Trump Lied for Five Uninterrupted Minutes About Mail-in Voting During Virus Briefing

Authored by rollingstone.com and submitted by JohnBasedow_

During Monday’s coronavirus briefing President Trump called on an ally from his favorite propaganda network, OAN, to serve him up a softball question on a topic that the president consistently lies about: mail-in voting.

After Trump specifically pointed towards OAN’s Chanel Rion, making sure he promoted the network that trolls in conspiracy theories by saying its call letters aloud, Rion then asked the president if he would issue an executive order regarding mail-in ballots. What sort of executive order and for what reason, Rion did not say, nor does she likely care. She accomplished what she wanted—teeing-up Trump and allowing him to spew falsities about the non-issue.

“Thank you, Mr. President. And in our nation’s 243-year history, there’s never been a stronger push for mail-in ballots to determine a national election. Are you considering at any point issuing an executive order addressing mail-in ballots? And why do you think some people are pushing it so hard?” Rion asked.

Trump then rambled for more than five uninterrupted minutes, first repeating what he’d just been asked by the questioner, and mistakenly calling her Carolyn.

“Well, there’s never been a push like this for mail-in ballots. And if you look at the New York congressional race, which is a disaster, Carolyn, it’s been a total disaster,” Trump said.

Trump went on and on about local congressional races, claiming that mail-in voting in those states was a “disaster” and a “disgrace.” But mostly the president made very little sense.

“Now, you’re talking about like Nevada, where last two nights ago, they went out in the darkness of night without people, without having any meetings of the public, without having anything,” Trump said.

The president continued, “They approved the ridiculous. You don’t have to look at signatures. You don’t have to approve anything. You can have double mailings. You can have all sorts of things. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. It’s a disgrace. I mean, honestly, it’s a disgrace.”

“So it’s a very good question. I mean, the mail-in ballots, if you look at just some of the small, the small places, the small races, congressional race in New York should be very easy. Normally, that would have been announced at seven o’clock and it would have been down to the wire and everybody would have loved it. It was, it was at all complex. It would have taken an extra 45 minutes or an hour. They would have announced it a little bit later. They have no clue,” Trump said.

Of course, with his ramblings, Trump proved he is the one without a clue. He then used the story of a postman who was indicted in West Virginia on voter fraud as proof that the system is flawed. Meanwhile, the opposite is true. The mere fact that the worker was caught, as writer Josh Billinson pointed out on Twitter, means that, “The system works!”

He changed absentee ballot *requests* from Democratic to Republican and was immediately caught by the county clerk. The system works! https://t.co/SJnOFhLoAv https://t.co/ikLmPmvuGO — Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) August 3, 2020

The bottom line is: the president is looking to suppress the vote—a long Republican tradition—and to cast doubt on the coming election in case he loses.

According to The New York Times and numerous other publications including this one, Trump’s claims about mail-in voting fraud are false. But, as we all know by now, that won’t stop this president. He lies a lot.

Shwalz on August 4th, 2020 at 02:58 UTC »

My favorite was during his rant he said, “you know there was a postman in Virginia who was indicted..... for doing something...... very bad, you know”. I don’t often watch these pressers, and of course today is the day I tune in and I hear that shit. I could not stop laughing, it was genuinely hilarious the way he delivered it and all.

never_grow_old on August 4th, 2020 at 02:37 UTC »

"Postal Service says it has 'ample capacity' to handle election after Trump casts doubt"

A reporter did call this out to Trump as he ended the briefing

Teamyuss on August 4th, 2020 at 01:37 UTC »

So tired of this moron.