DELAY THE ELECTION!
As US economy slides, desperate Trump calls for poll postponement saying postal votes are ‘fraudulent’
‘Authoritarian criminal’
BATTERED by sinking polling numbers, widespread criticism of his handling of the coronavirus epidemic and the worst economic figures in US history, a desperate Donald Trump said yesterday that the presidential election should be delayed.
Despite the US having never delayed an election – even holding one during the Civil War – Mr Trump said the popularity of postal votes due to the coronavirus pandemic would lead to ‘the most inaccurate and fraudulent election’ ever.
There is no evidence postal voting increases election fraud, and the president was censored by Twitter in May for saying it does.
Only Congress can change the election date, which by law is held on the first Tuesday after November 1.
It would require majority votes in both the Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-dominated Senate, who showed during Mr Trump’s impeachment this year that they are likely to vote along partisan lines.
Also, the president has to vacate the Oval Office by noon on January 20 – unless he has been reelected – and there is no provision in the constitution for that to be changed.
Moments after Mr Trump’s comments, it was announced that the country’s GDP had plummeted by an annual rate of 32.9% – the biggest decline since records began.
In a further blow, officials said there were more than a million new applicants for unemployment benefits for the 19th straight week as the country fails to rebound from virus lockdowns. The US death toll passed 153,000 yesterday.
In April, presidential rival Joe Biden said Mr Trump might try to delay the election, which the Trump camp dismissed as an ‘incoherent, conspiracy theory’. But yesterday, the president tweeted: ‘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?’
Numerous Democrats immediately rejected Mr Trump’s suggestion, as did a commissioner with the US Federal Election Commission.
The president’s comments are seen by many as a means of sowing doubt in the result should Mr Biden win the race for the White House.
Earlier this month Mr Trump hinted he may not accept the outcome if he lost.
Democratic senator Ed Markey said yesterday: ‘Donald Trump is lying. Voting by mail is safe and legitimate. We cannot and will not let this authoritarian criminal delay our election, undermine our democracy, and silence the American people’.
Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said: ‘The President is just raising a question about the chaos Democrats have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting.’
The Commerce Department figures showed that GDP fell by 9.5% in the second quarter of the year.
Should such a pace extend over 12 months, a third of the economy would be wiped out.
The only possible point of comparison would be the Great Depression or the Second World War, both of which happened before modern economic statistics were recorded.
With 94 days until the election, Mr Biden is leading president Trump in the polls by 50 points to 41.