Trump floats election delay, lawmakers in both parties reject idea
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[July 31, 2020]
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald
Trump on Thursday raised the idea of delaying the Nov. 3 U.S. elections,
an idea immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow
Republicans in Congress - the sole branch of government with the
authority to make such a change.
Critics and even Trump's allies dismissed the notion as an unserious
attempt to distract from devastating economic news, but some legal
experts warned that his repeated attacks could undermine his supporters'
faith in the election process.
Trump's statement on Twitter comes as the United States is enduring a
multi-pronged, once-in-a-generation crisis: a coronavirus pandemic that
has claimed more than 150,000 lives, a crippling recession sparked by
the outbreak, and nationwide protests against police violence and
racism. On Thursday morning, the government reported the worst U.S.
economic contraction since the Great Depression: 32.9% in the second
quarter.
Trump, who opinion polls show trailing Democratic challenger and former
Vice President Joe Biden, said he would not trust the results of an
election that included widespread mail voting - a measure that many
observers see as critical given the coronavirus pandemic. Without
evidence, he claimed that ramped up mail voting would be rife with
fraud, but praised absentee voting, which is also done by mail.
"With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good),
2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It
will be a great embarrassment to the USA," Trump wrote on Twitter.
"Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely
vote???"
At a White House news conference later in the day, Trump did not repeat
his call for an election delay but said he was worried about fraud and a
long wait for results from counting mail ballots.
"Do I want to see a date change? No. But I don't want to see a crooked
election," he told reporters.
The United States has held elections for more than 200 years, including
during the Civil War, the Great Depression and two world wars. Article
II of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to set the timing
of elections, and the 20th Amendment ends a president and vice
president's term in office on the Jan. 20 following a general election.
Multiple congressional Republicans - including Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell and top House of Representatives Republican Kevin
McCarthy - rejected the idea.
"Never in the history of the federal elections have we ever not held an
election and we should go forward with our election," said McCarthy.
Democratic U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren, who chairs the House
committee overseeing election security, also rejected any delay.
"Under no circumstances will we consider doing so to accommodate the
President's inept and haphazard response to the coronavirus pandemic, or
give credence to the lies and misinformation he spreads," Lofgren said
in an email to Reuters.
Trump wrote on Twitter later on Thursday that Americans needed to know
the election results on the night of the voting, not days or months
later. Mail-in ballots can sometimes take longer to count.
"Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally
start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal
Mail-In-Voting," he said in the tweet.
'DESTABILIZING'
Trump's tweets will deepen Democrats' fears that he will try to
interfere with the election or refuse to accept its outcome should he
lose. Biden has called that his biggest fear and has gone so far as to
suggest sending in the military to force Trump out if he refused to
leave.
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President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with family members
of slain Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen, who was was found dead
after disappearing from the army base in Texas, in the Oval Office
at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 30, 2020.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Democrats are preparing for fights over absentee ballots, potential
voting recounts and the possibility that Trump's Republican
supporters will seek to intimidate voters at the polls.
The truly dangerous part of Trump's tweet on Thursday was not his
suggestion of delaying the election – which is a "fantasy" – but his
latest claim that voting by mail is rife with fraud, according to
Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Marymount University and a
constitutional law expert.
"This is yet another example of the president seeking to
delegitimize the election process before it happens," Levitt said.
"That is deeply destabilizing."
A Republican close to the White House was stunned at the tweet,
noting that it followed a period of stability in which Trump has
stayed on message in response to advice from new campaign manager
Bill Stepien and senior campaign manager Jason Miller.
"Obviously he just can't help himself. This is starting to look like
a real campaign, and then he does this," the Republican source said.
"It's awful. It's starting to look like he doesn't even want to
win."
The White House referred questions about the tweet to Trump's
re-election campaign.
"The President is just raising a question about the chaos Democrats
have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting," said
Hogan Gidley, the campaign's press secretary. "Universal mail-in
voting invites chaos and severe delays in results."
Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary under Republican
President George W. Bush, said Trump should delete the tweet.
"This is not an idea anyone, especially POTUS, should float. Our
democracy is based on elections in which everyone knows the rules
and they apply to all," Fleischer said. "Mr. President - please
don't even pretend to mess with this. It's a harmful idea."
Polls have shown that U.S. registered voters oppose an election
delay. When Reuters/Ipsos in April asked voters if they thought the
election should be rescheduled due to the coronavirus, 59% opposed
the idea, including a majority in each party.
A Biden campaign official called Trump's tweet an obvious ploy to
distract from the awful GDP numbers.
"We're going to keep our eye on the ball," the Biden campaign
official said.
Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's voting
rights project, said Trump lacked the authority to reschedule an
election.
"This is America," Ho said. "We are a democracy, not a dictatorship.
The Constitution sets the date for the election in November. Nothing
President Trump says, does, or tweets can change that fact."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; additional reporting by Rick Cowan,
David Morgan, Patricia Zengerle, Susan Heavey, Michael Martina and
Joseph Ax, writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and
Rosalba O'Brien)
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