Remember When Team Trump Lashed Out at Biden for Predicting Trump Would Try to Delay the Election?
Photo credit: Saul Loeb, Getty Images.
As Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the 2020 election should be postponed because of his groundless complaints about voter fraud, a lot of tweets have resurfaced among his supporters and campaign staffers who previously blasted Joe Biden for suggesting the president would seek a delay.
In the last 24 hours, Trump renewed his attack on mail-in voting by making evidence-free claims that it leads to widespread corruption. This culminated in the president saying mail-in voting will make 2020 “the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” and proposing to “Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
Political observers instantly recoiled at Trump’s proposal, with several of them noting he lacks any kind of constitutional power to authorize a rescheduling of the election. This isn’t completely out of character for Trump, for he hinted that he wouldn’t accept the 2016 election results if he lost to Hillary Clinton, and he doubled down on that stance recently by refusing to say he will concede if Biden defeats him in November.
Following the president’s tweet, the Trump 2020 campaign put out a statement insisting he was “just raising a question about the chaos Democrats have created with their insistence on all mail-in voting.”
Here's the full statement pic.twitter.com/9Jrp3SBvhu
— Chris Megerian (@ChrisMegerian) July 30, 2020
Trump’s tweet comes a few months after Biden predicted that his opponent might try to postpone the election.
“Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden said in an online fundraiser. “Imagine threatening not to fund the post office. Now, what in God’s name is that about? Other than trying to let the word out that he’s going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote. That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
At the time, Biden’s remarks drew the scorn of Trumpworld and accusations of pushing a conspiracy theory.
2/ #MediaBuzz 4/27
KURTZ: Do you think that Biden kinda skated on this one?
JENKINS: It's a great campaign ploy…@TimMurtaugh, spokesman, tells me, here's what they say, "Those are the incoherent conspiracy ramblings of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality."— Bad Fox Graphics (@BadFoxGraphics) July 30, 2020
Joe Biden is off his rocker to make such an irresponsible allegation without any evidence. @realDonaldTrump has made it clear that the general election will happen on November 3rd. https://t.co/SqTF8CMlkJ
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) April 24, 2020
Over 3 weeks ago, President Trump said, "The general election will happen on November 3rd."
Joe Biden's conspiracy theory is irresponsible and has no basis in reality. https://t.co/y1M0mKKq4o
— Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) April 27, 2020
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 30, 2020
In the middle of a pandemic and a presidential campaign, no claim about President Trump’s use or potential abuse of power is too outlandish to print…There’s just one problem: There is no mechanism for the president to cancel or delay the election."https://t.co/ts8hbkXvWS
— America First (@AmericaFirstPAC) April 28, 2020
First Speaker Pelosi with the Pinocchio's and now Joe Biden and team? Wow – what a day it has been.
Biden has a track record of lying – making false statements like the one he made about @realDonaldTrump "trying to kick back the election" is completely irresponsible. https://t.co/az6D3YuBTy
— Students For Trump (@TrumpStudents) April 24, 2020
— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) July 30, 2020
Times appear to have changed since then.
