With operations at the U.S. Postal Service stalling in the face of suppressed resources, President Donald Trump and his allies are continuing a campaign to sow mistrust of voting by mail only months ahead of an expected record number of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election.
The Trump campaign and administration baselessly assert that mail-in ballots are rife with voter fraud, though no available evidence indicates this.
The President's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, continued to make this claim in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, even after Meadows was confronted with the lack of evidence.
Watch below.
CNN's @jakestapper: "There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud."
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows: "There's no evidence that there's not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake." #CNNSOTU https://t.co/F6hQkaEele pic.twitter.com/g9XXgz2ZBS
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 16, 2020
When Tapper told Meadows that "there is no evidence" of widespread voter fraud, Meadows responded:
"There's no evidence that there's not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake."
It didn't take long for Twitter to use Meadows's own logic against him.
we must institute a national curfew on Mark Meadows to prevent him from continuing his streak of killing drifters and extracting their bones to build his underground bone lair, which there's no evidence he *isn't* doing https://t.co/Ba7ufmYm7R
— Seth D. Michaels (@sethdmichaels) August 16, 2020
Mark Meadows is Sarah Huckabee Sanders wearing a Sean Spicer skin suit.
I can't prove this but there's no evidence it isn't true, either.
— Scottacular (@Scottcrates) August 16, 2020
Likewise, there's no evidence that Mark Meadows isn't a shape-shifting lizard person who dines on human flesh. https://t.co/wJBfwPhrDg
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) August 16, 2020
I have no evidence mark meadows saves all his pee in two liter bottles and shampoos with it. there's also no evidence he doesn't do that, either. https://t.co/hVh9hlWA8c
— kilgore trout, new tone haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 16, 2020
There's no evidence that Mark Meadows is a werewolf.
But there's no evidence that he's not either. https://t.co/J8DseQ0Lhx
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) August 16, 2020
There's no evidence that Mark Meadows isn't an alien. Should we bank on that? https://t.co/oPXwUR0mEl
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewBatesNC) August 16, 2020
Now would be a good time to note that Trump's own commission on voter fraud disbanded in 2018 after it couldn't find evidence of widespread voter fraud.
The Trump administration has repeatedly fought expanded absentee voting measures in multiple states, despite the pandemic-induced risks of waiting in long lines to vote in person.
With dwindling resources for the USPS—led by Postmaster General and top Trump donor Louis DeJoy—growing more and more apparent, people are widely concerned about the integrity of the election.
The state of USPS discourse.
Democrats: We think Trump is destroying the post office to win the election.
Trump: I'm destroying the post office to win the election.
Conservatives: The libs have gone crazy and believe that Trump is destroying the post office to win the election
— Mike L. Goodman (@TheM_L_G) August 15, 2020
Trump says you could end up not knowing who the president is on election night, or “for years"
In case anyone was wondering about what his strategy is here with the post office
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 15, 2020
Undermining the post office threatens our ability of a safe and free election.
But it's also a disaster for those who rely on it for medicine and for small businesses everywhere. It's an incredible service people's lives and livelihoods rely on. https://t.co/PvYxc8DXsM
— Zach Kornfeld (@korndiddy) August 16, 2020
Political leaders are urging Americans to vote as early as possible to circumvent any delays in ballot delivery.
@DonaldJTrumpJr/X
@DogRightGirl/X