Trump floats delaying election, lawmakers say no
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the possibility of delaying the nation’s November presidential election - though the Constitution bestows that power on Congress, not the president.
Trump, without evidence, repeated his claims of mail-in voter fraud and raised the question of a delay, tweeting: "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. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
he prospect that Trump would delay or deny the results of the election has long been a nightmare scenario among Democrats, who point to his 2016 campaign claims that the vote would be "rigged."
(OCT 14, 2016) "The election is rigged, it is rigged like we've never seen before...
Claims he is repeating in 2020.
(JULY 15, 2020) "The mail in ballots is going to be... they're going to be rigged!"
Trump has been casting doubt on voting-by-mail as Democrats push for it as a safer alternative to in-person voting amid the pandemic.
Trump's suggestion for an election delay sparked a swift political backlash.
Senator Tom Udall tweeted, "the fact that he is even suggesting it is a serious, chilling attack on the democratic process."
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi simply tweeted the text of the Constitution that reads, "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes."
Even Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham both shot down the idea.
Trump, who is trailing challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden in opinion polls, had previously intended to focus his re-election bid on the nation’s economic performance.
But Trump’s tweet came shortly after the United States reported its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression: a second-quarter crash in gross domestic product due to widespread shutdowns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The day before, the death toll in the United States the day before surpassed 150,000, the highest in the world. A Reuters tally shows that on Wednesday one American died about every minute from the virus.
