In bipartisan public reports, the Senate Intelligence Committee has emphasized that US officials, including the president, should not try to undermine faith in the US election, arguing that such statements aid the evil efforts of foreign countries to meddle in The bells.
“I wish I hadn’t said that. But it will not change, ”added Rubio. “We will have elections in November. And people should have confidence in it. “
Senator Chuck Grassley (Republican of Iowa), who is in the line of succession to the presidency as pro tempore president of the Senate, rejected Trump’s tweet as the opinion of a single person, saying he would take an act of Congress to change the date of a federal election.
“It doesn’t matter what a person says in this country,” Grassley said. “We are still a country based on the rule of law. And we must follow the law until the Constitution is changed or until the law is changed. “
House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican of California) similarly said he opposes delaying the election date. “In no way should we not hold an election the day we have it,” McCarthy told reporters.
The president’s tweet comes from his long-standing allegations, with no evidence, that voting by mail is unreliable and fraught with fraud. It also occurs when he is significantly tracking polls for alleged Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who predicted in April that Trump would seek to delay the election date.
With universal postal voting (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACTIVE and FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great shame for the United States, ”Trump wrote on Twitter. “Delaying elections until people can vote properly and safely?”
Several House Republicans responded to Trump’s suggestion in an impromptu manner.
“Moving election day would seriously jeopardize the legitimacy of the election,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, a conservative Republican in the South Dakota House, wrote on Twitter. “Federal, state and local officials must continue to work hard to ensure that Americans can vote safely, either by voting early or on November 3.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger (Republican of Illinois), an occasional critic of Trump, wrote: “Reminder: Congress sets election dates. And I will oppose any attempt to delay election # 2020. “
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Declined to answer journalists’ questions about Trump’s tweet, but reportedly told WNKY in Kentucky that the elections are in. in stone.
Democrats said the president’s suggestion represented more evidence of his desire to undermine confidence in American institutions, and criticized it as a distraction from Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“He is always trying to divert attention from his overwhelming failure at Covid,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said in a brief interview. “And it won’t happen.”
Melanie Zanona and Max Cohen contributed to this story.
