The New York Times paints a dark portrait of another Trump presidential run

As part of a grim editorial from the editors of the New York Times, they warn that, not only have new revelations exposed how much work went into subverting the election, but the American public can expect the former president to make another run in 2024 -- and things could be a lot worse.

Under an ominous headline reading, "Jan 6th Was Worse Than It Looked," the editors suggested the failed insurrection and legal maneuvering behind the scenes at the White House would likely be seen as a learning experience that would inform Trump's people how to successfully take back the White House in 2024.

"However horrifying the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol appeared in the moment, we know now that it was far worse," the editorial began. "The country was hours away from a full-blown constitutional crisis — not primarily because of the violence and mayhem inflicted by hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters but because of the actions of Mr. Trump himself."

Noting that health issues aside, there seems no reason to believe that Trump won't make another run, they suggested that Trump's people will hone their legal arguments and take advantage of the country's oft-times vague voting laws to propel him back into the Oval Office.

'In the days before the mob descended on the Capitol, a corollary attack — this one bloodless and legalistic — was playing out down the street in the White House, where Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a lawyer named John Eastman huddled in the Oval Office, scheming to subvert the will of the American people by using legal sleight-of-hand," the editorial reported. "Mr. Eastman's unusual visit was reported at the time, but a new book by the Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides the details of his proposed six-point plan. It involved Mr. Pence rejecting dozens of already certified electoral votes representing tens of millions of legally cast ballots, thus allowing Congress to install Mr. Trump in a second term."

Adding, "Mr. Trump remains the most popular Republican in the country; barring a serious health issue, the odds are good that he will be the party's nominee for president in 2024. He also remains as incapable of accepting defeat as he has ever been, which means the country faces a renewed risk of electoral subversion by Mr. Trump and his supporters — only next time they will have learned from their mistakes," the editors wrote explained that it is up to lawmakers to make sure that there will not be a repeat of 2020 -- or something even worse.

Urging lawmakers to "Reform the federal election law at the heart of Mr. Eastman's twisted ploy, and make it as hard as possible for anyone to pull a stunt like that again," they added, "There is plenty more to be done to protect American elections from being stolen through subversion, like mandating the use of paper ballots that can be checked against reported results. Ideally, fixes like these would be adopted promptly by bipartisan majorities in Congress, to convey to all Americans that both parties are committed to a fair, transparent and smooth vote-counting process."

"Democrats should push through these reforms now, and eliminate the filibuster if that's the only way to do so. If they hesitate, they should recall that a majority of the Republican caucus in the House — 139 members — along with eight senators, continued to object to the certification of electoral votes even after the mob stormed the Capitol," they wrote. "Mr. Trump may never stop trying to undermine American democracy. Those who value that democracy should never stop using every measure at their disposal to protect it."

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