After the 2020 presidential election, Democratic leaders spent years condemning President Trump's claims that fraud cost him a second term. They described his refusal to accept the results as an attack on democracy, and they pointed to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol as the consequence of his rhetoric.
Six years later, with Election Day one week away, many of those same Democrats have spent more than a year warning voters that Trump and Republicans intend to steal the 2026 midterms.
Journalist Mark Halperin, writing in The Free Press, reported that progressives have grown "so confident in a midterm blowout that they think Trump cheating is the only way they can lose." According to Halperin, that conviction leaves the Democratic base primed for "rage and disappointment" if the results fall short of a wave.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has used the word "rigging" to describe Trump's approach to the midterms, and CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan pressed him on it.
"Democrats were appalled when President Trump used language like that," Brennan said. "How do you justify using that now? Doesn't that undermine faith for voters you need to show up?"
In July, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were preparing for interference from the president.
"We're anticipating the trouble he might create, the evil he might do," Schumer said. Sen. Adam Schiff of California made a similar prediction that month. 
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