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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump backed away from that threat but stuck with his unsupported claim that widespread voting by mail promotes “a lot of illegality”.
The president targeted Michigan with a false tweet on its voting plans and also went after Nevada in the latest — and most confused — episode in his campaign against voting by mail.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends postal voting as a safe option during the pandemic.
Trump has said repeatedly, without evidence, that mailed ballots allow widespread fraud and has worried publicly that wide availability could lead so many people to vote that Republicans would lose in November.
GOP allies have fought changes to voting in court and opposed funding to expand mail-in voting in Congress.
Yesterday marked the first time Trump has tried to use federal aid money to beat it back.
The president began by targeting Michigan, mis-stating Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s announcement that she would send applications for absentee ballots to every voter in the state.
Though Republican secretaries of state have taken this step elsewhere, Trump pounced on the move in a state key to his reelection hopes.
“Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump tweeted yesterday morning.
That brought strong criticism from Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere, pointing out that the state was sending applications, not actual ballots, an error the president corrected in a subsequent tweet six hours later.
He stuck with the rest of his tweet: “This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”
Trump later tweeted a similar threat to pull back funds from Nevada, which has sent ballots to voters for its 9 June state primary.
A federal judge recently cleared Nevada’s decision to mail ballots, which were sent by the Republican secretary of state.
It was not clear exactly what funds Trump was referencing, but the states are paying for the voting changes with federal aid intended to support elections during the pandemic.
By yesterday evening, Trump told reporters he had spoken with Democratic Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and did not think funding would have to be cut.
“I don’t think it’s going to be necessary,” he said at the White House, adding he stood by his opposition to mail voting.
Voting is an honour. It shouldn’t be something where they send you a pile of stuff and you send it back.
“If people mail in ballots, there’s a lot of illegality.”
Trump himself has requested an absentee ballot to vote in Florida.
Trump did not threaten Republican-dominated states that are doing the same thing as Michigan.
West Virginia governor Jim Justice, an ally of the president, said he’s not concerned about Trump’s threats even though his administration approved mailing absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in the state.
“I can’t imagine that the president is going to withhold funding in any way to West Virginia; that’s not going to happen,” Justice told reporters.
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Not this w/anchor again….. Give us a break.
@Joe Toner: they don’t report half the stuff he does. The whole truth is much worse.
His threat was baseless as he doesn’t control the funding, Congress does. And he and his Press Secretary were caught out openly lying about it.
@Mick.: it’s called “quid pro quo”… but I am sure in his mind it was another “perfect” call
@Mick.: he probably doesnt even know that.
@Mick.: A few weeks ago he was convinced he was some sort of king when it came to deciding when states reopened.
Richard Nixon resigned on a scandal that this buffoon seems to do on a daily basis and gets away with it.the role of president of America has been reduced to a daily sitcom with this gobdaw
We are watching a slow-moving coup d’etat as the limited democracy of the USA is being eaten away step by step.
Dictator Donald minds himself while 100,000 of his people die.
Gotta love the Trumpy bashing stories..
Sure a Boris one is due ..
@Gary O CONNOR: He’s the gift that just keeps giving !!!
@Gary O CONNOR: He keeps supplying the ammo
@Gary O CONNOR: yes, it’s very easy to both Trump,
So let’s do it!!!
Come on lads jokes over get rid of him.
For a nation that prides itself as the land of the free, why are they not seeing that this man is single handedly trying to erode this. I would have any voting machine/ process that is in use checked as it sounds that the most untrustworthy of individuals thinks he knows something that the sheep don’t.
@Edward Boyle: He’s losing.. its over,
Biden can stay in his basement till November and still win because Trump has dropped the ball so badly, Trump claimed covid was 15 cases soon to be zero and now we have 100k dead and Depression era unemployment levels,
most voters will ask themselves are they better off now than they were in 2016 and given the fact he lost the popular vote in 2026 by 3million votes ..Trump is toast.
@Diaspora’d: if only it were that easy. 32% of likely voters strongly approve of him. 46% approve.
@Edward Boyle: just going from twitter but his supporters believe the Democrats/liberals/the left are satan’s minions. The dems (in their mind) are baby kiillin, gun restricting, criminal releasing, LBGTQ+ loving idiots and apparently Trump is the opposite of this.
That guy is finished. The only problem is his opposition have no real policies, no real promises to undo the laws he passed and a candidate that has a rich history of voting with the republicans on some truly despicable bills!
Half-statements and half-threats. That’s the way to conduct business, it seems.
Widespread voting by mail favours Democrats over Republicans. There is a very long history of dirty tricks by both parties.
@David A. Murray: How so?
@David A. Murray: Trump set up a commission to look into Democrat leaning voter fraud after he lost the popular vote in 2016 and lo and behold they couldn’t find anything worth reporting. maybe you have some solid evidence they missed so please share with us..
@Coco86: His supporters don’t know what a pen is!
@David A. Murray: yet there’s a republican operative due for trial for tampering with mail in ballots. Number of Dems on trial 0. The only way it favours Dems is that the more people that vote (legally) the better Dems do. There’s nothing dodgy or unethical about that. On the other hand trying to make it more difficult for people to vote (legally) is both dodgy and unethical.
@David A. Murray: voter fraud is minimal in the US. Gerrymandering on the other hand…
@DJ François: exactly right….for state legislatures and local elections. Both parties are guilty.
Gerrymandering makes no difference in a presidential election because it goes by state lines however higher turnout usually favors the democratic candidate and republicans know the more voter suppression/difficult they make it for poorer people to vote the better the republican/conservative candidate does against the democratic candidate.
@Coco86: Sorry, but I assumed my criticism of Republicans and Trump was obvious. Postal votes meaning greater support for Democrats has been very widely covered over the last 2 years. Trump/GOP have fought against postal voting.
@David A. Murray: Okay, my original comment was badly worded and very unclear. Post voting rebalances GOP dirty tactics to suppress Democratic votes. That’s what I meant, but failed to communicate.
@David A. Murray: And it is true that both parties manipulate the voting system and engage in dirty tricks. This is historical record, not accusations. So my current sympathy for Democrats is completely relative.
@David A. Murray: Well, to have people with rifles in the South who are deciding who is allowed to go to the ballots might be a reason…
@Coco86: Because Democrats are more likely to be more able to put an X in the box
@David A. Murray: The last voting by mail “anomalie” favoured republicans but any way, you keeping spouting Donalds conspiracy theories
The movie idiocracy is so relevant now , from the Whitehouse down . It is an embarrassment to the human race .
Wun wabbit, wun wabbit, wun wun wun …
Postal votes… sounds legit!
* Yes, I am aware postal votes have been allowed for certain segments of voters to date, but a blind man can see the reasons for the attempted widespread implementation of them now. I ain’t no Trump fan but he’s correct to think this may be an attempt to subvert democratic process.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: Emm…yes. It says so right there in the article. Postal voting is recommended by the CDC as a safe option of voting during the pandemic.
@Dec Quinlan: LOL The CDC recommend? A truly impartial and apolitical organization, I’m sure. Dream on.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: This is just another Trump diversion tactic. Nobody is getting a presidential election “ballot” in the mail yet. The election is in November and It’s not even June yet, the Democratic Party candidate hasn’t even been confirmed, so ballots haven’t even been printed yet.
Every citizen is entitled to make an ‘application’ to register for absentee mail-in ballots for any upcoming state, local or federal elections and with the covid19 crisis more people are now looking to vote by mail.
What’s bothering Trump? he is so low in the polls he’s worried a high turnout/votes cast will be bad for him. He himself votes by mail but he doesn’t want that convenience to be afforded to so many people who will probably vote against him.
Trump is just worried that if it’s
@Brian McHale-Boyle: at first glance, I would broadly agree with your point. But then i saw that Trump, as an official Palm Beach County resident, voted by mail in the Florida presidential primaries in March – presumably for himself – while at the same time screaming that noone else should be allowed to do so. His objection to it is 100% self-serving.
@Diaspora’d: Trump had a 1.2% chance of winning the Presidency according to “the polls”. How did that work out? It’s all propaganda.
If you can’t look beyond your dislike of Trump and see what’s going on here, then it’s true that mass media propaganda works.
I dislike Trump. But I really despise cheap propaganda tactics and attempts to subvert democracy.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: the effort to suppress turnout is being instigated by Trump and the GOP. I live in a state where voters including myself had to queue for 2 hours to vote because Trump and the GOP wanted a recent election to go ahead during the covid19 lockdown because the usual number of polling stations were reduced and voters had to travel to polling stations further away. Trump and the GOP thought this would suppress turnout so the GOP/conservative candidates would win. It turned out that the “anybody but Trump” sentiment is rising and the conservative candidates lost.
Trump is in trouble and he knows.
@Diaspora’d: I am NOT disputing that there are constant attempts to affect polling numbers and also gerrymander from BOTH parties.
I AM saying that this postal voting move is a little “too obvious” and needs to be called out for what it is.
*I am not a Trump supporter and ridiculous that I am receiving horrific DMs and threats to Dox me to my twitter account merely for saying that he may have a point.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: the whole “widespread voter fraud by mail” thing is a myth.
The more people who can vote in an election the better in my opinion. I normally vote in person in every state and federal election but if I know I won’t be in town, I “apply” a week or two in advance and get a mail-in ballot. The system has been working fine for years. Trump is bringing it up now as an issue because it’s in his and the GOPs interest to get a low turnout.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: US military who work overseas have been voting by post for decades. Absentee voting also happens by mail and it’s a secure process. There is far more fraud to be had with electronic voting machines than with paper ballots, and Trump knows this. That’s why he doesn’t like paper, it leaves a trail.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: which party has an operative awaiting trial for interfering with mail in ballots?
That’s a good sign. He must be clutching at straws.
@Gerald OBrien: he usually is.
I’m still convinced that if he loses in November (I don’t think he will unfortunately) he won’t give up the office voluntarily.
This is very dangerous talk. He’s planting the seed that these votes are suspect before the election even takes place. If he loses, he already has his excuse baked in. There will be legal challenges after that, and then the question of if he will leave office peacefully. Either way it’s a long road and it could be a major effort to wrest power away from this nutcase.
Any chance of a Trump filter on the Journal pretty please.
Oh, no, I didn’t scream that I hate Trump enough, so that must mean that I support him, so it looks like my opinion has been cancelled. No thumbs up for Brian! /sadface emoji
My voter’s in the post, baby!
@Brian McHale-Boyle: eh?
@Brian McHale-Boyle: Do you need attention Brian?
You’d have to hand it to Trump. He knows that no matter what he says or does the clowns that vote for him will continue to do so.
I’ve seen excrement that is more appealing.
Didn’t Nero fiddle while Rome burned?
Or is it the Queen in Snow White?
” yes i told everybody again today how great I really am”
I like how Trump has strategically assigned his vote to the biggest swing state of them all. Just in case. Text book stable genius move.
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