President Trump targeted critics in the mainstream media on Twitter on Thursday after his suggestion to delay the 2020 election sparked a quick and widespread reaction.
“I’m glad that I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream media outlets to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous universal voting mail (not absentee voting, which I totally support!” Trump wrote in the first. of a series of tweets in the late afternoon.
“You must know the election results on election night, not days, months, or even years afterward!” The President wrote in a follow-up tweet, adding, “We are going to WIN the 2020 elections, BIG!”
Members of the media and politicians on both sides of the aisle had condemned the president’s earlier suggestion that the United States could delay the next election because of security concerns about mail ballots.
SWIFT BACKLASH AFTER TRUMP SUGGESTS THE CHOICE OF DELAY
“With universal voting by mail (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE and FRAUDULENT election in history,” argued the president in an 8:46 am tweet that was still on the side. top of your profile. early Thursday night. “It will be a great shame for the United States. Delay the election until people can vote properly, safely and securely ??? “
In response, top lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum handed out snippets of sound that opposed the measure.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with a radio station in his home state of Kentucky that the election date is set in stone.
President Donald Trump wears a face mask while touring the national headquarters of the American Red Cross in Washington, Thursday, July 30, 2020. (Doug Mills / The New York Times via AP, Pool)
“No, Mister President,” tweeted Vermont’s progressive independent senator Bernie Sanders. “We are not delaying the elections.”
And the headlines about the president’s suggestion to move Election Day, which experts say cannot be done under presidential authority and requires an act of Congress, flooded the media.
TRUMP SUGGESTS ELECTION TO BE DELAYED, WARN MAIL TICKETS TO RESULT IN VOTE ‘INACURATE AND FRAUDULENT’
The New York Times called the president’s previous suggestion “an extraordinary violation of presidential decorum.” And the media outlet disputed Trump’s claim that voting by mail generates inaccurate counts or electoral fraud, declaring it “false.” Other media outlets did the same.
But the White House in a statement Thursday issued Trump’s morning tweet, saying the president did not fully demand that he be changed on election day, and criticizing Democrats for promoting a massive expansion of mail-order voting that Republicans say it can be exploited. and can cause delays between actual choice and when results are available.
In New York, it was recently weeks after the polls closed to get the results of some congressional primary elections, as ballots were counted in absentia and by mail.
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“The president is simply asking a question, while Democrats are proposing a whole new system (of mass voting by mail) that will result in huge delays in election results,” a senior administration official told Fox News.
This year’s election day is November 3.
Fox News’ Tyler Olson, John Roberts and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.
