Trump Sparks Firestorm With Controversial Warning: We May Need to ‘Delay the Election’

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested the November election may need to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, sparking a media firestorm.

In a tweet, Trump for the first time directly confirmed Democrats' long-held fears that he would try to cancel or delay the 2020 vote.

  • Trump repeated his warnings that widespread mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic would rig the election against him, and floated the idea of waiting to hold the election "until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

In April, Trump denied he had ever "even thought of changing the date of the election."

The reaction: The president's suggestion instantly made headlines and provoked strong bipartisan reactions.

On the left, many commentators, like British journalist Carole Cadwalladr, were ready to declare the end of American democracy.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and other Democratic politicians responded with defiance.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and a vice presidential contender, noted Congress is the only branch of the federal government that has the constitutional power to change Election Day.

  • A March report by the Congressional Research Service, aka Congress' think tank, said states could also do so under their own laws.

Some speculated Trump was simply trying to distract from fresh government data that shows a record economic collapse or from the COVID-19-related death of Herman Cain, one of his campaign surrogates and a former Godfather's Pizza CEO.

On the right, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, similarly joked that now would be a good time to publicize any bad news, according to a reporter.

Graham later joined a number of others Republicans in gently disagreeing with the president's proposal, reportedly saying, "I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea."

Sen. John Barrasso, a Pennsylvania Republican, also pooh-poohed the idea of rescheduling the election during an appearance on Fox Business.

Andy McCarthy, a National Review editor and Fox News contributor, called Trump's tweet "self-destructive" — but also cited a recent column he wrote dismissing fears the president would refuse to leave office if he lost reelection as "rubbish."

Mollie Hemingway, an editor at The Federalist, said "the media" and the left are the real threat to a peaceful transfer of power.

Trump, apparently unfazed by the furor he'd unleashed, pinned the controversial tweet to the top of his Twitter profile.

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