Even as ballots in the 2020 election were still being counted, Donald Trump claimed to his supporters that he had won, but that “a fraud” was being perpetrated “on the American public” to deprive him of a second term. After it was clear that he had officially lost, Trump:

• Continued to spread baseless lies that the election had been stolen from him
• Blocked federal officials from working with Joe Biden’s transition team
• Demanded Georgia’s secretary of state “find” him the exact number of votes he needed to turn his loss their into a win
• Pressured the DOJ to investigate the absurd claim that Italian satellites had changed Trump votes to Biden ones
• Urged state legislators to “decertify” their election results
• Incited a violent riot that left numerous people dead
• Let said violent riot go on for hours before he half-heartedly told people to go home (and also told the mob, “You’re very special” and “we love you” and “Remember this day forever!”)
• Said Mike Pence deserved the chants calling for his hanging
• Continues, nearly four years later, to claim the election was stolen from him
• Won’t commit to accepting the outcome of the 2024 election
• Says there will be further violence if he loses again
• Regularly threatens to  use the government to go after his enemies if he wins
• Said he will be a dictator on “day one” in office

Because of all of the above, and because Joe Biden has notably done none of the above, you might think it would be pretty clear to people that of the two candidates, one of them is good for democracy and one of them is bad, and that the latter is very obviously Trump. But according to the results of a terrifying new poll, that is, somehow, very much not the case.

That poll, conducted by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, reveals that in the six swing states Biden won in 2020, more voters classified as “Deciders”—that is, they are likely to decide the outcome of the election—think Trump is better equipped to handle threats to democracy than Biden.

Among the Deciders, more than 7 in 10 believe that Trump will not accept the results of the election if he loses, compared with one-third who say the same for Biden. Nearly half, 47 percent, say Trump would try to rule as a dictator if he is elected to another term as president, compared with 15 percent who say Biden would. The poll finds that just over half of Deciders think Trump is guilty of criminal charges of lying about voter fraud in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and more say he has been treated fairly rather than unfairly by the criminal justice system.

Yet more of them, 38 percent, trust Trump to handle threats to democracy, than the 29 percent who trust Biden on the issue. Twenty-three percent don’t trust either major party candidate.

“Many Americans don’t recognize Biden’s custodianship of our democracy, which is a bad sign for his campaign,” Justin Gest, a professor of policy and government at George Mason University, told the Post, in perhaps the understatement of a lifetime. It’s not clear how the Biden campaign plans to change these people’s minds, but for the actual fate of democracy, it would be great if they could get on that.

Speaking of pants-shittingly concerning news…

Here’s some more worrisome data from the Post:

Donald Trump is leading in 5 of the 7 battleground states that are most likely to determine the outcome of the election. The polls are particularly close in the first three battlegrounds below, meaning our average is within a normal-sized polling error of 3.5 points and either a Trump or President Biden victory is plausible. In the other four battlegrounds, the candidates’ polling leads are larger, but the race is still close.

While the words “a…President Biden victory is plausible” theoretically make the “Donald Trump is leading” part slightly less scary, in reality they absolutely do not.

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