In October 2020, a March remark by Dr. Anthony Fauci was used in a Trump campaign advertisement. Fauci immediately condemned its use, saying it was taken out of context, and noted that he had never publicly endorsed a candidate.
Trump defended the advertisement on Twitter:
They are indeed Dr. Fauci’s own words. We have done a “phenomenal” job, according to certain governors. Many people agree…And now come the Vaccines & Cures, long ahead of projections! https://t.co/ANqKL4eBqJ
Dr. Fauci subsequently supported pulling the advertisement altogether.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says “it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing” that the Trump campaign featured him in an ad touting the President’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On September 2, 2020, Trump told supporters in North Carolina that they should vote by mail, and then vote in person to ensure it counts. Because double voting in such a manner is felony fraud, the North Carolina Board of Elections issued a statement urging people not to follow Trump’s advice. Trump has alleged widespread fraud since the 2016 election, though an investigative commission found none.
…send it in early and then go and vote and if it’s not tabulated, you vote and the vote is going to count. You can’t let them take your vote away. These people are playing dirty politics, dirty politics.
So if you have an absentee ballot, or as I call it a solicited ballot, you send it in, but I would check it in any event. I would go and follow it and go vote.
When Trump repeated his suggestion via Twitter, the company flagged the tweet with a special notice:
We placed a public interest notice on two Tweets in this thread for violating our Civic Integrity Policy, specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice. https://t.co/UU9kJfqptz
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Trump’s Attorney General William Barr evaded questions on the issue by claiming that he didn’t know state voting laws well enough to comment.
Trump made the claim via tweet on the fourth and last day of the DNC in which Joe Biden formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination.
The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democrat National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from-it’s done. Vote Nov 3!
The claim was false, as each day of the DNC opened with the full Pledge of Allegiance.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
“Under God” was omitted from two smaller individual caucus events, the LGBTQ caucus meeting and the Muslim Delegates Assembly. Each day of the DNC consistsed of some half dozen different individual caucuses.
The phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 amid the Cold War.
On August 13, 2020, Trump explained his reasoning behind withholding funds from the United States Postal Service amid the COVID-19 pandemic and ahead of the general election:
They want $25 billion — billion — for the post office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.
In May of 2020, Trump appointed longtime ally and support Louis DeJoy to Postmaster General of the United States Post Service. According to The Washington Post, DeJoy as of June, 2020, DeJoy and his wife had between $30 million and $75 million in assets of competitors to USPS, representing a clear conflict of interest. He has also donated $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund, and millions more to other Republican candidates and organizations.
Louis DeJoy. Wikipedia
In August of 2020, 23 senior officials were removed or re-assigned in what was called part of larger cost-cutting measures. Overtime pay for postal workers to ensure all mail is delivered on time was also removed, leading to backlogs across the country. Critics voiced concerns about delays in mail, especially ahead of the 2020 election. DeJoy’s USPS has also moved to nearly triple the cost of mail-in voting ballots, from 20 cents to 55 cents per ballot. The cost is paid for by the states, already experiencing severe budget issues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The USPS has long been a target of those wishing to shift its responsibilities to private for-profit entities. In 2006, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act required that the USPS considers and provides funding for pension and healthcare benefits 75 years out, which no other government agency is required to do.
Reports surfaced of mail boxes and sorting machines being removed and destroyed in multiple states, slowing down mail delivery across the nation. Business deliveries, social security checks, and medicine were delayed.
DeJoy announced that he had no intentions of replacing the removed sorting machines, and the USPS prevented the release of data collected on mail delays.
In the 2018 Florida midterm and gubernatorial election, Republicans alleged widespread voter fraud. Neither the state’s monitors or law enforcement had any reason to believe it was the case.
Trump took to Twitter to demand that absentee ballots, which are largely from active duty military members, be ignored.
The Florida Election should be called in favor of Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis in that large numbers of new ballots showed up out of nowhere, and many ballots are missing or forged. An honest vote count is no longer possible-ballots massively infected. Must go with Election Night!
In a June 2019 interview with ABC News’ Stephanopoulos, Trump said that he would accept information from foreign governments without reporting it to authorities.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,’ do you call the FBI?”
TRUMP: Okay, let’s put yourself in a position: you’re a congressman, somebody comes up and says, “Hey I have information on your opponent.” Do you call the FBI?
STEPHANOPOULOS: (inaudible) if it’s coming from Russia you do.
TRUMP: I’ll tell you what: I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don’t call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you–
STEPHANOPOULOS: Al Gore got a stolen briefing book. He called the FBI.
TRUMP: Well, that’s different. A stolen briefing book. This isn’t a (inaudible). This is somebody who said “We have information on your opponent.” Oh, let me call the FBI. Give me a break, life doesn’t work that way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The FBI Director says that’s what should happen.
TRUMP: The FBI Director is wrong. Because, frankly, it doesn’t happen like that in life…
During an August 7 press conference, Trump dismissed his own intelligence community’s belief that Russia was working to again have Trump elected.
REPORTER: Thank you, sir. Mr. President, the intelligence agencies today said that Russia is already meddling in this year’s elections to hurt Joe Biden, and that China is considering meddling to hurt you. Do you believe that intelligence, and what do you plan to do about it?
TRUMP: I mean, I could be very much. I think that the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump, because nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have, ever.
REPORTER: That’s not what they calling it.
TRUMP: Well, I don’t care what anybody says. Nobody with any common sense would say, “Do it.” Look at what we’ve done with our military. Look at what we’ve done in exposing the pipeline with billions of dollars going to Russia. Look at all of the things we’ve done with NATO, where I’ve raised $130 billion a year from countries that were delinquent, and now they’re paying all of this money. And the $130, by the way, $130 billion, not million, billion, goes to $400 billion over a few years. And that’s all money to protect against Russia. China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost sleepy Joe Biden. They would dream. They would own our country.
National Counterintelligence and Security Center William Evanina released a press statement the same day that asserted, “We assess that Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.'”
On July 16, 2018, Trump and Putin met at a conference held in Helsinki, Finland. At the conference, when asked about Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump remarked:
I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this. I don’t see any reason why it would be…So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that president Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer.
Before the conference, Trump and Putin had a two-hour meeting in private, with only a single translator present.
At the conclusion of the 2018 Helsinki conference, Putin offers Trump a gift, remarking “the ball is in your court.”
After the conference, Trump reiterated his position on Twitter.
As I said today and many times before, “I have GREAT confidence in MY intelligence people.” However, I also recognize that in order to build a brighter future, we cannot exclusively focus on the past – as the world’s two largest nuclear powers, we must get along! #HELSINKI2018
US intelligence agencies were in agreement that Russia had actively interfered in the 2016 election. In April, 2020, the Republican-controlled US Senate affirmed their findings.
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
The day for elections is established in the Constitution, so any such change requires new legislation. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution also specifically states that Presidential terms conclude on the following January 20th, Inauguration Day. No legislation is likely to be passed that would allow for any change.
The next person in order of succession is the speaker of the House. However, if there were no election, that seat would too be vacant, as the House has two-year terms that conclude on January 3 following the election. The next individual in line is president pro tempore of the Senate, who is the senior Senator of the majority party and presides over the Senate in the Vice President’s absence. The Senator who holds the title – Chuck Grassley of Iowa – is also up for reelection in 2020, and so his seat would similarly be vacant if no election were held. Because of the number of Senate seats up for re-election, if no election was held, Democrats would gain the majority in the chamber, and because the process of selecting the president pro tempore is informal, could choose any among them.
At the same time that Trump made the suggestion to postpone elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic, his administration pushed for a full re-opening of schools across the United States.
