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Trump floats delaying election over mail-in voting, legal experts say that power rests with Congress
David Jackson, Joey Garrison, John Fritze | USA TODAY | Jul 30 2020

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the prospect of delaying the November election because of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the president lacks the legal authority to delay elections on his own. 

The idea drew bipartisan alarm and election experts noted a president does not have the power to change the date of an election. Others suggested Trump is seeking to sow doubt about the election results or distract from a new government report that found a historic contraction in the nation's economy.  

Trump broached the subject of a delay in a tweet in which he complained about potential problems with mail-in voting, a concern he has floated without citing specific evidence for months. Tacked onto the usual complaint, Trump added: "Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???" :rolleyes: 

The date of the presidential election is set by federal law, meaning Congress, not the president, has the power to change it, according to Edward Foley, a law professor from Ohio State University and an election law expert.

“The president has no power here,” Foley said. “Congress has the power. I can’t foresee Congress changing the date of the election.”

Even if the president and Congress wanted to delay the election, it would be a very tough climb legally, analysts said.

The U.S. Constitution requires congressional elections every two years. To hold congressional and presidential elections together, a delayed presidential election would still need to take place in 2020.

Delaying a presidential election would be unprecedented – the nation did not do so even during the Civil War and World War II.

But Trump's tweet nevertheless drew criticism from Democrats and Republicans for once again sowing doubt about the accuracy of elections. 

Ari Fleischer, former spokesman for President George W. Bush, told Trump in a tweet: "Mr. President - please don’t even pretend to mess with this. It’s a harmful idea."

Democrats denounced the idea. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tweeted the language of the U.S. Constitution at Trump: "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/30/donald-trump-suggests-delaying-election-because-mail-voting/5543726002/

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It's funny Dumpster said it's not safe to vote in November FOR A DAY and yet demand schools, bars, business to open as usual. :rolleyes: 

Obviously he's waiting for the vaccine to be ready.

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This is from a crazy, right-wing twitter account, but caught my eye in a tag -

 

These folks on the right really think 'the left' is engaging in a power grab that turns everything on it's head and backwards...?  The left?

When it's actually THEM who are the ones doing this!!! It's THEM!!! That's how ass-backwards their view of the world is.

oh good god.

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I can't believe the outrage over Trump and postponing the elections isn't bigger. It's obviously from the manual of Erdogan/Putin 'how to prepare the public' for a gradual coup. Still so complacent. 

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Just saw a report on TV. It was about the fear of delayed mail in ballots. And guess who the boss of the US postal service is? A staunch Trump ally. 

It becomes more and more obvious how vulnerable the whole US voting system actually is. Thanks to that out of date electoral vote system, you can easily steal an election if only you have the right people in right positions. And much of this is perfectly legal. All it takes are some willing red state governors gerrymandering the hell out of voting districts, closing tons of voting places (preferably in districs with  a high population of citizens usually voting for the other party), create long waiting lines, which will keep elderly, sick and handicapped people away, because it is too much of an inonvenience to wait for hours in the cold, in the rain, in the scorching hot sun (depending which state you are in). Then, why is this election on a weekday? It basically interferes with everyone who is having a job, no matter if it is your constitutional right to vote and your employer has to give you time off. Well, I know why it is not on a Sunday. Because people are supposed to go to f*cking church on Sunday. I think in almost all other countries, elections are always on a Sunday. Because that is usually the day of the week when the big majority of citizens has spare time. Now add the disproportion in what a vote in California and New York is worth, compared to the small states in the middle. As seen in previous elections, it basically needs a few ten thousand votes that decide an election in the US. Trump and his team knows that and have analyzed the weak points of the system and how those flaws can work in their favor. With some little changes here, some tweaks there. Again, much of this is perfectly legal thanks to an outdated and full of loopholes electoral system. A reform of that system is long overdue.  

Trump "lost" the last election by 3 million votes. I wonder how many votes it takes for people, for representatives, for courts to wake up and do something. 5 million? 8 million? 10 million?

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11 hours ago, acko said:

I can't believe the outrage over Trump and postponing the elections isn't bigger. It's obviously from the manual of Erdogan/Putin 'how to prepare the public' for a gradual coup. Still so complacent. 

THIS.

It's utterly terrifying.

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I can't wait for Dumpster to ban Tiktok!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/tech/tiktok-ban-users/index.html

There are 80m TikTok users in the US.

Most of them are youngster (eligible to vote) and tons of them are using it to earn money. 

Dumpster "said" because it collects user data and send back to China hence the ban.

I hope Dumpster bans Grindr & supercell (Clash of Clan) soon since both are owned by China! :demonic: 

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Trump will use emergency powers to remain in White House if he loses election, says House majority whip
President has previously floated idea of delaying 2020 vote
Matt Mathers @MattEm90 | 9 hours ago 

Donald Trump could use emergency powers to extend his term in the White House, a senior Democrat has said, as fears grow that the president may attempt to hold onto office should he lose November’s election.

James Clyburn, the House majority whip, said he believes Trump has no intention of “peacefully” transferring power to presumptive Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who is well ahead in several major polls in the race for the Oval Office.

“I don’t think he plans to leave the White House,” Mr Clyburn, the Democrat Rep. for South Carolina, told CNN on Sunday. “He doesn’t plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office.”

Last week, Mr Trump floated the idea of delaying the upcoming election amid the coronavirus crisis, suggesting that the vote should be postponed “until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

In a message posted on his Twitter page, the president also claimed the 2020 election could fall foul to voter fraud, with millions of Americans set to cast their ballots via postal services due to the coronavirus.

But experts have since cast doubt on those claims, citing previous research showing that voter fraud in the US is extremely rare. Two studies by Arizona State University in 2012 and 2016 found only 10 cases of voter impersonation fraud nationwide from 2000-2012.

The president has also repeatedly claimed, falsely, that he would have beaten former rival Hillary Clinton in the 2016 popular vote were it not for the “millions of people who voted illegally”.

A subsequent analysis of 2016 voting data by The Washington Post found just four cases of voter fraud. Those four cases included three people who attempted to vote for Trump twice, according to the Post.

Lawmakers across Capitol Hill – including many prominent Republicans – have slapped down the suggestion that the election could be delayed.

Sen. Marco Rubio said “he [Trump] can suggest whatever he wants. The law is what it is.” Any move to delay the 2020 election would require an act of Congress — meaning both the Senate and the House of Representatives, where the Democrats have a majority, would need to sign off on it.

On Sunday, advisers shut down Mr Trump’s suggestion that the vote could de be delayed and sought to portray a confident mood within the president’s re-election campaign team, despite dire polling readings.

“We’re going to hold an election on 3 November and the president is going to win,” Mr Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CBS on Sunday.

The president trails Mr Biden in a host of major polls, with data showing that he is behind in many of the states he must win to retain office.

Mr Trump’s team continues to play down the significance of polling, pointing out that Hilary Clinton was well ahead at a similar point in the 2016 race. But it is the scale of Mr Biden’s lead over Mr Trump that has led experts to predict that Mr Biden will prevail in November contest.

A number of polls – including those by Emerson, YouGov, CNBC and The Hill – give the Democrat politician a lead of seven points or more.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-2020-election-lose-emergency-powers-biden-polls-a9651041.html#comments

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Trump backtracks on mail-in voting, says it's OK to do in Florida
The president's shift on mail-in voting comes as new data indicates the president’s assault on the practice may backfire on him come November.
By CAITLIN OPRYSKO | 08/04/2020 07:05 PM EDT

President Donald Trump on Tuesday reversed his opposition to mail-in voting and encouraged it — at least in one crucial battleground state — after railing against the practice for months amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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“Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA”

The tweet represented a remarkable change in tune for the president, who has himself voted by mail but has aggressively pushed voters to head to the polls in person this fall despite fears of spreading the coronavirus. Trump has repeatedly leveled unsubstantiated claims that voting by mail would result in widespread voter fraud and that the practice would ultimately benefit Democrats.

Despite Trump's insistence to the contrary, cases of election fraud in the U.S. are exceedingly rare, though experts acknowledge that there are some slightly higher fraud risks associated with mail-in balloting when proper security measures are not put in place.

Just last week, Trump floated delaying November’s election until it was safer to do so in person, a suggestion he is not constitutionally empowered to enact. Trump suggested moving Election Day because an influx in mail-in voting, a practice many have advocated to avoid spreading the coronavirus at polling places, would lead to a “rigged” election that would amount to the “greatest election disaster in history.”

On Monday the president claimed the right to issue an executive order pertaining to his concerns about mail-in voting, another legally dubious proposition, and pledged to sue Nevada over its plans to mail ballots to all registered voters. Asked about what authority the president might have to issue an executive order on mail-in voting, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to answer.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/04/trump-backtracks-mail-voting-florida-391373

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2 minutes ago, horn said:

Trump backtracks on mail-in voting, says it's OK to do in Florida
“Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA”

Trump campaign sues Nevada over plan to mail ballots to all registered voters
By Joe Sutton, CNN | Updated 1649 GMT (0049 HKT) August 5, 2020

(CNN)The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of Nevada over its plan to send absentee ballots to all active voters this November in a major expansion of mail-in voting in the battleground state.

"The RNC has a vital interest in protecting the ability of Republican voters to cast, and Republican candidates to receive, effective votes in Nevada elections and elsewhere," the lawsuit, filed by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Nevada Republican Party, said.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread throughout the country, some states have looked to expand mail-in voting options ahead of November's election. President Donald Trump, however, has falsely claimed that expanded mail-in voting will lead to fraud in the election. As CNN has previously reported, voting-by-mail rarely results in fraud
A spokeswoman for Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, whose office oversees elections in the state, declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

The Democratic-controlled Nevada state legislature passed a sweeping election bill along party lines over the weekend, and Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, signed the legislation Monday afternoon.

Sisolak said in a tweet on Monday, "I signed AB 4, which ensures protections for Nevadans to vote safely at the November election during the pandemic. During this global pandemic, I made a commitment that we'd do all we can to allow Nevadans to safely cast a ballot in the upcoming November election."

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/trump-campaign-nevada-mail-in-ballots/index.html

 

 

So it's "SAFE SECURE TRIED TRUE" for Florida to vote by mail but it's NOT safe secure tried true for Nevada?

I'm confused :confused: 

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I think Dumb has genius plan to remain in power. How? 1) most republicans think COVID is a scam unlike the democrats 2) most rep would therefore go to vote in person unlike democrats 3) by attacking in mail voting he tries to deprive the democrats from their right to vote or at least those who take Covid seriously which I believe are the majority of the democrats 4) why no one in the USA news points that out?

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“White straight married couples with children who go to church regularly are no longer the American mainstream. An entire way of life, one in which their values were dominant, could be headed for extinction. And Trump offered to restore them to power…”

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Whappened now? Aren't Dumpster & Justin Trudeau "friends"? :1251: 

Trump says he signed order reimposing 10% aluminum tariffs on Canada
Kevin Breuninger | Christina Wilkie | Aug 7 2020

President Donald Trump said he signed a proclamation Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada that had been suspended more than a year earlier.
“Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,” Trump said during a lengthy, campaign-style speech at a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Ohio. 
The announcement comes just over a month after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – the Trump-backed trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA – went into effect.

President Donald Trump said he signed a proclamation Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on aluminum imports from Canada that had been suspended more than a year earlier.

“Canada was taking advantage of us, as usual,” Trump said during a lengthy, campaign-style speech at a Whirlpool manufacturing plant in Ohio. 

“The aluminum business was being decimated by Canada,” he said. “Very unfair to our jobs and our great aluminum workers.”

The announcement comes just over a month after the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement – the Trump-backed trade pact that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA – went into effect.

The text of Trump’s proclamation says that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross informed Trump that Canadian aluminum imports “increased substantially” in the months after the decision to lift the tariffs in mid-2019.

“In light of the Secretary’s information, I have determined that the measures agreed upon with Canada are not providing an effective alternative means to address the threatened impairment to our national security from imports of aluminum from Canada,” the proclamation said. “Thus, I have determined that it is necessary and appropriate to re-impose” the 10% tariff on imports of some Canadian aluminum.

The new tariffs follow months of back-and-forth negotiations between the two countries over whether there has been “a meaningful surge” in aluminum exports from Canada to the United States. 

Under the terms of the tariff suspension agreement between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, both countries agreed not to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel unless “a meaningful surge” in exports from one side threatened domestic markets.

Two of the largest U.S. aluminum producers, Century Aluminum and Magnitude 7 Metals, claim that there has been such a jump, and they argued to the White House earlier this year that aluminum prices were being depressed  as a result. 

Beyond these two producers, however, a broader aluminum industry alliance opposes the tariffs, arguing that they will amount to little more than a tax on manufacturers.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion on this issue, but facts are facts,” said Aluminum Association President Tom Dobbins in June, amid reports of strained tariff talks. “Imports of primary aluminum from Canada today are consistent with long-term trends long predating the imposition of Section 232 tariffs,” referring to the piece of the Trade Expansion Act that authorizes import duties on national security grounds.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement that after the aluminum tariffs were suspended, “imports from Canada of the product that accounts for the largest share of Canada’s aluminum exports to the United States have surged above historical levels.“

The USTR said that increase “intensified in recent months, despite a contraction in U.S. demand.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce quickly pushed back on the Trump administration’s move to slap import duties back on the U.S. ally.

“Today more than ever, American businesses of all sizes depend on trade as an engine of growth and job creation. However, the administration’s move to re-impose tariffs on aluminum from Canada is a step in the wrong direction,” Myron Brilliant, executive vice president and head of international affairs for the Chamber, said in a statement.

“These tariffs will raise costs for American manufacturers, are opposed by most U.S. aluminum producers, and will draw retaliation against U.S. exports — just as they did before. We urge the administration to reconsider this move,” Brilliant said.

During his speech in Ohio, Trump vowed to bring back American jobs and factories “using every tool at my disposal, including tariffs.”

“I love properly put-on tariffs because they bring unfair competitors from foreign countries to do whatever you want them to do,” the president said.

He accused Canada of breaking its commitment not to “flood our country with exports” after the tariffs were lifted in 2019.

Trump in that speech also hinted that he would be signing something “very important” related to trade, possibly within the next week. He did not provide further details.

The Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the president’s order.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/06/trump-says-he-signed-order-reimposing-10percent-aluminum-tariffs-on-canada.html

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'You better watch out if Trump is reelected': Critics warn new executive orders will 'defund' Medicare and social security

Democrats say the president's latest actions are 'absurdly unconstitutional' and stand to deplete funding for crucial government programs

Chris RiottaNew York @chrisriotta | 22 hours ago 

Donald Trump’s new executive orders faced swift backlash from Democrats — and even some Republicans — as lawmakers said the president was attempting to unconstitutionally bypass Congress after coronavirus relief negotiations stalled on Capitol Hill.

Critics decried the president latest measures, which he announced on Saturday from his golf club in New Jersey after the US Senate hit an impasse on the negotiations for a new coronavirus relief package.

The orders would cut back additional unemployment benefits the government provided during the pandemic to $400 a week and provide a payroll tax holiday for Americans who earn less than $100,000 annually, with Mr Trump saying he would forgive those taxes for millions of Americans if he was reelected in November.

In an interview on Sunday morning with ABC News, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the president’s payroll tax holiday essentially “depletes money out of the social security and Medicare trust funds”, noting how both programmes are funded by taxpayer dollars.

He added: “If you’re a social security recipient or Medicare recipient, you better watch out if President Trump is re-elected.”

The orders were described as “unconstitutional slop” in a statement sent to The Independent from Ben Sasse (R-NE), one of the rare Senate Republicans who has spoken out against the president despite receiving his endorsement.

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop,” the statement read. “President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.”

 

 

 

 

 

He added: “Under the Constitution, that power belongs to the American people acting through their members of Congress.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi later echoed the Republican senator, calling the orders “unconstitutional slop” in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

“While he says he's going to do the payroll tax, what he's doing is undermining Social Security and Medicare, so these are illusions," she said, calling the orders “absurdly unconstitutional.”

Republican leadership has refused to hold a vote on the Democrats’ HEROES Act, a $3 trillion stimulus package, and failed to come up with a bill that would pass a vote before previous relief measures expired for millions of Americans last week.

Val Demings (D-Fl), seen as a leading choice to serve as the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president, issued a damning statement after the president announced his executive orders, writing on Twitter: “The American people desperately need relief. Instead, the president decided to defund Social Security and Medicare.”

Mr Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, blasted Mr Trump’s executive order cutting payroll taxes as “a reckless war on social security”.

“He is laying out his roadmap to cutting Social Security,” Mr Biden said. “Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-medicare-social-security-executive-orders-defund-payroll-tax-cuts-biden-a9661986.html

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