Donald Trump has refused to back down from his controversial suggestion that November’s election be postponed, insisting “I don’t want to see a crooked election”, as he continues to claim mail-in voting — a likely necessity given the coronavirus outbreak — is vulnerable to fraud.
“I want an election and a result, much, much more than you,” he said at the White House on Thursday.
“I don’t want to delay. I want to have the election. But I also don’t want to have to wait three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing, and the election doesn’t mean anything.”
The president cited recent media reports about potential problems with postal ballots arriving late and said it could take weeks, months or even years to sort it out.
“Do I want to see a date change? No, but I don’t want to see a crooked election,” he said.
Trailing badly in the polls to presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Trump posted a tweet yesterday that said voting by mail, which many states are likely to use because of the pandemic, would result in a “fraudulent” vote.
“It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???,” he added, his tweet following hot on the heels of the news that US GDP fell 9.5 per cent in the second quarter, wiping out five years of growth and therefore not fooling anyone, given that his re-election case is centered on prosperity.
Trump continued to make his case on Twitter last night…
…glorying in forcing the “very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy”, rather than the economic turmoil.
President delays G7 meeting until after 2020 election as he says 1918 Spanish flu ended second world war in another historical flub
Donald Trump said on Monday that the White House and the Civil War battleground in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, were two locations under consideration as the site of his Republican renomination speech later this month.
In a Twitter post, the president said «We will announce the decision soon!»
Both the Democratic and Republican party conventions have been turned upside down amid the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
The August 24-27 Republican convention was set to take place entirely in Charlotte, North Carolina. A state both parties expect to be competitive on 3 November.
Now only one day of official convention business will take place there with a far smaller number of attendees.
Last week, Democrats scrapped plans to have Joe Biden accept his party’s nomination in person in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Another closely contested election state.
Democrat party officials, citing coronavirus concerns, said Mr Biden will instead speak to the nation from his home state of Delaware as part of the mostly virtual convention being held Aug. 17-20.
Mr Trump’s decision — either the White House or Gettysburg — will prove controversial, after critics panned the president’s use of taxpayer’s money and his presidential office for election campaign purposes, which includes staging the speech at the White House, a nonpartisan public site.
Gettysburg, meanwhile, was the location of a decisive 1863 battle lost by the pro-slavery Confederate States of America, whose symbols Mr Trump has previously defended amid anti-racism protests.
