Trump Ramps Up Election Delegitimization Crusade: Results May ‘NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED’

US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on September 16, 2020, in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

President Trump on Thursday warned that results in the November presidential election may “NEVER BE ACCURATELY DETERMINED” in his latest effort to discredit mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic and preemptively delegitimize the results of the election. 

In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump reiterated his baseless, tired claim that voting-by-mail leads to mass voter fraud, which he suggested will cause an inaccurate count of the results in the November election.

Minutes after Trump issued his tweet, which quote-tweeted conservative vote-monitoring organization True the Vote’s call to ensure that ballots have been sent to the military members, the President demanded that “big Unsolicited Ballot States” should instead encourage voters to show up to polling places.

The President’s Thursday morning tweets are just the latest episode in the Trump administration’s crusade against the expansion of mail-in voting ahead of the November presidential election, as it moves to politicize every aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic for Trump’s benefit.

Earlier this month, Trump encouraged voters in North Carolina to illegally attempt to vote twice — casting a ballot by mail and another in person — in the November election during an interview with a local reporter. Casting a ballot twice is considered a felony in many states, including the battleground state of North Carolina.

The President reiterated his illegal demand in a tweet issued the following week, which prompted Twitter to place a warning label for violating rules on election integrity by “encouraging people to potentially vote twice.” Twitter also put a warning label on Trump’s Thursday morning tweet, allowing users to “Learn how voting by mail is safe and secure.”

Attorney General Bill Barr attempted to bolster Trump’s unfounded claims of mail-in-voting leading to voter fraud, asserting that foreign powers could hijack mail-in elections by mass counterfeiting absentee ballots. However, Barr’s baseless claims were debunked by intelligence officials and his own Justice Department.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. So, Trump, how about another town hall?

  2. Avatar for shystr shystr says:

    Let me get this straight, Orange Stain. It will only be a “legitimate” election if your voter suppression efforts succeed and you somehow eke out a win, is that it?

  3. President Liar speaks, The Commander-in-Chief-of-Lies speaks, the Master Buffoon-of-Lies speaks.

  4. Angry Black guy, Michael Steele is the best Michael Steele!

    What a glorious, righteous preach! Watch it.

    Ah, screw it. ETA

    “MICHAEL STEELE: They do and they don’t care. I’ve talked to enough of them over the last few days, I’m exhausted. You know at this point, it’s like save who you can save because there is only so much you can do. There is only so much you can say. The fact that we have to — we have to literally beg people to wear a mask to save their own dumb ass from getting sick, I’m sorry. To me, it is beyond the imagination.

    I’m so exhausted with this president, at this point, in the face of what we see happening on college campuses right now as we turn into fall, we all knew this was coming and yet, this administration has done jack about it. This president stands at a podium today and not only contradicts his CDC director, but basically says he purgered himself under oath before Congress, because he is saying something different from Donald Trump. The CDC director is telling us the truth and Donald Trump is literally lying to us and yet, 40% of the country looks at it and goes: ‘Yeah, I’m with stupid.’

    I don’t know what more you can take before you say you’ve had enough. Because my heavens, this is too much for a country to go through. I don’t know what else to say. I don’t know how many more of these conversations we can have, Brian. I don’t know, I’m a little tired of it, can we just vote right now? Can we just get this done so we can heal the country and just move on?”

  5. ROFL! So in my “Big Unsolicited Ballot State” of WA that has been doing that successfully for years as the main voting method, I should now look for an in-person polling place?

    Why has no reporter ever managed to ask him why he’s interfering with the elections in full VBM states this way?

    Of course it goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway, he’s telegraphing that he knows he’s going to lose the election. I wonder how the GOP feels about that.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

247 more replies

Participants

Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for cervantes Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for sniffit Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for 26degreesrising Avatar for gr Avatar for generalsternwood Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for tena Avatar for jinnj Avatar for jonney_5 Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for shinks Avatar for drtv Avatar for bwillator Avatar for carolson Avatar for zenicetus Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for rucleare Avatar for emiliano4 Avatar for faydout Avatar for LeeHarveyGriswold

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: