TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An American political analyst said the US would experience a lot of protest and violence from Trump’s supporters if Joe Biden is announced the winner of the presidential election.
“If Biden is named the winner of this election, the US will experience a lot of protest and violence from Trump’s supporters. Trump will not discourage this reaction and his actions in his final weeks will likely exacerbate the situation. We can expect a lame-duck Trump to cause as much damage to the federal regulatory agencies as he can,” Charles Dunaway told Tasnim in an interview.
Charles Dunaway is an American radio host and journalist who runs an online political forum. After a career as a systems analyst, Charles began a new career in radio journalism, joining the staff of a local station and becoming News Director. In 2016 he began producing his own program focused on international affairs called Wider View.
Following is the full text of the interview:
Tasnim: The US election is less than one week away and early voting is already underway in many states, with over 50 million ballots cast. Local polls are currently pointing to the potential for a landslide Biden victory. What do you think? Who do you think and hope will win the 2020 presidential election?
Dunaway: There are 3 components to the US President Election this year:
The number of votes cast by citizens who are duly registered to vote. I think Biden will win this handily as did Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The number of ballots counted. Many mail-in ballots will be improperly completed with issues ranging from failure to fill in boxes so they can be read by optical scanners, to failure to put a return address on the outer envelope. Many voters may appear at their polling places only to be told their registration is no longer valid. They will use provisional ballots that may not be counted. There will be several legal challenges both to force and prevent these votes from being counted. The issue may end up in the Supreme Court.
The distribution of ballots for each candidate. Because of the Electoral College system, only outcomes in a handful of “swing states” will determine the winner. Registration, voting, and counting procedures in those states will be carefully scrutinized by both sides in an attempt to ensure their candidate is not negatively affected.
Because of the counting and distribution issues, I am unable to predict who will win. Because of the policy positions of both candidates, I cannot be hopeful about either of them winning. I do believe Biden would restore some calm and dignity to the office, but he will not be the President I would like to see.
Tasnim: President Donald Trump continued his assault on the integrity of the US elections in the final segment of the first presidential debate, extending argument against mail voting and saying it was ripe for fraud and suggesting mail ballots may be "manipulated." "This is going to be a fraud like you've never seen," he said. Do you think there will be a peaceful transfer of power?
Dunaway: If Biden is named the winner of this election, the US will experience a lot of protest and violence from Trump’s supporters. Trump will not discourage this reaction and his actions in his final weeks will likely exacerbate the situation. We can expect a lame-duck Trump to cause as much damage to the federal regulatory agencies as he can. He has already begun by permitting logging in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The trees of the Tongass absorb at least 8 percent of all the carbon stored in the entire Lower 48’s forests combined. They have been called the “lungs of North America”.
Trump will eventually leave but his supporters are likely to continue their violent response. I doubt that police or Homeland Security forces will make a serious effort to stop the violence. In the end, the protest will fail and Biden will take office. He will, however, have even more damage to repair than he anticipates, and his instinct to heal the nation may cause even more problems.
Tasnim: Do you think the potential election of Biden as the new president will change the US foreign policy on Iran?
Dunaway: No. The only difference I anticipate is one of style. Will we have a John Kerry-like faux diplomacy with noises about peace and human rights, or a Mike Pompeo-style bull-in-the-china shop approach? The underlying goals and objectives will remain the same - US Full-Spectrum Dominance of the entire world and regime-change operations against any nations that, like Iran, do not wish to be dominated.
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