In anticipation of a likely Trump loss, Republicans and their media enablers can do many things to weaken Hillary Clinton. They’ve long attacked her on trustworthiness and her tenure as Secretary of State, mostly on Benghazi and her e-mail server. But that’s not far beyond the normal stuff that you find in modern American campaigns. Similarly, we can expect the Republican leadership in Congress to continue using every tactic available to them to limit her ability to get anything done, again aimed at the one-term President goal that they failed to achieve with Obama. Unless the Democrats regain a Senate majority, we could see another four years of Republicans refusing to hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee or other key appointments (Cabinet, ambassadors, etc.).
Beyond that, though, we are already seeing Trump and his minions spreading the notion that the election is rigged, just as it might be in some country run by a “president for life”. So if Trump loses, it’s not because he was actually outvoted, but rather that Clinton and her supporters and donors conspired to steal the election. After all, how could so many people vote against Trump’s charm, brilliance, and promise to “make America great again”? Things could get pretty ugly very quickly if a large number of his supporters believe this.
Finally, assuming that they retain the majority in the House (which seems likely), I can envision the Republicans bringing Articles of Impeachment against President Clinton during the first week of her Administration. Benghazi and E-mail servers again. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Articles have already been drafted, since they have a 1998 model with the Clinton name already filled in. That could lead to a lengthy trial in the Senate. Of course, there’s no chance that the Republicans could collect the 2/3 majority needed to convict, but that’s not the point. Instead, their objective would be to bring effective government to a halt for as long as possible and to weaken the President. The Republicans are well aware that the 2018 midterm election puts 25 Democratic Senate seats up for election against only 8 currently held by Republicans.
I hope that Democratic voters will start immediately to attack the “rigged election” meme, countering the right-wing machine that will do whatever it can to delegitimize this election.