Kaitlan Collins Corners Trump Over His Refusal to Fund Mail-In Voting Amid Pandemic: ‘Well, They’re Going to Have to Feel Safe’ Voting in Person

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins repeatedly confronted President Donald Trump about his threats to block all funding for mail-in voting, pointing out the dilemma voters could face if they are too afraid to vote in person because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic but they can’t rely on the Post Office because it lacks the necessary resources to handle a surge in ballots.

Earlier on Thursday, Biden’s campaign had fired back at the president’s comments during a Fox Business interview, where the president indicated he would intentionally withhold funding from the Post Office so Democrats “can’t have universal mail-in voting” during the coronavirus pandemic.

At the White House press conference, Collins, a CNN White House correspondent, pressed Trump to clarify his position: “Are you threatening to veto any legislation that includes funding for the Post Office?”

“No, not at all, a separate thing, I would do it,” Trump said. “One of the reasons the Post Office needs that much money is to have all of these millions of ballots coming in from nowhere and nobody knows from where and where they’re going.”

“What has happened is that’s part of a big negotiation, that’s a small part of a big negotiation to get more money to people,” Trump said, tying the passage of a larger coronavirus relief package to the Post Office aid. “They want three and a half billion dollars just for the ballots themselves. Why it’s so much, I don’t know but that’s with the Democrats want. If the bill isn’t going to get done, that would mean the Post Office is our going to get funded and the three and a half billion dollars isn’t going to be taken care of so I don’t know how you could possibly use these mail in ballots.”

“You’re saying you don’t want to give this Post Office funding in this coronavirus legislation,” Collins followed up. They say they need it so they can be prepared, so if the pandemic is still going on in November when the election happens and people don’t feel safe to go in person, they can vote by mail and it can be safe and secure.”

“I can understand the Post Office and we can agree to the overall bill, which is obviously a much bigger number than just the Post Office that would be fine,” Trump said, seeming to change his position. “But they have the Post Office as one of their requests. It’s their request.”

“This morning you said you were against it, didn’t you?” Collins pointed out.

“I’m against doing anything where the people aren’t taken care of and the people aren’t being taken care of properly. We want people to get money,” Trump said, dodging the question. “You know they are asking for three and a half billion dollars just for the universal mail-in ballots. But they’re not willing to make a deal. These are two points within a very big deal. The thing they want more than anything else, Kaitlan, and you know this, is bailout money for the states and for the cities.”

Trump then tried to move on to another reporter, but Collins, not satisfied with the president’s non-answer, broke in again.

“There’s a need for that money in order to make the Post Office work,” she noted, “to take all these millions and millions of ballots and you said that will be fraudulent.”

“I said it will end up being fraudulent,” Trump claimed, before listing a few recent processing errors and mis-addressed ballots. “If you look at what’s happened over the last few weeks, look at the few instances where this is happened, it’s turned out to be fraudulent.”

Ballots that come in after the deadline or that are mailed to the wrong address is not evidence of any actual voting fraud took place, Collins rightly pointed out.

“Of course there is. The whole thing is a mess,” Trump replied, before urging the same levels of in-person voting that occurred before the coronavirus pandemic. “People will have to go to the polls and vote. Like the old days, like two years ago, three years ago, four years ago, they have to go. It doesn’t say anybody is taking the vote away, but it means that the universal mail-ins don’t work. And absentee where you make an application, it’s different. I’m not saying anything wrong with voting. I want them to vote. But that would mean that they’d have to go to a voting booth like they used to and vote.

“Even if they don’t feel safe voting in person?” Collins pressed once more. “People want to vote by mail because they don’t feel safe.”

“Well, they’re going to have to feel safe and they will be safe,” Trump claimed, even as the country continues to see more than a thousand deaths a day five months into the outbreak. “We are going to make sure that they’re safe and we are not going to have to spend three and a half billion dollars to do it.”

Watch the video above, via Fox News.

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