The top Federal Election Commission official fired back at President Trump after he suggested delaying November’s election.
Ellen Weintraub noted Thursday morning that the president does not “have the power to move the election” in response to his idea.
“No, Mr. President,” she said on Twitter. “No. You don’t have the power to move the election. Nor should it be moved. States and localities are asking you and Congress for funds so they can properly run the safe and secure elections all Americans want. Why don’t you work on that?”
Her response came about an hour after the president mentioned the idea of postponing the election.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
The president does not have the power to delay an election. The Constitution gives Congress the power to set the date for elections.
Trump has repeatedly said that mail-in voting could be subject to fraud and has called the practice “one of the biggest risks I have.”
Trump’s Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, has previously suggested that Trump could try to delay the election but faced pushback from the president’s campaign.
“Mark my words,” Biden said in April. “I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held.”
