Trump Says Democrats' Demands Are Holding Up COVID Relief: 'The Greatest Fraud in History'
President Donald Trump excoriated congressional Democrats on Thursday morning, accusing them of holding up another round of economic relief.
Citing their inflexibility to negotiate a deal, Trump said a deal has not yet been reached in Congress because Democrats required funding for universal mail-in ballots as a requisite for coming to the table.
“It’s their fault,” Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, saying that Democrats held up an additional round of spending amid the country’s economic downturn amid the pandemic because they wanted billions of dollars for mail-in voting.
“They want $3.5 billion for something that’ll turn out to be fraudulent. That’s election money, basically,” the president said.
“They want $3.5 billion for the mail-in votes, universal mail-in ballots.”
Trump told Bartiromo that Democrats also demanded $25 billion be allocated for the U.S. Postal Service.
“They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he said.
“But if [Democrats] don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting,” Trump added.
The president said that in some instances, mail-in ballots have been sent to pets and voters who are deceased, and slammed New York’s mail-in voting system after it turned the state’s recent primary into a quagmire.
In Virginia, he said, “500,000 phony ballot applications” were sent to residents.
Trump also disagreed with the notion that in-person voting is too dangerous amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“They voted during World War I and World War II,” he said, while also calling for voter I.D. laws.
Trump further attacked California’s mail-in voting system, which he said is sending “tens of millions of ballots.”
“Maybe they’ll go to everybody but Republicans,” he speculated .
“We’re challenging in court. So it’s being challenged at many different levels.”
“This will be the greatest fraud in history,” Trump said of the push for universal mail-in ballots. “This will be almost as fraudulent as Obama spying on my campaign.”
Also during the interview with Bartiromo, Trump commented, “If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money, that means they can’t have universal mail-in voting.”
Talks with Democrats stalled last week with regard to another coronavirus relief package.
In response, Trump signed four executive orders, bypassing Congress to address the issues of unemployment assistance, evictions, payroll taxes and student loan relief.
Trump said he made the decision because Democrats had “stonewalled” efforts to get much-needed relief to some Americans.
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