Trump backtracks on mail-in voting in Florida, contradicting White House press secretary in realtime

Mail-in voting 'rife with fraud, with delay,' Kayleigh McEnany says

In an abrupt reversal of his opposition to expanded mail-in voting across the country this November, Donald Trump is now touting the security of mail-in ballots in the key swing state of Florida.

"Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA," the president tweeted on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, continued to rail against mass vote-by-mail efforts in other states, claiming they have been beset by inefficiencies and fraud.

"It is rife with fraud, with delay, and that is what the president stands firmly against," she said, after reading off reports from Nevada about issues with vote-by-mail delivery systems there.

"There's a difference [in Florida]," Ms McEnany insisted. "The president repeatedly makes a difference," she said.

Ms McEnany clarified that when Mr Trump said the mail-in voting system had been "cleaned up" in Florida, he was referring to a settlement between a consortium of voting rights groups and state officials to expand early voting and voting education initiatives while also taking steps to secure the results of the election.

Both progressive voting rights groups and Republican politicians in the state claimed victory after the settlement.

Despite the settlement, the vote-by-mail process in Florida does not appear to substantially differ from the systems in other states that Mr Trump and his press team have antagonised.

Ms McEnany denied that the president's sudden shift in tone on Florida mail-in ballots has anything to do with his flagging support in the key swing state, where most recent polls show him trailing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Nearly 4m Floridians have requested mail-in ballot forms for the state's 18 August primaries.

While the Trump administration has continued to challenge the integrity of mail-in voting systems across the country, it has so far rejected Democrats' proposals to bolster election security.

The coronavirus response package House Democrats passed in May includes $3.6bn to send to states to help them secure their election processes and expand mail-in voting. Senate Republicans' bill negotiated with the White House does not include any such money.

"Perhaps now that Donald Trump has endorsed mail-in voting, Senate Republicans will actually fund it, along with early voting and safe polling locations," said Sean Eldridge, president of Stand Up America, a progressive voting rights group that has been advocating for billions of dollars in federal funding for election security.

Instead, the administration appears satisfied to cast doubt over the results of elections instead of spending federal resources to prevent delays in counting and other inefficiencies.

The president has consistently bashed several states' initiatives to roll out expanded mail-in voting to accommodate public health concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, he suggested delaying the upcoming presidential election in order for people to vote “safely,” claiming without evidence that mail-in ballots would lead to fraudulent results. Recent polling has shown Mr Trump trailing Mr Biden by several percentage points both nationally and in key battleground states.

“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???” Mr Trump tweeted.

Congress holds the power to set the dates for federal elections, not the president.

Not a single lawmaker has signalled support for the president's proposal to move the election back.