In the United States, President Trump is facing bipartisan outrage after suggesting delaying the November election. Trump floated the idea Thursday morning at a time when nearly all polls project he will lose against Joe Biden in November. Trump tweeted, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”

Voting experts say there is no evidence to back up Trump’s claim. Five states already conduct voting almost entirely by mail: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah. The president also does not have the constitutional power to postpone an election — only Congress does. However, during a congressional hearing on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed the Justice Department can make that determination. Pompeo was questioned by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine. 

Sen. Tim Kaine “Can a president delay a presidential election?”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “Senator, the — and the Department of Justice, others will make that legal determination. We all should want — I know you do, too, Senator Kaine — want to make sure we have an election that everyone is confident in, that’s not only fully free, but validated.”

Sen. Tim Kaine: “Are you indifferent to the date of the election?”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “It should happen lawfully.”

Sen. Tim Kaine: “Right.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: “Yeah.”

Even many Trump supporters have condemned the president’s call to delay the election. Steven Calabresi of the archconservative Federalist Society wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “This latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate.”