Trump suggests election delay
This morning President Donald Trump suggested to delay the election in November. He tweeted that it was because he was concerned with mail-in voting causing inaccurate and fraudulent results.
[Tweet from Trump]
AP News explained that the President does not have the authority to change the date of the presidential election. Federal law says it must fall on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every fourth year. This year it is November 3rd. Only an act of Congress can change the election date.
There were various political analysts who expressed concern with Trump’s suggestion to delay the election, because it might mean that Trump wants to stay in power and bypass America’s democratic traditions of either giving a president a second term after an election victory or replacing him with a new leader. Is Trump abandoning this?
However, top Republicans in the Senate and the House (McConnell and McCarthy) said the election should go forward on November 3rd with no delays. So Republican members of Congress aren’t thinking of a delay, but only the White House.
Analysts said President Trump might be afraid of losing to Joe Biden this fall. Multiple national polls show Trump trailing behind Biden. The coronavirus pandemic is ravaging Americans’ health and wealth. 150,000 people have died and tens of millions of people are unemployed. The Black Lives Matter movement has gained serious traction and Trump is on the opposite side, calling the BLM slogan a “symbol of hate.”
Trump still remains extremely popular with his supporters, but he is not in the same position of strength he was in when it was “post-Obama” with him being up against Hillary Clinton. The 2015/2016 world was in a different place then. In fact, in 2019, I personally thought Trump had a very good chance to win re-election, as well as in January and February of this year, even though he faced an impeachment battle from Democrats. Trump “won” that challenge and kept his presidency. The economy was strong. Trump was the incumbent and that is always a position of strength.
Democratic presidential candidates in 2019 and early this year were debating each other without a strong leader. In March, it was clear that Joe Biden would become the Democratic nominee over Bernie Sanders, but it was still a strong position for Trump. It’s completely different now in July, soon to be August.
Trump did say in an interview two weeks ago that he refused to say that he would accept the results of the election because he was concerned with mail-in voting. Now, this morning he has directly suggested delaying the election. Will Trump actually try to delay the election? How will America respond to that?
Biden said in an interview on June that his greatest concern is that President Trump will try to steal this election. He said he believes that the military will escort Trump out of the White House if he loses the election but refuses to leave the White House.
So, what do you think? Is it okay to delay the election? Are you concerned about mail-in ballots, even though the coronavirus pandemic is a main reason for it? Is Trump genuine in his concerns or is he worried about losing this election? Feel free to share your thoughts.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288818160389558273
https://apnews.com/d203eaa406dc5e7362dfa9e33522195e
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/politics/joe-biden-donald-trump-military-white-house/index.html