Twitter Flags Trump Post That Baselessly Claims PA Mail Ballot ‘Cheating’ Will ‘Induce Violence in the Streets’
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Twitter slapped a misinformation label on a conspiracy theory-laden tweet from President Donald Trump on Monday night, in which he slammed the Supreme Court for its recent decision to extend the deadline for accepting mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
During a brief scrum with the press on Monday night before a campaign rally, Trump lashed out the U.S. Supreme Court for letting an earlier Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision stand, which would allow the state to count mailed ballots for up to three days after Election Day as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. The state Republican Party had sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the ballots from being counted, but was denied.
Minutes after blasting the decision to the media, Trump sent out a similarly angry tweet about the decision. But he embellished his criticism with completely unfounded claims that the longer time window for accepting mailed ballots would lead to “rampant and unchecked cheating.” He then darkly hinted that this modest decision by the state’s supreme court “will undermine our entire systems of laws” and, to add the conspiratorial cherry on top, claimed “it will also induce violence in the streets.”
The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one. It will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws. It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2020
In recent days, Trump has pushed increasingly unhinged claims about the election and alleged that the only way he could be defeated at the polls is through a nefarious election fraud plot carried out by Joe Biden and the Democrats. There is no evidence of this and, much like his latest detached-from-reality tweet, Trump did not bother to try to provide any to support his bizarre claims.
