MOSINEE, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump, who often makes false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by rampant fraud, warned Saturday that he will seek to imprison anyone who engages in “ruthless conduct” during the 2024 race results.
The threat, posted on Truth Social, his social media website, repeated his false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen and accused Democrats of “rampant cheating and skullduggery.”
“The 2024 election, where voting has just begun, will be under the strictest professional scrutiny and WHEN I WIN, the people who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including long prison sentences. This miscarriage of justice will not happen again,” he wrote.
He continued: “Beware that this legal exposure involves lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials. Those involved in unscrupulous activity will be sought out, apprehended and prosecuted at levels sadly never seen in our country.”
The threat was one of the most extensive he has made in his run for president since his 2020 defeat — it didn’t go beyond threatening old enemies and issuing warnings to those running in the current election.
Although he spent much of the 2016 campaign threatening to imprison his opponent Hillary Clinton, he doesn’t tend to go after people on the fringes, like donors and campaign workers.
Election workers across the country have been threatened, most notably Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two election workers whose entire lives were upended when Trump and his allies attacked them after the 2020 election with false allegations of fraud.
Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump began issuing unsubstantiated warnings of election tampering, which intensified after he lost, culminating in mobs storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to block Biden’s acceptance of the election. He has started making similar statements ahead of the 2024 election.
He also emphasized the GOP’s focus on election integrity this cycle in a speech Saturday in Wisconsin, suggesting that if Republicans stop Democrats from cheating, he won’t need to continue campaigning.
“We’ve got to stop cheating. If we stop cheating, if we don’t let them cheat, I don’t even have to campaign anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to win so much. Meanwhile, too big to pin, too big to tackle.”
Trump and his allies filed dozens of unsuccessful cases after the 2020 election to try to overturn the results. Some Democrats say new Republican legal battles in battleground states ahead of the November election are raising concerns that Republicans are trying to cast doubt on the outcome if Donald Trump loses.
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign could not immediately be reached Saturday night to provide additional context on Trump’s plan.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
