President Trump on Thursday raised the possibility of delaying the November general election, in a fiery new warning about the implications of mail ballots.
In a tweet in which he stated that practicing on a “universal” scale would lead to “the most INACCURATE AND FRAUDULENT election in history,” Trump suggested: “Delaying the election until people can vote properly, safely and safe?”
The president’s tweet comes 96 days before the Nov. 3 election, and early voting in some states begins in just two months. It also occurs when the coronavirus pandemic continues unabated, with new cases of the virus skyrocketing in many states. Trump’s suggestion also coincided with the federal government’s report on Thursday of the worst economic contraction in the nation’s history, as the pandemic has flattened much of the economy and attempts by states to revive their economies have been seen. hampered by an increase in new cases of coronavirus.
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. Delay the election until people can vote properly, safely and securely ??? “The president tweeted.
But Trump has no authority to delay a general election. The Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date for elections.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden has repeatedly warned that the president may try to delay the general election.
“Mark my words, I think he is going to try to delay the elections in some way, come up with an explanation for why it cannot be held,” the former vice president said in April.
The most recent public opinion poll in Biden-Trump’s career shows the alleged Democratic candidate leading the national polls, as well as in most crucial general election battle states.
A senior administration official told Fox News that “the president is simply asking a question, while Democrats are proposing a completely new system (of mass mailings in voting) that will cause huge delays in election results.”
And the national press secretary for Trump’s re-election campaign, Hogan Gidley, responding to the president’s tweet, said in a statement that “the president only raises a question about the chaos Democrats have created with his insistence on every vote. by mail”.
But the Democratic National Committee, responding to the president’s tweet, charged that “Trump’s threat is nothing more than a desperate attempt to distract himself from today’s devastating economic figures that make it clear that his failed response to the coronavirus has brought down the economy of the United States and caused tens of millions of Americans to lose their jobs. “
“Trump can tweet as much as he wants, but the reality is that he cannot delay the election, and in November, voters will hold him accountable for his failures that have had catastrophic consequences for the American people,” added the senior Chamber official. DNC War spokeswoman Lily Adams.
The president in recent months has repeatedly criticized the dramatic increase in postal voting during the primaries amid serious health concerns about in-person voting amid the coronavirus.
“Voting by mail is horrible. It is corrupt,” the president argued during a White House press conference in early April. Trump suggested that “there are thousands upon thousands of people sitting in someone’s living room signing ballots all over the place … I think voting by mail is a terrible thing.”
Last month, he stated in a tweet that “Due to MAIL TICKETS, 2020 will be the MOST DIFFERENT choice in the history of our nations.”
And last weekend he accused on Twitter that “the 2020 elections will be totally manipulated if voting by mail is allowed, and everyone knows it.”
Attorney General William Barr seemed to disagree with the president about whether the general election will be rigged.
Responding to a line of questions from Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana on Tuesday when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee, Barr contradicted the president by saying “I have no reason to think” that the 2020 election will be “rigged.”
But Barr, in his testimony, agreed with Trump by arguing that “wholesale” mail voting “substantially increases the risk of fraud.”
Election experts say voting by mail is more susceptible to fraud than casting an in-person vote, but they have seen no evidence of widespread fraud or that absentee voting favors Democrats. But the massive increase in absentee voting puts an additional burden on already stressed state and county election officials and on a United States Postal Service facing financial and personnel deficits.
Currently, five states vote entirely by mail: Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii. But amid the coronavirus, many states with Democratic and Republican governors have moved to make it easier for voters to mail ballots. Last month, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California enacted a measure requiring his state to send a ballot to every registered voter.
For months, the president criticized the efforts of Democrats and some Republicans to allow more people to vote by mail in the general election because of coronavirus-related health problems. His reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee earlier this year launched a multi-million dollar legal push to crush Democrats’ movements to expand access to ballots.
Democrats, rejecting claims by Trump and the Republican Party, say cases of real voter fraud are limited and claim that Republicans are trying to suppress turnout to improve their chances of winning elections.
Gidley charged that Democrats “are using the coronavirus as a means of trying to institute universal postal voting, which means sending every registered voter a ballot whether or not they have requested it. Voter lists are notoriously full of bad addresses for people who have moved, are not citizens, or have even passed away. Universal mail voting invites chaos and severe delays in results, as evidenced by the New York Congressional primaries, where we still don’t know who he won after more than a month. “
Fox News White House Chief Correspondent John Roberts contributed to this report.
