‘President Pelosi anyone?’ Twitter calmly explains to Trump the outcome of his idea to postpone the election

07/30/2020 11:14 am ET • Dara Brewton

Flickr / Gage Skidmore

In a tweet posted on Thursday morning, Donald Trump questioned whether postponing the presidential election should be considered citing the fraudulence of mail-in voting.

With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???

Fortunately, the president doesn’t have the power to postpone an election — that belongs to Congress. Plus, the Constitution puts an expiration date on a presidential term: Jan 20th.

Another distraction?

A photograph of a parade figure of Donald Trump wearing a "liar" sign.

Pixabay

It could be a coincidence that the President tweeted something certain to cause an uproar just moments after a devastating report on the state of the economy was released.

Trump floating a delay of the election may be a distraction from the GDP news. But it still is deadly serious. GOP lawmakers saying they haven’t seen or don’t respond to his tweet won’t particularly cut it today

— Sam Stein (@samstein) July 30, 2020

The POTUS cannot delay the election.

That's a distraction from the historic 32.9% GDP implosion on his watch.

— Laura Walker ⚖🍸🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@LauraWalkerKC) July 30, 2020

Postponing the election to stop mail-in voting

America needs to go postal! (In November) 1

Unsplash/Matthew T Rader

According to The Washington Post, Trump has “attacked mail voting nearly 70 times since late March” with 17 of those times happening this month alone. He is likely worried that mail-in voting will be the end for him especially since he has already said it specifically hurts Republican candidates.

fact check: mail-in voting and absentee voting are exactly the same thing. fact check: you can’t delay the election without a constitutional amendment. instead of fear-mongering, how about running on your record? you know: mass death, mass unemployment, mass infection, rioting…

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) July 30, 2020

In order to get a Mail-in Ballot, you still must request one, just like you do to get an Absentee Ballot. It’s called registering to vote. In Absentee Ballot states, when you register, you can select “mail-in”. In Mail-in states, everyone selects “mail-in”. There is no difference

— Mrs. Krassenstein (@HKrassenstein) July 30, 2020

Down in the polls

Trump floats the idea of postponing the election

Wikimedia

Plenty of Twitter users pointed out that Trump is just scared because he sees the writing on the wall. Biden is leading in just about every poll.

Donald Trump is terrified. He knows he's going to lose to @JoeBiden. It will require every single one of us to make that happen.

We will see you at the ballot box on November 3rd, @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/GeEH6Csvym

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 30, 2020

He’s scared. Maybe one of his toadies finally told him the truth.

— Twinsfan81 (@Twinsfan811) July 30, 2020

Does anyone who likes trump think there is even a 1% chance he would be saying this if he were leading in the polls?

— Hank Green: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is Out! (@hankgreen) July 30, 2020

Not safe to vote?

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Some wondered why it was safe enough for the kids to head back to school, but not safe enough to hold an election.

Kids can go to school, but we can’t vote?

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 30, 2020

Safe enough to go back to schools.

Not safe enough to vote. pic.twitter.com/C2AHKrecnt

— Balrog (@PennDusko) July 30, 2020

Slid all the way into fascism

Man holding a sign that says "Trump is a fascist!"

Wikimedia

Canceling the election was the last thing on the fascism checklist.

and there it is, ladies and gents: the Deteriorating Dictator Wanna-Be is calling for postponing the election. color me unsurprised

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) July 30, 2020

Trump’s gone full dictator.

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) July 30, 2020

Biden called it

Flickr / Gage Skidmore

He probably doesn’t want to say “I told you so” but…

You know what’s funny?

Biden said he’d try this back in April. CALLED IT. https://t.co/IeXfIrX5ek

— Duckie (Expect BLM) (@darabidduckie) July 30, 2020

The President of the United States, really just said, "Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote"

Remember when Joe Biden said he believes Trump will try and delay the election and Republicans attacked him for it?

— Mrs. Krassenstein (@HKrassenstein) July 30, 2020

President Pelosi has a nice ring

Screenshot / Twitter

Guess who would be next in line?

The US Constitution states that his term is up in January. Delaying an election doesn’t change that. Speaker of the House is next in line. President Pelosi anyone? https://t.co/4u2lb6QouV

— Barb Utesch (@BarbUtesch) July 30, 2020

Delay the election? Unless Trump takes over the government by military force and suspends the Constitution, it will be President Pelosi on January 20th by default. Because without an election, Trump has absolutely no authority to remain in power unless he does a military coup.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 30, 2020

The world is watching

Unsplash / Andrew Stutesman

Users from other countries are expressing their concern for Americans now that Trump has mentioned postponing the election.

I feel for you guys over there.
If I had Trump as an elected leader of government I’d have considered emigration long ago….

— badidol trägt Maske und hält Abstand (@badidol) July 30, 2020

Hi - Canadian here with a question - does he actually have the authority to do so? Is there even a possibility he can do it? The upstairs neighbours are scared.

— Laurel Drieds (@ogue) July 30, 2020

‘They call themselves patriots’

Flickr / Michael Fleshman

On top of trying to delay voting, Trump and the GOP have been busy working on other forms of suppression.

Why are they closing so many polling places and then don’t want mail in voting, in my part of Los Angeles (a major city BTW) we had 3 polling places in the mid term, I waited in line for 4 hours to votes.

— meinanutshell (@meinanutshell4) July 30, 2020

Trump and the GOP are so desperate to remain in power no matter what, they’re willing to go down the path of martial law, military dictatorship, and authoritarianism. That’s as un-American as it gets, almost as if they’re the same Confederate traitors who seceeded from the Union.

— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) July 30, 2020

Who votes by mail?

Trump team wants to suppress the unemployment numbers 1

Flickr/Gage Skidmore

Trump for one. And Ivanka…Pence…Barr…

This is your daily reminder that 16 top Trump officials voted by mail:

Trump
Pence
Barr
McEnany
Conway
Ivanka
Melania
Azar
Ross
DeVos
Stepien
McDaniel
Kushner
Glassner
Ayers
Parscale

If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for youpic.twitter.com/rBOKnJUoNe

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) July 29, 2020

Anytime now…

Canva

Twitter is waiting for them to speak up.

Constitutionally, the president cannot delay an election.

So I’m sure several prominent conservative voices will rise up today and forcefully rebuke him for even suggesting it. Right…?

— Translate Trump (@TranslateRealDT) July 30, 2020

Cornyn claims it’s a joke. Watch as those cowards start doing this.

— MB (@sugarcubedog2) July 30, 2020

Election day is November 3

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Louder for those in the back.

Come hell or high water, Election Day is November 3. Pass it on.

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 30, 2020

Who else is ready to vote? Like for “yes.”
RT for “hell yes.”

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 30, 2020