The Harris campaign is bracing for former President Donald Trump to declare the election rigged and claim he won the White House before all the votes were even counted.

For weeks, Trump laid the groundwork that the election would be rigged against him and that the only reason he would lose would be if Democrats cheated. Without proof, he already claimed this week that the entire state of Pennsylvania it’s cheating just days before Election Day.

Harris spokesman Ian Sams said Friday that Trump encouraged claims of election fraud because he thought he was losing.

“It’s a moment of weakness for him. He sees that his numbers are not what they should be, among older people, among men. He sees how he is losing women by a historic margin, and he is afraid of losing. That’s what’s driving all of this. So he’s making up baseless claims of fraud before he even gets to Election Day, because he’s afraid he’s going to lose this race, and he’s desperate to blame something other than himself,” Sams said on MSNBC. “Hello Joe.”

As in 2020, the Trump team is should take legal action question the election results. However, Sams said they are prepared to respond to possible legal action in the coming days. He said Team Harris has “hundreds of attorneys across this country who are ready to protect the vote, ensure the electoral integrity of this election, and hold Donald Trump accountable.”

“We’re already seeing this kind of PR stunt trial that the RNC and the Trump campaign are doing right now, and we’re not sitting around waiting. We go to court to impose decisions quickly so that we can beat them. We have won two dozen lawsuits in the last month alone regarding these false claims that Republicans are making because they are not based in fact,” he said.

“And ultimately, we are confident that our institutions will hold up. We are confident that we will win in court because the facts are on our side. And the only reason. Donald Trump does this because he is afraid of losing. He fears that he will not be able to win this election fairly and equitably,” he continued.

“And that’s because he probably sees what we see, which is that the voters who are going to decide this election are making their decision and they’re going for Vice President Harris,” he added.

Marc E. Elias, the founder of Democracy Docket, said MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell On Thursday, Trump only filed the lawsuit “to create a claims structure.”

“Trump does not use litigation to win cases. It uses litigation as a tool to influence the political environment. He wants people to believe that there is chaos. He wants it to lay the foundation for a grievance structure that allows him to say he was cheated rather than losing fairly. But none of this will change the outcome. Ultimately, Donald Trump is going to lie about the outcome of the 2024 election,” he said.

“People keep asking me, ‘Am I worried he’ll declare victory before the ballots are counted?’ Well, he lies about everything. So why wouldn’t he lie about it? I mean, you cover up his lies every night. So yes, he will lie about the outcome of the election, but that won’t change the results. So if people are voting and they’re doing their part to get out the vote, you know, let’s not worry about Donald Trump’s lies, because we’re not going to convince him to stop doing that,” Elias added. .

This year’s election marks the first presidential race since former President Donald Trump launched a campaign of lies about a stolen 2020 election — a narrative that undermined public confidence in election results among a broad spectrum of conservative voters, despite the absence of evidence of widespread fraud.

Election experts have warned that Trump could set the stage to contest the election again if he loses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.