A potential insurrection is emerging on Capitol Hill as Democrats worry about how—or whether—they will accept the 2024 election results if former President Donald Trump wins.

Despite introducing numerous partisan and bipartisan bills allegedly aimed at strengthening democracy under President Joe Biden, according to Axios, Democrats are telling confidants they need to “fight fire with fire” after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) allegedly expressed uncertainty about certifying Vice President Kamala Harris’s victory.

The effort is being led by Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the influential House Oversight Committee. He told the outlet that he “definitely” does not believe a Trump victory would be legitimate.

If Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then [we] would obviously accept it,” he stated. However, the Maryland Democrat pointed to several legal challenges that the Trump campaign has initiated in battleground states or districts. 

Trump, he falsely claimed, “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) echoed those unfounded allegations. “I don’t know what kind of shenanigans he is planning,” she told Axios, adding: “We would have to, in any election … make sure that all the rules have been followed.”

Axios reporter Andrew Solender pointed out that Schakowsky bears the unfortunate distinction of voting against certifying the results of the 2004 presidential election, in which George W. Bush defeated John Kerry.

She later followed up with Soldender in a statement, saying she is “proud to … join all my Democratic colleagues in certifying the 2020 election” and looks forward to “doing the same in January 2025.”

Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), a prominent establishment figure who opposed Trump’s electors in 2017, stated he would accept a second Trump victory “assuming everything goes the way we expect it to.” He added, “We have to see how it all happens. My expectation is that we would.”

Raskin, Schakowsky, and McGovern all take their cues from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who effectively blessed their election denialism in a statement of his own. “House Democrats are going to do everything necessary to … ensure that the winner of the presidential election is certified on January 6th without drama or consequences,” Jeffries said at a September press conference.

Rankin falsely claimed at the time: “Democrats don’t engage in election fraud and election fabrication.”