Trump: Election results could be delayed by months

President Trump continued to stoke fears about voting by mail in a new interview with “Axios on HBO” released Tuesday, claiming it could take months for the November election to be decided.

Trump reiterated his claims that mail-in voting leads to fraud and said that it will be “massively bigger” this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“Now because of the China virus, we’re supposed to stay home, send millions of ballots all over the country. Millions and millions,” Trump said. “You know, you could have a case where this election won’t be decided on the evening of Nov. 3. This election could be decided two months later.”

Trump added that would be an issue because “lots of things will happen during that period of time. Especially when you have tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There’s never been anything like this.”

During the tense interview with Axios’s Jonathan Swan, the president said that his campaign is taking action in several court cases to “end” mail-in voting. 

The president claimed that state election officials were sending out ballots to everyone, saying “somebody got a ballot for a dog.”

“You look at some of the corruption having to do with universal, mail-in voting. Absentee voting is OK if you have to apply, you have to go through a process,” Trump began.

“You have to apply for mail-in,” Swan rebutted. “It is the same thing.”

“Jonathan, they’re sending out — governors — millions of ballots,” Trump continued.

“No, they’re not,” Swan said. “It’s applications. You can get them off the internet.”

“There is no way you can go through a mail-in vote without massive cheating,” Trump said.

Swan then noted the lengthy history of mail-in voting across the country since the days of the Civil War, as well as a campaign to mail-in vote through Trump’s own party.

“The Republican Party has an extremely well-funded vote-by-mail program,” Swan said. “Your campaign puts out emails telling people to vote by mail. Your daughter-in-law Lara Trump, she did robocalls in California saying it’s safe and secure, mail-in voting.”

Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in a number of national polls, has continued to rail against expanding mail-in voting despite concerns over safety amid the pandemic.

There is no evidence that mail-in voting contributes to widespread fraud. It also does not appear that there will be universal mail-in voting this fall, though some states require mail-in ballots.

Last week, Trump suggested delaying the 2020 election over the issue even though he does not have the power to do so unilaterally. 

Biden in late April predicted Trump may try to push back the presidential election, a suggestion the president’s campaign dismissed at the time as “the incoherent, conspiracy theory ramblings of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality.”

“Mark my words: I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” Biden told supporters, adding that he felt it was “the only way [Trump] thinks he can possibly win.”

Trump also brushed off Biden’s accusation at the time.

“The general election will happen on Nov. 3,” Trump said at a news conference in April.