White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is pushing back on criticism for voting via absentee ballot amid President Trump’s recent criticism of mail-in voting.
A Wednesday report from the Tampa Bay Times showed McEnany, a Tampa native, voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, including the state’s spring primary earlier this year. McEnany responded to the scrutiny in a statement hours later.
“Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason,” she said. “It means you’re absent from the jurisdiction or unable to vote in person. President Trump is against the Democrat plan to politicize the coronavirus and expand mass mail-in voting without a reason, which has a high propensity for voter fraud. This is a simple distinction that the media fails to grasp.”
On Tuesday, Trump criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his decision to send mail-in ballots to every registered voter of the state earlier this month, which prompted a lawsuit from Republican groups.
“There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” Trump tweeted. “Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!”
The tweet was met with a fact-check alert by Twitter that warned users of potential misinformation and directed them to news articles fact-checking the claim.
Trump’s likely Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, recently hired a voting rights director.
