Trump suggests postponing elections (although he has no authority to do so)

Trump, 100 days from the presidential election 6:27

(CNN) - President Donald Trump explicitly suggested delaying the November presidential election on Thursday, lending an extraordinary voice to lingering concerns that he will try to sidestep the vote for a contest in which he is currently behind his opponent in polls for two digits.

Trump has no authority to delay an election, and the Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date to vote. Lawmakers from both parties said almost immediately that the election was unlikely to be delayed.

However, Trump's message offers an opening, long feared by Democrats, that he and his supporters could refuse to accept the presidential results. By questioning it ahead of time, Trump is preparing those in his voter base to doubt the legitimacy of any outcome that emerges in the first weeks of November.

In his tweet Thursday morning, 96 days before the election and minutes after the federal government reported the worst economic contraction in recorded history, Trump offered the suggestion because he claimed without evidence that the election would be flawed.

With universal postal voting (not absentee voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACTIVE and FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great shame for the United States, "she wrote. "Delaying the election until people can vote properly and safely?"

There is no evidence that voting by mail leads to fraud. The American elections have taken place during wars and depressions without delay. The general election was set on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November since 1845.

Trump has previously tried to stoke fear and lay the groundwork for questioning election results by promoting the idea that voting by mail leads to widespread fraud and a "rigged" election. Democrats have warned that their efforts are aimed at both suppressing the vote and providing a reason to refuse to leave office if they lose.

• (2018) Trump warns of voter fraud fraud ... that doesn't exist

Trump representatives had previously scoffed at suggestions from Democrats that he would try to delay the election, claiming that they were groundless conspiracies. His tweet Thursday marks the first time Trump has openly raised the idea of ​​changing the voting date.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign said the president was offering a consultation.

"The president only raises a question about the chaos Democrats have created through his insistence on all mail ballots," said campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley. "They are using the coronavirus as a means of trying to institute universal postal voting, which means sending every registered voter a ballot, whether they request it or not."

His tweet comes after a series of recent polls in key states, and even the states he easily won in 2016, show him finished or nearly tied with former Vice President Joe Biden, and widespread disapproval of his handling of the pandemic.

While Trump encouraged states to lift restrictions on companies and said schools should reopen for face-to-face learning in the fall, his suggestion Thursday that elections could be delayed due to the pandemic undermines his efforts to act. as if the virus was under control.

A once-thriving economy that Trump hoped to use as his central reelection argument has shrunk. Thursday's figures showed the United States economy contracted at an annual rate of 32.9% from April to June, its worst decline on record.

Instead, Trump turned to racial divisions and attracting white voters as he works to build support among voters that he won in 2016. And he has taken steps to undermine the election results in ways that reflect an extraordinary break in tradition. .

When asked during an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace last week if he would accept the election results, Trump declined to do so.

No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say 'no', and I didn't say it last time either, ”he said.

When asked about the issue at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Attorney General William Barr said he "had no reason to think" that the upcoming elections will be "rigged." But he did say he believes "if you have a majority vote by mail it substantially increases the risk of fraud."

But historically, voting by mail has not led to massive voter fraud. And nonpartisan election experts say the possibility of foreign entities printing millions of fraudulent mail ballots in November is highly unlikely.

The President does not have the power to change the date of the election. Election day is established by statute of Congress, and most experts agree that it cannot be changed without the approval of Congress.

On Thursday, both Republicans and Democrats said Trump's suggestion has no future.

"I don't think it's a particularly good idea," said Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the president's main allies.

"I think that is probably a statement that gets the press's attention, but I doubt it will receive any serious traction," said Senator John Thune, a Republican in the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi simply responded to Trump's tweet by citing the passage in the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to set the election date.
Biden has previously raised the possibility that Trump may try to delay the election.

"Mark my words: I think you are going to try to delay the elections in some way, come up with an explanation for why it can't be held," Biden said at a virtual fundraiser in April, according to a group report.

At the time, a Trump spokesman said the claim amounted to "incoherent ramblings of the conspiracy theory of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality."

CNN's Tara Subramaniam, Abby Phillip and DJ Judd contributed to this report.

2020 Elections United States