Robocalls voiced by Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump asked Republicans to vote by mail, saying it could be done “safely and securely,” despite President Trump’s fear that the practice could harm the GOP.
In one April 14 recording, Lara Trump calls on behalf of then-California special election candidate Mike Garcia and the Republican National Committee, urging voters to cast their ballot “safely and securely” through the mail.
The calls were unearthed by CNN on a robocall tracking website.
“Nancy Pelosi and liberal Democrats are counting on you to sit on the sidelines this election, but you can prove them wrong,” Lara Trump said. “You can safely and securely vote for Mike Garcia by returning your mail-in ballot by May 12.”
“Remember: Your mail-in ballot is arriving soon. Make your vote count for Mike Garcia, and get it in the mail by Tuesday, May 12,” she added.
“Don’t let us down. Remember to return your ballot now,” Donald Trump Jr. said in another call.
Republican Mike Garcia won the special election for California’s 25th Congressional District, vacated last year by Democrat Katie Hill. In March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, ordered every voter to be mailed a ballot in a measure aimed at reducing the spread of the coronavirus.
Trump has criticized mail-in ballot voting, claiming in a tweet last week that it would lead to “massive electoral fraud and a rigged 2020 Election.” He told conservative radio host Michael Savage in an interview last month that voting by mail was “one of the biggest risks I have” and could endanger his reelection.
“‘Who are they sending these to?’ Maybe people who are, let’s say, in a Republican district, and maybe those ballots, don’t get sent there,” Trump said of mail-in ballots in June.
Trump also called it “the biggest risk, frankly, that the Republican Party has. It’s a very big risk.”
