# Trump calls for delaying the election
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [July 30, 2020, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829 "2020-07-30T13:14:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/41 "2020-07-30T18:17:16Z")
Luckily, as noted by **thorny\_locust** , there does seem to be pushback. Here’s another cite:
> **[Trump encounters broad pushback to his suggestion to delay the Nov. 3 election](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-floats-idea-of-delaying-the-november-election-as-he-ramps-up-attacks-on-voting-by-mail/2020/07/30/15fe7ac6-d264-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html?wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_politics__alert-politics&utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.44-woUUjK1AeEVPna-M6rdbvUFGnyzLbIyHbzbnSigg)**
>
> In morning tweets, the president asked if voting should be postponed until it can be done “properly, securely and safely.” The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to set the “time, place and manner” of the election.
---
### Author:  [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/42 "2020-07-30T18:28:49Z")
From CNN’s article:
> Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Trump ally, told CNN when asked about the President’s call to delay the election: “I don’t think that’s a particularly good idea.”
Gee, really? Such bold and authoritative condemnation of the leader of the Republican party’s proposal to subvert democracy.
> Majority Whip Sen. John Thune, a member of Republican leadership, told CNN that there will be an election in November despite the President’s tweet.
> “I think that’s probably a statement that gets some press attention, but I doubt it gets any serious traction,” Thune said.
You doubt it? So you’re not entirely sure? According to Sen. Thune postponing the election is apparently still within the realm of possibility.
Meanwhile, Sen. Cruz unintentionally (I presume) addresses the real threat to democracy while avoiding Trump’s repeated misstatement that mail-in voting is (somehow) different than absentee voting as well as the fact that _voter fraud_ is _ **not** _ a serious problem:
> Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said, “Election fraud is a serious problem we need to stop it and fight it, but no the election should not be delayed.”
My faith in the Republican party is thus restored.
Well, not so much.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/43 "2020-07-30T18:47:41Z")
Several of my conservative white friends have turned on trump, eight out of ten are now "dump trumpers’- there are people who had Bush bumper stickers. Of course this is only a anecdote and it is hardly a representative sample, 😝 but IMHO it shows a trend among smarter conservative whites. The remaining two are single issue voters who listen to Rush ect about four hours a day. They have not only drunk the Koolaid, they have daily enemas of it.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/44 "2020-07-30T18:53:26Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> … Now is a 24-20 vote sufficient or are 26 states required even if some are missing? Damfino, but SCOTUS will do whatever benefits the Republicans. …
I wouldnt bet on that. Roberts and Gorsuch have signaled that they are tired of trump’s shenanigans and cant be counted upon to do trumps bidding. Of course Kavanaugh is trump’s bum-boy, but we all knew that going in. If RBG can hold on until Jan 20th, things in SCOTUS will be OK.
Oddly Gorsuch was actually a fairly decent pick by trump, a staunch Constitutionalist and believer of the Law. Yes, conservative, but the Law comes first.
---
### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/45 "2020-07-30T19:15:28Z")
As anxious and Chicken Littleish as I tend to be, I think we’re nearing a moment when even Republicans may have to accept the will of the people, and I think that may come in the form of economic collapse, which I don’t think we’ve really seen just yet, but will. We’ve been buoyed by the Fed and Treasury, but the layoffs and bankruptcies will start to accelerate at a rate that policymakers may find hard to keep up with. And that, I think, could force the GOP’s hand. Republicans worship money and wealth more than life and even the God they claim to worship.
OTOH, it’s beyond clear at this point that they do not care about democracy, and if they feel that they can pull a fast one on voters and get away with it, they absolutely will.
---
### Author:  [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/46 "2020-07-30T19:17:40Z")
Between the economic news, almost already known and the funeral for John Lewis where Bush and Obama spoke, he had to dump a biggie to get the attention back on him.
I wonder if he tweeted this just as Obama spoke out against the suppression of voter rights and defunding the post office. I’m sure Trump was asking some poor staff member who this Paul guy was when Obama referenced a bible passage.
---
### Author:  [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/47 "2020-07-30T19:18:22Z")
My anecdotal evidence does not show the same trend as yours.
Now, out of my conservative friends, none of them were for Trump in the first place, but as to conservative people that I know, there’s been very little movement. I had a client in just today ranting about deepstate and Covid conspiracies. He’s not some homeless crazy guy, either, drives a Beamer and lives in a very wealthy neighborhood.
I haven’t seen a MAGA hat in a couple weeks, now that I think about it. _Maybe_ that’s indicative of something other than my poor memory and confirmation bias.
My conservative white parents are still 2 for 2 Trump supporters.
An excerpt of an email I got the other day from my mother:
> [@](#):
>
> I do acknowledge your side is winning. That’s why I worry about you and the next generation. The old saying you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. I think Biden will win. The stock market will crash and we will go back to the poor economy of Obama and Biden. The rich will get richer and more middle class will fall into the lower class. The boarders will be open and wages for the poor will fall.
Most of the rest of it is less coherent and barely SFW. And just about as factual.
I will not take anything for granted until Biden is sworn in and takes up the reins of office. And even then…
---
### Author:  [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/48 "2020-07-30T19:22:21Z")
I was glad to see Mitch McConnell threw cold water on this notion. But Jonathan Chait raises a more realistic danger:
> **[Trump Can’t Stop the Election, But He Can Threaten Democracy](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trump-delay-election-democracy-biden-predicted-2020.html)**
>
> When Joe Biden predicted Trump would try this, Republicans laughed.
> Since states are starved for resources and need Congress to appropriate them, and since Trump can veto any new federal spending, he can starve states of the resources they require. Voting by mail will be slower and messier, leaving many voters to choose between risking their health and forfeiting their franchise. Trump’s reelection strategy seems to rely on using the pandemic to functionally disenfranchise a large segment of the Democratic base.
> Delaying the election is obviously a nonstarter — it would mean holding off the vote until a vaccine has been distributed universally, which would mean extending the election by months. More realistically, Trump can sow doubt over the election results and seed political and legal challenges to the result, creating a Florida 2000–like conflict that he might resolve through his control of the levers of federal power.
Pelosi must draw a hard line here. No funding for anything Trump wants from here on out, unless the bill includes funding for states to conduct mail in voting.
---
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/49 "2020-07-30T19:25:27Z")
I accept that, I had a small sample, but _"out of my conservative friends, none of them were for Trump in the first place,_"? Most of mine voted trump because of “never hillary” or the fact trump had R next to his name- yours voted for Clinton? 🤨
Like i have said, the poll results to me are “hopeful, but by no means a slam dunk”.
---
### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/50 "2020-07-30T19:40:38Z")
I have to believe even Trump knows the election will not be postponed.
His strategy in call for postponement is either to:
a) Use that as grounds for contesting the result, or
b) Use that as his excuse for losing
(or, c, both)
mmm
---
### Author:  [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/51 "2020-07-30T19:45:03Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> Let’s get down to the brass tacks of what would happen if some states delay their elections. From what I understand there are two scenarios.
>
> 1. Neither Trump or Biden get to 270 EV and the election goes to the current House for POTUS and to current Senate for VP. Voting in the House is by state delegations and not individual representatives. This would likely lead to Trump and Pence being re-elected.
Except that the current House and Senate terms expire on January 3, and the electoral vote count does not take place until January 6.
> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> 1. Neither Trump or Biden gets to 270 EV. Because the election was canceled, there are no House members because their terms all expired. Trump‘s and Pence’s term ends at noon on 1/20/2021 per the US Constitution. At that point the line of succession kicks in. The Speaker of the House is next in line, but that office is vacant since their were no elections. Next up is the President of the Senate Pro Tem. Currently that post is occupied by Chuck Grassley R-Iowa. However, if the elections are canceled that means the Ds have the majority and the new Senate President Pro Tem would be Pat Leahey D-Vermont. Leahey would then be the new POTUS.
Except that the new Senate would elect a President Pro Tempore. I count 34 Democrats, 2 Independents, and 30 Republicans who would still be there. What stops Bernie Sanders from finding two Democrats to join him in announcing, “Either you elect me, or we vote for a Republican”?
Besides, the Constitution (Article I, Section 4) says that only Congress and the States can set “the times, places, and manner” of House elections. Trump can’t cancel those unilaterally.
---
### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/52 "2020-07-30T19:45:30Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> a) Use that as grounds for contesting the result, or
> b) Use that as his excuse for losing
>
> (or, c, both)
d) He’ll think of something that he wants to do that will be even better than presidenting. He never even like the job anyway. Many people said he should do it. So he did it. They told him how great of a job he did. He was the best president ever! Better than Lincoln.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/53 "2020-07-30T20:00:45Z")
> [@asahi](#):
>
> Look closer at what he’s doing: he’s not claiming he has the authority to cancel the election; he’s laying the groundwork for claiming that the election results are invalid.
I’ve said before that the Republicans don’t want to cancel the election. They just wants to cancel part of the voting (the part where people vote for Democrats).
The Republicans would like to have around 80% of an election (with them controlling which 20% of votes are thrown out). Then they’ll argue that this partial election was close enough and its results are legally binding. And the Supreme Court will agree.
The Republicans wouldn’t get away with cancelling the election and declaring themselves in power for life. But they will get away - once again - with holding a pseudo-election of questionable legality and retaining power as people argue about the legality.
---
### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/54 "2020-07-30T20:05:15Z")
Oh, I’ve fully expected him to float this idea. I’m also not surprised that, while some Republican Congressional leaders in Congress are saying this is a non starter, many rank and file Republicans and so-called “libertarians” are lining up to lick Trump’s boots.
---
### Author:  [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/55 "2020-07-30T20:05:22Z")
All this musing about elections and what the Constitution sets forth about them and the Presidential succession.
Let’s ask an acknowledged Constitutional legal scholar, Barack Obama, about it.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/56 "2020-07-30T20:11:45Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#):
>
> Let’s ask an acknowledged Constitutional legal scholar, Barack Obama, about it.
Do you feel Republicans are going to accept anything he has to say?
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/57 "2020-07-30T20:17:17Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> His strategy in call for postponement is either to:
>
> a) Use that as grounds for contesting the result, or
> b) Use that as his excuse for losing
e) Use it to make it so nobody talks about the numbers out this moring showing the economy cratering spectacularly due to the botched response, as **ThisIsTheEnd** pointed out.
---
### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/58 "2020-07-30T20:18:31Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#):
>
> Let’s ask an acknowledged Constitutional legal scholar, Barack Obama, about it.-
Obama refers to the election in his [eulogy](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/07/read-barack-obamas-eulogy-for-john-lewis-full-text/614761/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheAtlantic+%28The+Atlantic+-+Master+Feed%29) to John Lewis:
> …We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.
>
> I know this is a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this Earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we’re seeing circulate right now. He knew that every single one of us has a God-given power and that the faith of this democracy depends on how we use it. That democracy isn’t automatic. It has to be nurtured. It has to be tended to. We have to work at it. It’s hard. And so he knew that it depends on whether we summoned a measure, just a measure of John’s moral courage, to question what’s right and what’s wrong. And call things as they are. He said that as long as he had a breath in his body, he would do everything he could to preserve this democracy, and as long as we have breath in our bodies, we had to continue his cause.
>
> If we want our children to grow up in a democracy, not just with elections, but a true democracy, a representative democracy, and a big-hearted tolerant, vibrant, inclusive America of perpetual self-creation, then we’re going to have to be more like John.
> …
I couldn’t read the whole thing in one sitting, as it was so painful to read intelligent, beautiful, heartfelt words that seem from another age, another epoch, another world. I dare anyone to say it was not appropriate to bring up the election at this event. Lewis has an op-ed in the NYTimes today that he wrote a short time ago with instructions that it be printed on the day of his funeral.
This link is to The Atlantic, which allows four free articles per month to non-subscribers. No doubt the eulogy will be available at other sources, too. Grab a box of tissues before you read (or listen). It will break your heart.
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/59 "2020-07-30T20:21:05Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#):
>
> An excerpt of an email I got the other day from my mother
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgWm5TNeBA)
---
### Author:  [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)
#### Post date: [July 30, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829/60 "2020-07-30T20:25:12Z")
@ **ThelmaLou**
What you said.
After reading Mr. Lewis’s letter in the NYT and listening to President Obama, my heart inexplicably lifted. It thought “maybe this country and its people are going to be alright after all”.
That’s seems to be what Rep. Lewis was about: hope made real by action.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829.md?page=2)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-calls-for-delaying-the-election/916829.md?page=4)