Trump suggests U.S. November election be postponed

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U.S. President Donald Trump, made a suggestion that is a taboo in America: that the November election be postponed.

In some tweets on Saturday, Trump returned to cast doubts on the integrity of Mail-in-voting and suggested that the election should be delayed until people can “properly” vote.

Trump has been in recent polls has been lagging far behind his presidential rival as he faces a devastating public health crisis and economic collapse.

“It’s an unprecedented proposal from an American president and one which he appears to have no authority to implement”, reported Boston Globe.

“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 tweeted.

The idea was 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.

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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, 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’s tweet 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.

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.

Legal scholars worry Trump’s repeated attacks on mail-in ballots, coupled with his refusal to say whether he will accept the results, will prompt his supporters to view the election as illegitimate.

*With Reuters

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