Maybe one reason that Donald Trump has difficulty talking at times is that he tries to speak out of both sides of his mouth all at once. His latest misadventure has been when Twitter put a fact-check label “potentially misleading” on two out of his hundreds of thousands of tweets. Then, Trump uses his internet megaphone to attack and support mail-in voting —Â at the same time.
In a double-whammy, the tweeter-in-chief tried to kick once but hit two targets: Twitter and mail-in voting. He sent out a message about Twitter, criticizing its perceived case “mail-in ballots ” were not “subject to fraud.” Apparently, he saw no irony in sending it in a tweet:
‘So ridiculous to see Twitter trying to make the case that Mail-In Ballots are not subject to FRAUD. How stupid, there are examples, & cases, all over the place. Our election process will become badly tainted & a laughingstock all over the World. Tell that to your hater @yoyoel‘
Trump has been trying to intimidate Twitter in revenge. He threatened to sign an executive order in a plan to edit the Communications Decency Act giving the legislation platforms such as Twitter broad immunity. According to CNN:
‘The 26 words that created the internet.’
Trump 2020 Campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh spoke to NBC News:
‘There’s a vast difference between people voting absentee by mail because they can’t be at the polls on Election Day versus mailing everyone a ballot. Sending everyone a ballot — even those who didn’t request one — is a wide open opportunity for fraud.’
Murtaugh continued:
‘While we strongly disagree with the ill-intended Democrat push for more mail-in ballots, we have an obligation to our voters to inform them of what the law is in their state and what their options are.’
Trump spoke about expanded mail-in voting on Tuesday:
We can’t do that. Absentee is OK: You’re sick. You’re away. As an example, I have to do an absentee because I’m voting in Florida, and I happen to be president. I live in that very beautiful house over there that’s painted white. So that’s OK. And it’s OK for people that are sick and they can’t get up.’
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnancy has defended the president’s right to have used mail-in votes 11 times in the past 10 years, according to The Tampa Bay Times. She released a statement that read:
‘Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason. 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.’
Chairman of the Washinton County GOP Mark Hrutkay said told Reuters:
‘I had one woman, using a lot of four-letter words, tell me, “Didn’t you know Trump hates mail-in balloting?”‘
