Robert Reich warned of the “dirty Trump trick” that Republican nominee Donald Trump may pull on election night next week, adding that “it doesn’t work if you know it’s coming.”
The former president will likely attempt to “exploit something elections experts call the Red Mirage to prematurely declare victory before all the votes are counted,” the Bill Clinton-era labor secretary explained in a new video posted on his YouTube channel.
The Red Mirage, the former cabinet member noted, is when Republicans “appear to take an early lead” due to the different times votes are counted (because of population densities, for example) but which then gets “smaller throughout the night,” which is dubbed the Blue Shift.
Trump on election night in 2020 “pretended the Blue Shift was surprising and suspicious” and falsely declared victory but there was “nothing miraculous or secret about it,” said Reich.
The neck-and-neck nature of the 2024 race between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris means it’s highly likely Trump will “appear to be ahead and, again, use that early lead to falsely claim victory,” he said.
“Mirages can be confusing, but if you know what they are, you won’t be fooled by them,” he added.