During a wide-ranging interview that aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” President Donald Trump warned viewers of possible troubles with vote-by-mail elections.
Trump told FNC’s Sean Hannity he saw Democrats as willing to play a “much dirtier game” than their GOP counterparts, citing tactics used in a mail-in voting scheme.
“[T]hey play a much dirtier game, a much tougher game than the Republicans,” he said. “The Republicans, fortunately, much better policy, but they ought to get tougher. The Republicans have to get tougher. And this whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that’s a rigged election waiting to happen.”
“It’s rigged, and everyone knows it because you can’t send out 60 million mail-in ballots to everybody in the — who knows who’s getting them?” Trump continued. “The mailmen are going to get them. And people are going to just grab batches of them. And you talk about China and Russia. They will be grabbing plenty of them. It’s a — it’s a disaster. It’s a rigged election waiting to happen.”
Trump argued that if vote-by-mail is allowed, the result will be a “rigged election.”
“It’s just common sense,” he explained. “You wouldn’t even have to know anything about politics or elections. It’s common sense. And an absentee ballot is OK, where you send in for a ballot, they go through a process, and they send it to you, and then you send it. It’s fine. But these mail-in ballots, where they send millions of them all over the country, it’s a — it’s going to be a rigged election. And this country shouldn’t allow it. The courts have to step in. We are in many different courts right now. If the courts don’t step in, the federal courts, you will never know who won the election.”
The President cited the recent primary election win by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-CA), who defeated Suraj Patel in a primary election marred by mail-in voting problems.
“Just like in New York, they had an election with Carolyn Maloney, a third-rate congresswoman that I have known for a long time, third-rate,” Trump said. “Well, she won, but they have no idea where the ballots are. Where are the ballots? Many missing ballots. Her opponent is having a fit. But they declared that because it was so embarrassing. Then you look at Paterson, New Jersey. They declared her the winner because it was so embarrassing. You look at then Paterson, New Jersey. Look at what happened there. Look at what just happened in Virginia, where they sent in 500,000 applications. And they’re — most of them are to wrong people. They sent some to dogs. They sent two to cats. They sent people that are — that passed away, dead people. They were sent to dead people and 500,000 applications.”
Trump also said the U.S. Postal Service might not be equipped to handle the flood of mail-in ballots.
“This is crazy, what we are doing,” he added. “And it’s not a question of anything else. It can’t work. It hasn’t worked in little districts. Small, little defined districts, they can’t do it. And it’s an impossibility. Plus, the post office isn’t set up for this. The post office is not set up for millions. When you look at what they did in Nevada and take a look, where they are sending millions of ballots, and you don’t have to have a confirmed signature, there is nothing to say that that person signed it. It’s going to be catastrophic corruption.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor