Trump Threatens to Cut Funding to Michigan Based on False Absentee Ballot Claim
President Donald Trump has threatened to cut funding to the state of Michigan on Wednesday based on a false claim about absentee ballots. Trump tweeted early in the morning that Michigan’s secretary of state would be sending ballots to 7.7 million people.
“Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump said.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1263074783673102337
“This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”
CNN political correspondent Abby Phillips was quick to point out that this simply wasn’t true.
“The president is wrong here: Michigan is not sending absentee ballots to all voters in the general — just applications,” Phillips said.
The president is wrong here: Michigan is not sending absentee ballots to all voters in the general — just applications.
Other Republicans secretaries of state have done this already for upcoming primaries, but the real concern for Trump here is what happens in November. https://t.co/VonAM5w4sq
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 20, 2020
“Other Republicans secretaries of state have done this already for upcoming primaries, but the real concern for Trump here is what happens in November.”
“This is objectively nuts and the exact sort of scenario that the constitutional law professors warned about during impeachment hearings,” MSNBC’s Sam Stein chimed in, while others were reminded of what Trump told Fox & Friends back in March.
“The things they had in there were crazy. They had levels of voting, that if you ever agreed to it you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said at the time.
UPDATE
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson responded to the President’s tweet, correcting his assertion.
“I also have a name, it’s Jocelyn Benson. And we sent applications, not ballots,” Benson tweeted.
Hi! 👋🏼 I also have a name, it’s Jocelyn Benson. And we sent applications, not ballots. Just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia. https://t.co/kBsu4nHvOy
— Jocelyn Benson (@JocelynBenson) May 20, 2020
“Just like my GOP colleagues in Iowa, Georgia, Nebraska and West Virginia.”
Trump has not, as yet, responded to Benson.
