In the wake of Donald Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting ahead of November’s election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden accused the president on Thursday of having no interest in letting all Americans head to the ballot box. As reported by Breitbart , the comment came during a virtual briefing after the Democrat was asked about Trump’s opposition to funding for the United States Postal Service (USPS).
“It’s pure Trump,” Biden said. “He doesn’t want an election.”
As reported by CNN , Trump said earlier in the day on Fox News that he opposes additional funding for the USPS because he believes it will thwart the Democrat-led effort to expand vote-by-mail. In particular, he expressed opposition to the $3.5 billion the party wants for mail-in votes and the additional $25 billion for the USPS.
“But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because you they’re not equipped to have it.”
Biden has long accused Trump of being opposed to having an election in November. In April, he claimed that the real estate mogul would try and delay the event — an idea the president later floated on Twitter. The former vice president also took aim at Trump’s fixation on Post Office funding.
“Imagine threatening not to fund the Post Office. Now what in God’s name is that about? Other than trying to let the word out that he’s going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote. That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
During a recent interview with CNN , history professor Allan Lichtman , who predicted that Biden would win in November, said that suppressing the vote is one of two possible routes to victory for Trump. According to Lichtman, Trump will attempt to create confusion and fear around voting to keep key Democrat demographics from engaging in the electoral process.
As Trump continues to attack vote-by-mail and liken it to fraud, Fox News reported that some Republicans are warning the strategy could backfire. In particular, such figures believe that Trump will inadvertently suppress Republican turnout due to his fear-mongering about the downsides of the process.
As cited by CNN, “nonpartisan experts” say that no party is poised to benefit from vote-by-mail, and there has been no issue with widespread voter fraud in the United States via the process. But fraud isn’t the only danger that could come with widespread vote-by-mail. University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald warned that thousands to millions of ballots could go uncounted due to human error.
