Now that Donald Trump has made it imminently clear he has every intention of trying to steal the 2020 presidential election, it now appears that his political party is also eager to interfere in the political process to benefit the incumbent president.

According to The Hill, Republican leaders in the state of South Carolina are urging GOP voters to vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the February 29 Democratic primary in an attempt to help Sanders inch closer to securing the Democratic nomination:

“The plan — orchestrated by Greenville GOP chairman Nate Leupp and several other prominent Republican Party leaders — revolves around GOP leadership’s belief that Sanders poses the least amount of challenge to President Trump in November’s general election and its goal of getting the Palmetto State’s Democratic lawmakers to agree to close the state’s primaries.

“’Bernie Sanders is the most socialistic, liberal candidate running in the Democratic presidential preference primary,’ Leupp told The Post and Courier. ‘So we feel we can make a strong point that our Democratic state legislators need to help work to close our primaries so it protects them as well as the Republican brand.'”

Since South Carolina has an open primary, voters are able to cast a ballot without naming their party preference.

The numbers the GOP has in its voter base could indeed make a significant difference if Republicans show up en masse and ask for a Democratic ballot:

“Leupp said that he believes that the state’s large Republican voter base could make the difference in the primary. To his point, in 2016 roughly 740,000 people voted in the state’s GOP presidential primary, while only 370,000 voted in the Democratic version.”

As was the case with the Ukraine scandal, when Trump sought damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for releasing military aid allocated by Congress, once again we see Republicans trying their best to sabotage the person they perceive as being the biggest threat to the incumbent president.

But it might not be wise for the GOP to cheer so hard for Sanders or any other Democratic presidential candidate. Sanders has a widespread following and could be formidable in a general election, as could Pete Buttigieg or Elizabeth Warren.

Republicans cannot win elections without cheating. They will do anything to try and cling go power, but their power is fading and their days of being in control are numbered.