President Trump on Monday said that he “totally” endorses absentee voting while continuing to baselessly assert that universal mail-in voting is “fraught with fraud” amid his explicit efforts to cripple the U.S. Postal Service.
When asked during a pool spray Monday morning whether he’s worried about cutbacks in the USPS affecting those receiving medication and prescriptions through the mail, Trump insisted that the post office is “running very well.”
The President added that his administration will “run it well” by not losing so much money. Trump largely blamed the USPS losses on delivering packages from companies such as Amazon, even though that’s not the case.
Trump was then asked about his opposition to mail-in ballots, given that they’re not at risk of being hacked into. Trump touted that “absentee ballots are great” and acknowledged that he’s casted ballots by mail in the past.
After saying that absentee ballots have been proven to work, pointing to how they’re “good like in Florida,” the President reverted back to falsely claiming that sending ballots to all voters nationwide is “dangerous” due to fraud.
“This universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. It is fraught with fraud and every other thing that could happen,” Trump said. “We have to be very, very careful.”
The President predicted that he’s “going to do very well” in the November election, despite his lagging poll numbers, and that he wants to “make sure the election is not stolen.”
Trump went on to rehash his warning against “this universal mail-in ballot” before absurdly claiming that he “totally” endorses absentee ballots.
When pressed on whether he’s asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — who’s come under fire for implementing cost-cutting and organizational changes to post offices, which critics say hamper mail-in voting ahead of the November election — to slow the mail, Trump denied the notion by saying that he “wouldn’t do that.”
“No, I have encouraged everybody to speed up the mail, not slow the mail,” Trump said. “And I also want to have a post office that runs without losing billions and billions of dollars a year, as it has been doing for 50 years.”
Although Trump walked away as a reporter asked how he can speed up the mail by removing machines — appearing to reference reports that the USPS began removing letter collection boxes in at least four states — the President insinuated in a tweet shortly after the pool spray that sending absentee ballots via “drop boxes” will lead to fraud.
Some states use “drop boxes” for the collection of Universal Mail-In Ballots. So who is going to “collect” the Ballots, and what might be done to them prior to tabulation? A Rigged Election? So bad for our Country. Only Absentee Ballots acceptable!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2020
Watch Trump’s remarks below:
Trump claims he "totally endorses" absentee ballots after saying "this universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing" because "it is fraught with fraud" pic.twitter.com/OTCzV0OSzO
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) August 17, 2020
