President Trump suggested Thursday that the November election should be delayed due to “fraudulent” expanded mail-in voting and the coronavirus pandemic.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” the president tweeted. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
The presidential election is fixed by law and could only be delayed by Congress changing the law. The Constitution decrees than the incumbent president’s term ends at noon on Jan. 20.
The U.S. has never changed or delayed a presidential election, even during the Civil War in 1864.
The president said earlier this month that he believes expanded mail-in voting in many states “is going to rig the election.” and he might not accept the results.
“I have to see,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Sunday. “No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time, either.”
He said Hillary Clinton “never accepted her loss [in 2016], and she looks like a fool.”
Mr. Trump trails former Vice President Joseph R. Biden by double digits in most national polls and is trailing the Democrat in several key battleground states. A Franklin & Marshal College poll released Thursday shows the president losing in Pennsylvania to Mr. Biden by 9 percentage points, 50% to 41%.
Trump campaign officials say public polls routinely undercount Republican voters and are therefore unreliable predictors.
