In a tweet early Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested delaying the November elections because of the coronavirus pandemic. Maine’s senators sharply criticized the suggestion.
“It is not appropriate or useful to sow the seeds of doubt about the legitimacy of any election, much less a presidential election,” said Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
Both Collins and independent U.S. Sen. Angus King expressed disbelief that Trump would suggest the election be moved and raise the specter of fraud.
“To imply that there is going to be widespread fraud in the election is a disservice to the American people,” Collins said.
Collins was joined by several other Republican senators and by House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, who issued statements critical of Trump for questioning the security of the November vote.
“It’s just one more example of this President’s contempt for our system and the safeguards that are built into our constitution,” said King.
King said, as he has often noted, that Trump’s tweets can be confusing and send contradictory messages.
“We can have a safe election. We can do it in part with mail in ballots,” said King. “Interestingly, in his tweet he seems to say absentee is ok, mail in is not ok. In many cases those are the same things.”
While Congress is deadlocked on passage of another pandemic relief package, there appears to be strong bipartisan opposition to the idea of postponing the fall election.
Originally published at 4:57 p.m. July 30, 2020.
