Philadelphia’s attorney general issued a stern message to anyone trying to interfere with voters on Election Day, warning them to look around and find out.
In 2020, two men were arrested for allegedly taking an AR-15 and a samurai sword to a vote counting center in Philadelphia.
This year, on the eve of the election, Democratic prosecutor Larry Krasner took a break from his failed lawsuit against Elon Musk to discuss election protection.
‘I also want to be clear. Anyone who thinks it’s time to play militia, F around and find out. Anyone who thinks it’s time to insult, mistreat or threaten people should look around and find out,” said Krasner, one of the progressive prosecutors funded by billionaire George Soros.
He clarified that the city — which leans heavily Democratic and will likely be part of Kamala Harris’ strategy to defeat Donald Trump in the swing state of Pennsylvania — has “no deep, abiding fears or concerns” that something like this will happen.
Philadelphia’s district attorney had a profane message for anyone trying to interfere with voters on Election Day, challenging them to “look around and find out.”
He clarified that the city — which leans heavily Democratic and will likely be part of Kamala Harris’ strategy to defeat Donald Trump in the swing state of Pennsylvania — has “no deep, abiding fears or concerns” that something like this will happen.
However, he made a stern promise to go after anyone who planned to interfere with the vote, which contrasted with his reputation as a soft-on-crime and progressive prosecutor.
“We have a pair of handcuffs, we have a jail cell and we have a jury in Philadelphia,” he said.
He made it clear that he was talking about agitators submitting bogus challenges to the vote.
“Anyone who thinks you’re going to play those games in Philadelphia, you’re going to do it in bad faith. “I have no problem doing it in good faith, but if you do it in bad faith, there is an election court, there are judges, they have orders,” he said.
Krasner tried to emphasize the bipartisan nature of people potentially trying to keep people from voting.
‘We don’t care who gets your vote. We think it is important that you vote. That’s the most important thing,” Krasner said.
Joshua Macias, 42, of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Antonio Lamotta, 61, of the same city, were detained two nights after Election Day 2020, police in Philadelphia said.
Macias founded Vets for Trump in 2016; Lamotta is a member.
Krasner made a stark pledge to deal with anyone who planned to interfere with voting, a contrast to his soft, progressive reputation as a prosecutor
Joshua Macias (pictured right), 42, of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Antonio Lamotta (pictured left), 61, of the same city, were detained two nights after Election Day 2020, police in Philadelphia said.
Danielle Outlaw, then-Philadelphia police commissioner, said at a news conference that the FBI had been tipped off that individuals were going from Virginia Beach to Philadelphia with guns.
They were arrested outside the Philadelphia Convention Center, where the vote counting was taking place.
Joe Biden had still not been declared the winner over Donald Trump in the Keystone State.
They were told that a man, his mother and another person traveled to the Philadelphia area to “set the record straight” as vote counting continued.
Americans are prepared for civil unrest amid terrifying predictions of ‘blood’ in Tuesday’s sharp presidential election, which appears to hinge on results in just seven swing states, bringing back painful memories of recent assassinations and post-2020 election chaos come to life.
The 2024 race has already seen bloodshed, with the July 13 shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving the former president dead and one participant dead and another two injured.
The contest was also marred by scathing rhetoric between the rival campaigns. A speaker at a Trump rally recently spoke of the “slaughter” of Democrats, and Trump himself has spoken of “shooting” former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney.
Meanwhile, Harris has called Trump a “threat” to democracy who must be defeated at the ballot box, while her boss, outgoing President Joe Biden, has called MAGA Republican supporters “trash.”
A Trump supporter, left, confronts a Harris fan outside an event for Tim Walz in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania, last week.
Meanwhile, the specter of January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the former president’s election loss to Biden, has cast a long shadow over US politics.
This time around, Trump has repeatedly refused to say whether he will accept the election results, and is already accusing fraud and deceit in neck-and-neck swing states like Pennsylvania, laying the groundwork for what many fear will be more unrest are.
Tensions rose Monday as Trump and his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, made their final attempt to sway voters, hours before polls opened Tuesday in a close-call contest that hinges on a handful of electoral battlegrounds.
The election prediction website 538 slightly favors Trump to win the White House, with a 52 percent chance against 48 percent for Harris — but for many commentators the race is more or less a dead end.