he's kind of laying the groundwork to delegitimize this election. And the justification as to why this election might be rigged according to him is because of mail-in voting. I mean, just the other day he tweeted, mail-in voting unless changed by the courts will lead to the most corrupt election in our nation's history. Hashtag rigged election. So, I mean, he already has the excuse in place, so it's not necessarily out of the question to assume that if it doesn't go his way, maybe he just says, this was rigged. I don't accept the results. And he was asked about this directly, and he kind of did confirm what we all thought would happen if he lost. He's not saying he won't reject the results, but he's not saying he will either. He has to see the results first. Are you a good loser? I'm not a good loser. I don't like to lose. I don't lose too often. I don't like to lose. But are you gracious? You don't know until you see it depends. I think mail-in voting is going to rig the election. I really do. Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election? I have to see. Look, Hillary Clinton asked me the same thing. No, I asked you the same thing in the debate. There is a tradition in this country, in fact one of the prizes of this country, is the peaceful transition of power and that no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner, not saying that you're necessarily going to be the loser or the winner, but that the loser concedes to the winner and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you're not prepared now to concede to that principle? What I'm saying is that I will tell you at the time I'll keep you in suspense. Well, Chris, and you know what? She's the one that never accepted her. She never accepted her loss and she looks like a fool. Can you give a direct answer? You will accept the election? I have to see. Look, I have to see. No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no. And I didn't last time either. Whether it's in 2021 or 2025, how will you regard your years as president of the United States? I think I was very unfairly treated. Now, I had to leave in that last tidbit there because rather than supplying Chris Wallace with some generic answer that, you know, my legacy will be, you know, a period in the United States where the economy witnessed, you know, substantial growth. He has to make it about himself. Oh, people were mean to me. I mean, he thinks like a juvenile, like he thinks like a child, a petulant child. And I don't know how he's not embarrassed, how his family is not embarrassed with his behavior. Like this is weird. But nonetheless, he basically he won't say he will deny the results, but he won't say that he won't either. Like he's kind of leaving that door open. I think it will hinge on his mood, how he's feeling after the results come in. I think that part of him would be relieved if he lost because I genuinely don't think he wants to be president. He just wants the prestige and the power that comes with it. But I mean, he wants, he wants to not do this, right? I mean, he's rich. So why would you want to do something? Why would you want to work and do this? Even if you're not really doing a good job or working that hard and you're still mostly golfing? Like why would you want all the drama associated with this? So I think part of him would be relieved. But at the same time, he wants to be able to leave knowing he had two terms. Because that's what I think under him, you would qualify as a successful presidency and he wants to win at everything. So anyways, he may not necessarily accept the results of the selection. This is something that we're all kind of grappling with. And this begs the question, what would happen in the event? You know, he says the election results are illegitimate. They're rigged and he doesn't accept it. And when it comes time to us, we're in Joe Biden, Trump doesn't leave. What if he just stays in the Oval Office and refuses to leave? Well, there are causes for concern with regard to Trump, you know, trying to delegitimize the election. But this isn't necessarily the biggest concern. Because I think that Fred Kaplan of Slade really broke this down phenomenally and catastrophized a bit about what would happen in the event Trump did behave this way. And he explains that it wouldn't go the way that, you know, a lot of us picture it. So it's the morning of January 20th, 2021. Trump doesn't meet President-elect Joe Biden and his wife in the White House driveway. Nor does he attend the inauguration on Capitol Hill. Instead, he proclaims as he has many times by this point that the election was a fraud. He has set the stage for this with his false claims about mail-in ballots. And at noon, instead of a ceding to the transfer of power, Trump proclaims that the swearing-in was fake news and that he remains the president. Here's what would happen next. On the dot of noon, the nuclear codes which currently allow Trump to order and authenticate a nuclear attack expire. The officer who has been following him around everywhere with the football, which contrary to popular belief is not a button or a palm print, but rather a book filled with various launch codes, leaves. If Trump and whatever lackeys stay with him prevent the officer from leaving, another officer holding a backup football would join Biden at the inauguration ceremony. By the same token, the entire U.S. military establishment will pivot away from ex-President Trump and salute President Biden. The principle of civilian control is hammered into American officers from the time their cadets and the 20th amendment of the Constitution states the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, no ifs, ands, or buts. If Trump orders the military to do anything, they will refuse his order. If any officers obey his order, say, to circle the White House to keep him in power, they would certainly be tried and convicted on charges of mutiny and sedition, and they would know this before taking the leap. Meanwhile, the Secret Service will abandon Trump as they do every president whose term is up, except for a small detail assigned to protect him and his family for the rest of their lives. Overseas, foreign leaders will cut off relations with the U.S. ambassadors in their capitals and await instructions from Biden or his acting Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Biden's acting Attorney General will have drawn up arrest warrants for Donald J. Trump and anyone who remains at his side on charges at minimum of criminal trespassing. If Trump calls on the armed forces or militias or the nation's sheriffs to come defend him, he might also be charged with incitement or insurrection. If any of Trump's aides or cabinet officers continues to take his orders, they too could face criminal charges and, in any case, would have a hard time finding respectable employment after the pretend monarch is taken away in handcuffs. If armed militia men and sheriffs rally to the White House and they refuse to let U.S. marshals through the gates, a small contingent of Secret Service or the National Guard could be called up to enforce the law. If that doesn't work, a few M1 tanks rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue should make the would-be rebels flee. It would be terrible if the standoff came to this, but Commander-in-Chief Biden would have this option available if necessary. So this situation, this scenario where Donald Trump loses and refuses to concede and on the day where Joe Biden is being sworn in, Trump just refuses to leave, it's highly unlikely because in order for him to pull off a coup like that, a lot of steps would have to be taken. He would have to have other world leaders acknowledge him as the rifle president. If he declared himself the forever president of the United States, you'd have to have military generals in Secret Service all flip on Joe Biden. And in order for Trump to pull off something like this, not only would you need to be absolutely quiet without this leaking out, but you'd have to actually be smart and persuasive and they'd have to respect you and not think you're an idiot. So this is highly unlikely. Does that mean that I think it's out of the realm of possibility that Trump wouldn't try something like this? I mean, it is possible, it is possible. Like in spite of this not leading to Trump actually being forever president it's like, hey guys, I'm going to stay president. I don't accept Joe Biden as the president. Oh, well, there's nothing we can do. No, there actually is something that we can do in that incident. So that's highly unlikely. But what I'm more worried about isn't necessarily like Joe Biden not being able to be president because Donald Trump just declares himself permanent president. What I'm more worried about is what would happen if Trump invalidates the election, even if he does step down eventually, or if he sets himself up, if he thinks the numbers aren't going to go in his favor to invalidate the election beforehand. Because in either of those instances, even if he doesn't directly incite violence, he has a lot of unhinged supporters who are psychopaths. And they would take up arms. They would potentially if, you know, Trump sent out a signal that this election isn't going to go his way because it's rigged, they could potentially show up with guns and intimidate people. Trump could theoretically say, I have it, you know, according to my intelligence officials, they've told me that there will be a large portion of undocumented people voting. What would that mean? That means that a lot of his supporters may show up to polling stations if they're still in-person voting to intimidate people of color, which is a reliable population for the Democratic Party who always votes Democrat most of the time. That could happen. If he chooses to say, I see the results, it shows Joe Biden won and I don't accept these results, that in and of itself could still cause a type of shitstorm in this country where it could lead to armed thugs right-wing or storming the Capitol buildings of certain states and refusing to accept the results, something like that. There could still be chaos. Even if that worst case scenario doesn't, in fact, come to fruition where he just declares himself the permanent president. Like, I think that's highly unlikely, although still within the realm of possibility of something that he could attempt. But I mean, he could still cause a lot of problems and I'm honestly more worried about what he would try to do before the election more so than what he would want to do after the election because voter intimidation by his supporters, if he feels like he's gonna lose, is something he could tacitly encourage while not explicitly endorsing it. Like, he can kind of give himself enough legal leeway while not explicitly saying, hey, go harass black people and brown people at the polls, he could say something that triggers that type of response. And that to me is honestly what I am more worried about than anything. So I think that this conversation is interesting because as Americans, we've always lived with democracy. That's all that we know unless we grew up in a different authoritarian regime. Now, we've seen, you know, the devolution of democracy. We're becoming more and more authoritarian. We're losing civil rights and civil liberties, mostly civil liberties, but at the same time, we still have democratic institutions that are stronger than the institutions in these authoritarian regimes. Like, if you don't consolidate democracy in the way that we did, then I'd say, you know, sure, we would be susceptible to a military coup with Donald Trump leading it. But that's really unlikely in this instance but that doesn't necessarily mean that we're protected from voter intimidation or, you know, some sort of insurrection that emerges organically even if Donald Trump doesn't necessarily encourage it. So I think that this conversation, it is fascinating, but it all assumes that Donald Trump will in fact lose and I'm not necessarily willing to pound the gavel yet and say that Donald Trump is definitely going to lose because there's still a lot of time between now and November Donald Trump could change up the strategy and that could be successful. Joe Biden could absolutely face-plant during the debates that is entirely possible and if 2020 has taught us anything it's that we are in the darkest timeline. So, you know, it's entirely possible that Donald Trump could still win. But I mean if the numbers hold, if Joe Biden is still pulling outside the margin of error if he has this big of a lead over Donald Trump, not just nationally but in swing states, you know, Donald Trump will most likely lose. So it is interesting to kind of think about this because as Americans we haven't really had to entertain this idea. What would happen if we had a president who went rogue? You know, Republicans were fear mongering about Obama wanting to do just this very thing when Obama made a comment about how if he were to run for a third term he would win but you know, I can't do that because I believe in democracy. You know, they lost it of course because they're hypocrites. But you know, this is something that you have to worry about with Donald Trump. He's tweeted out, you know, jokes to troll the Libs and trigger the Libs about him staying in office forever. But that is, that's something that is unlikely but that doesn't mean that he's not going to cause chaos if he does lose and reject the results of the election. So, you know, we're going to have to wait and see. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst and not just assume that Trump will lose at all. It's entirely possible that he could still win. A lot can change between now and November so just you know, remember that and don't underestimate your opponents because voter suppression is a real problem and you know, Donald Trump is trying to fight mail-in ballots and if people are forced to vote during a pandemic assuming this is still a thing in November you know, that could suppress the turnout, suppress the vote so we don't know what's going to happen. You know, we have an indication based on polling results what will happen but you know, we'll just have to wait and see. Mike Fettuccine needs your support on Patreon. What a loser! Visit patreon.com slash humanistreport to support the low-radix humanist report. Sad. My views are much higher.