MAGA Republicans were already threatening challenges to any state losses for Donald Trump before Election Day, and plenty of Americans are worried about a violent response should he lose the election entirely.
Reuters correspondents spoke to more than 50 voters across the seven swing states that will decide the election. The voters all indicated they're worried about what the country will look like should their preferred candidate lose, if the "other side" starts trouble, and if the deep political divide will only grow deeper.
While there was a similar sense of worry before the 2020 election, those fears of political retribution were nothing compared to this year, as the country now knows what Donald Trump and his MAGA base are capable of after witnessing the events of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
And while some fear an all-out Civil War if Trump loses, it's unlikely. Timothy Snyder, Yale professor of totalitarian history and author of "On Tyranny" who predicted that Trump’s 2020 election loss could lead to a coup attempt, told Rolling Stone that Trump will, again, seek to use violence and intimidation to return to the White House if he loses.
"Trump understands that dynamic of violence and fear. What they’re going to go for is violence to frighten everybody," Snyder told Rolling Stone. "This time, you’ll have people who sincerely believe that something wrong has happened, and that therefore you can’t trust normal channels of law — because they’re all part of the conspiracy against 'our guy Trump'."