The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board ripped President Trump’s suggestion to delay the 2020 presidential election, calling it a “dreadful idea” while noting that voting even occurred “amid the destruction and displacement of the Civil War.”
“Mr. Trump’s defenders are correct that he was merely raising the issue,” the board wrote in an op-ed published Friday. “But delaying the Nov. 3 elections is a dreadful idea. Only an act of Congress can change the date, established in 1845, and there is no chance it will do so now. Lincoln ran for re-election amid the destruction and displacement of the Civil War.”
The op-ed also notes that there have been issues with mail-in votes recently for elections in New York and New Jersey.
“It strikes us as bordering on the fantastic for a media that has reported the extraordinary dislocations of the pandemic — lockdowns, death, virus spikes — to blandly say voting in a major election using the U.S. Postal Service is no problem. Paterson, N.J., recently disqualified 20% of its mailed ballots.”
“If the presidential result is close in one or more states amid the kind of problems displayed in New York, either candidate surely will sue, making the Florida ‘hanging-chads’ recount in 2000 look like a kindergarten exercise,” it also writes.
“This is not to suggest that the November election will be ‘rigged,’ as Mr. Trump asserts,” the board adds. “If he believes that, he should reconsider his participation and let someone run who isn’t looking for an excuse to blame for defeat.”
The president said Thursday he broached the idea to get the “LameStream Media” to talk about what he described as “dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting.”
“Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!),” Trump tweeted to his nearly 85 million followers.
Several top Republicans also dismissed the idea of delaying the election on Thursday, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“Never in the history of federal elections have we ever not held an election, and we should go forward with our election,” McCarthy said Thursday.