Trump tells his crowd to poll-watch, adding, “You know what that means.” No, tell us, Donald, because if what “that means” is even close to how Republicans monitored voting stations in key minority districts back in 1981, it will spell out big trouble for Republicans, as if they’re not already swimming drowning in it now. During Wednesday night’s show, Maddow reviewed a new legal action filed in federal court by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) against the Republican National Committee (RNC) for racist intentional voter intimidation. This is not the first time the RNC has been accused of such. Back in 1981, Republican Party “watchmen,” some of whom were off-duty policemen and security guards, showed up in minority districts donning guns and wearing armbands. They were going to make sure the election went their way — and it did. Posters were put up containing the word “WARNING” in giant red text and a reward of $1,000 was offered for reporting bonafide fraud. The posters also included a phone number, which led callers directly to a Republican National Party office. Since then, the RNC was has been under a court-ordered consent decree that severely limits their election activities due to their actions in 1981. They were just about to come out from under the court order in 2017, but Trump changed all that. With his continuous call for big, bad poll-watchers to pack and head to polling stations, he has nixed the RNC ability to slide out from under the decree in 2017, and caused the DNC to launch a legal action in a federal court claiming the RNC is violation of the court. This failure to comply will most likely extend the RNC’s consent decree for another eight years. Sucks to be a Republican right now. But then, they built this.
Source: DNC files legal action against RNC for election violations—Republicans are Trump-f*cked again