LANSING, Mich — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called on President Donald Trump to work with Congress to protect small businesses and frontline workers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
It was in response to a tweet where it appeared the president was floating the idea of "delaying" November's presidential election. He also made allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.
Trump tweeted Thursday: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
"It’s clear that the president is more focused on his chances in the 2020 election than on protecting families from a virus that has killed more than 150,000 Americans," Whitmer said in a statement Thursday.
"The truth is that mail-in absentee voting is safe, simple, and patriotic – so much so that the president and more than a dozen of his closest advisors have done it," she said. "If we could hold an election in 1864 in the midst of a Civil War threatening to tear our country apart, we can and will hold one in 2020."
"It’s time for the president to get his priorities straight and work with Congress on a bipartisan recovery package that protects our families, frontline workers, and small business owners," she continued.
The dates of the federal elections -- the Tuesday after the first Monday in November -- are protected and enforced by federal law and would require action from Congress to change. The Constitution makes no provisions for a delay to the Jan. 20, 2021 presidential inauguration.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting, not even in states will all-mail votes. Five states already rely exclusively on mail-in ballots and have said they have the necessary safeguards in place to ensure there are not disruptions by hostile foreign parties.
Trump's tweet also came shortly after the government announced the U.S. economy shrank at a record-breaking 33% annual rate in the April-June quarter -- making it the worst quarterly plunge ever. The coronavirus pandemic shut down businesses, threw tens of millions out of work and send unemployment surging to 14.7%.
According to tally by Johns Hopkins University, the death toll from COVID-19 in the U.S. hit 150,000 Wednesday, by far the highest in the world. Experts worry that a constant stream of bad information is undermining the efforts to slow the virus.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
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