Former acting solicitor general warns of ‘potential election crisis’

Former Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal sounded the alarm Wednesday about potential dangers surrounding the 2024 election cycle, warning the “crisis” could be worse than the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

“I think we are looking at a very possible constitutional crisis and one that’s going to make January 6, 2021, look like a dress rehearsal,” Katyal said Wednesday morning in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“And this year, the rogues have had four years to go pro and perfect the big lie.”

He joined the outlet to discuss his new op-ed published Wednesday in The New York Times, where the former executive questioned former President Trump’s efforts to remain in power in 2020 and forewarned of new challenges ahead of Election Day, now less than three weeks away.

“So, I wrote this piece, I think it’s the most important piece I’ve ever written, because I’m really wanting to warn the American people about what very well may happen on November 5th and then the days to come,” Katyal told the host. “And we shouldn’t be surprised when Donald Trump sends out his lawyers to challenge everything.”

His comments come less than a month after Democratic secretaries of state joined together to form the Democracy Legal Defense Fund, a coalition they said would support election officials if “bad-faith” legal challenges were filed against them this election cycle.

Katyal on Wednesday also criticized the former president for choosing Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, arguing he would only bolster Trump’s claims of election fraud.

“Vance couldn’t even admit that Trump lost in 2020. And remember, in 2020, Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232,” he said, referring to President Biden. “So all of his 60 different challenges he filed … you know, he had to run the table and win a bunch of them. This election might be closer. I’m also very, very worried about these possibilities.”

The GOP has already filed a string of lawsuits related to absentee ballots, noncitizen voters and election certification. Katyal said there are likely more to come.

“In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which tried to reduce the risk by stating that, unless the state designates another official in advance, the governor of a state, and not a local board, must certify electors. But the governor may be in on the fix, too, or give in to a pressure campaign,” Katyal, now a professor at Georgetown University, wrote in his op-ed.

Despite updated guidelines instituted after the Capitol insurrection, Katyal said he still believes state officials could potentially navigate around certain requirements. 

“The stark reality is that there are no immediate solutions to a potential election crisis. The personnel to trigger one — in the courts, legislatures and executive branches — are largely in place,” he added later.