President Donald Trump defended Wisconsin Republicans for forcing an in-person primary on Tuesday and argued that mail voting is “corrupt” despite using it himself.
"Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to statewide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn't work out well for Republicans."
The only recent example of mail ballot fraud was by Republicans.
Experts quickly refuted Trump’s claim, noting that many states already use mail voting.
"As with in-person voting, the threat [of fraud] is infinitesimally small," said the Brennan Center for Justice’s Matthew Harwood, noting that "much of the country now votes by mail."
Trump doubles down:
Trump doubled down on his dubious claim at Tuesday’s news briefing.
"Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country because they're cheaters," he claimed. "They collect them, and they get people to go in and sign them, and then they have forgeries in many cases. It's a horrible thing."
"You look at what they do, where they grab thousands of mail-in ballots and they dump it. I'll tell you what — and I don't have to tell you, you can look at the statistics — there's a lot of dishonesty going along with mail-in voting, mail-in ballots," he said with no evidence. "I think if you vote, you should go."
Trump says mail voting okay for himself:
“You voted by mail in Florida's election last month, didn't you?" a reporter asked. “How do you reconcile that?”
"I can vote by mail because I'm allowed to," Trump said. "Because I happen to be in the White House and I won't be able to go to Florida to vote. Let me just say, there's a big difference between somebody that's out of state and does a ballot and everything ― sealed. certified and everything else. You see what you have to do with the certifications."
