Lincoln Project condemns Trump suggestion to delay election

The Lincoln Project, a Republican anti-Trump PAC, released a new ad condemning President Trump’s suggestion to delay the election. 

The ad, titled “We Will Vote” shows statistics that offer a critical view of Trump’s handling of the pandemic and suggests that because of the administration’s inadequate response, Trump is worried he won’t win the November election. 

The ad goes on to suggest that Trump is trying to “stop the election he can’t win.” 

“We voted during wars, we voted in the Great Depression, we voted when civil unrest swept the country,” the narrator says in the roughly minutelong ad.

#WeWillVote pic.twitter.com/0wT0qDXPU7

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 31, 2020

Trump floated delaying the election on Twitter Thursday, citing election fraud with mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, the president of the United States does not have the unilateral power to move or delay an election. 

“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

There is no evidence to support that mail-in or absentee voting leads to election fraud.  

Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate largely dismissed the suggestion, noting they themselves had concerns about mail-in ballots but did not think it warranted moving the date of the election. 

The Lincoln Project’s ad comes as the group reported it raised $16.8 million in the second quarter of 2020. The PAC has released a slew of ads attacking Trump’s response to the virus in recent months.

“We Will Vote” also depicts images of suffragettes and civil rights leaders, including the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), fighting for the right to vote. 

“Now a failed president faces defeat, with millions out of work and tens of thousands dying from his incompetence and neglect, threatening the very foundations of democracy,” the ad continues. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that delaying the election would be a “legal determination” left up to the Department of Justice.