Below is my column in The Hill on a conspiracy theory being pushed by presumptive Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden that President Trump is going to order a halt to the November election. This Sunday, one of the frontrunners for the Vice President slot, Stacey Abrams, was pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper on Biden’s view that Trump will use the Post Office to delay the election. Tapper did an excellent job in pursuing a direct answer and Abrams insisted it is “not a conspiracy theory” and repeated the nebulous connection to the postal service. It is a conspiracy theory and, as I stated yesterday, passing around the tin foil hats is hardly a recommendation for vice president. Most striking is that, after bizarrely insisting that this was a credible theory on CNN, NBC’s Chuck Todd did not even ask her about it in a low-impact interview. Many of us have been critical of the failure of some Trump supporters to call out the President over such indefensible statements as his disinfectant comments (and later clearly untrue denial). The same is true for Democrats who ignore bizarre or untrue statements like this one from their leaders.
Here is the column:
If there are two words that have become a virtual mantra in the media during the last three years under President Trump, they would be “conspiracy theory.” The conspiracy theory label is a wonderful device to attack political opponents. It not only suggests something is objectively untrue but that the person responsible for it is unhinged and unreliable. When Republican members of Congress suggested two months ago that the coronavirus might have come from a research lab in Wuhan, for instance, it was widely denounced as a conspiracy theory, even though some intelligence officials believe the theory is credible.
Unsurprisingly, it is a term almost exclusively reserved in the media for Trump and his supporters. That was evident this week when the ultimate conspiracy theory was voiced by presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who warned that he was certain Trump plans to delay the election this fall. It is a conspiracy theory that is utterly without factual or constitutional support, yet his warning was deemed a “prediction” in a recent article by Politico. It has been peddled by various Democratic figures and commentators for months and is all the rage on the internet, even though it should be sold as a set that includes a tin foil hat and an electromagnetic ghost detector.
Biden left little doubt of such a plan by Trump. He said, “Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, and come up with some rationale why it cannot be held.” It is just the type of thing that a crazed guy in a tightly buttoned raincoat whispers to you on the subway. But Biden was not finished. If you attended a recent online fundraiser, it probably felt like you could not change your seat as Biden grew uncomfortably close and went on to explain that it was the Postal Service which revealed the conspiracy theory to him.
Biden alleged that the administration is pressuring the Postal Service to make changes in its operations as a condition for coronavirus relief. As Biden explained, “Imagine threatening not to fund the post office. Other than trying to let the word out that he is going to do all he can to make it very hard for people to vote, that is the only way he thinks he can possibly win.” The other way would be that his opponent flees to the desert to live in a bunker and protect his mail and “precious bodily fluids.”
Let us address the mail connection. For years, Trump has been a critic of the Postal Service as being an institution that repeatedly required bailouts due to running huge deficits. He wants the Postal Service to agree to raise fees for mass shippers like Amazon before it can ask for another federal subsidy. That would have no impact on voting, including mail voting, in the election. Any change in its operations would not impact such things as regular mail this year.
Now for a constitutional reality check. Elections are managed by the states and not the federal government under Article Two. The date of the presidential election is set by federal law and not subject to an executive order. Even war or martial law does not suspend the date of the presidential election. Since 1845, Congress has mandated that the presidential election be held the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every four years. In order to change that date, Trump would have to have both chambers of Congress vote to do so.
Finally, any delay in the election would also collide with the 20th Amendment, which extinguishes the power of the prior president at noon on January 20. Even if Trump persuaded Congress to delay the election past that date, his term still constitutionally ends on that date unless he is reelected. In other words, if Trump tried to stay in office past noon on January 20 if he loses, he would have to join Biden on the subway and whisper to people that he is still the president. Of course, this conspiracy theory is tame compared to other conspiracy theories from some critics.
Yale University professor Bandy Lee said Trump plans for more than an effective coup and instead plans for a massacre. I have criticized her for calling for such nonexistent and nonsensical actions as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “putting a medical hold” on Trump. Such views are published without the type of scrutiny they normally would warrant. Now Lee is warning that Trump is using subconscious techniques to send “armed troops in the streets,” a technique she explains is used with “child soldiers.”
Lee details how Trump has been testing people for “loyalty to the laws of his mind over the laws of nature, or even impulse for survival” and “the more he abuses them, the greater their devotion grows.” Why is Trump preparing this army of millions of amoral zombies? Because she warned, “We would be mistaken to believe he will leave, or even let a losing election happen in the first place.” He is not just preparing them for his notorious brag about committing a murder on Fifth Avenue but for a “whole massacre.”
Her bizarre views were featured in a recent interview with Salon without a hint of skepticism let alone scrutiny. A professor who matter of factly described a president refusing to give up office and preparing for a massacre was perfectly sound to publish online. The media also reported that Lee previously briefed Democratic lawmakers on the need to remove Trump as being mentally ill and has insisted that if Trump were not president, his “out of touch responses to reality warranted hospitalization or transfer to a nursing home.”
Yet somehow Lee and others apparently do not believe hospitalization is needed for a presidential candidate who thinks there is a conspiracy to control the Postal Service in order to block the next election. In their minds, that is not an “out of touch response to reality.” It is simply a “prediction.” None of this will help if you encounter Biden and he is still hot on his Postal Service conspiracy theory. In that event, it is simply better to avoid eye contact, nod in agreement, and say that you use Federal Express.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates online @JonathanTurley.
Stacey Abrams is delusional. She’s been delusional for a long time. For her to make such a statement is completely in character for her. She made stupid statements when she was running for governor then when she lost she claimed voter suppression. Now the media is crowning her queen, just like they did Hillary Clinton. Now, Turley is flat out wrong when he claims Trump made “indefensible” statements about injecting disinfectants. He obviously hasn’t seen the whole exchange, which came as a result of Mr. Bryan’s briefing on how heat, humidity and sunlight kill the virus as does BLEACH, not “disinfectant” and ALCOHOL. Trump used the word disinfectant generically. The media jumped on it AFTER Lysol put out their statement. His “statement”, which was actually questions, doesn’t have to be defended because if the virus is so deadly, true medical researchers would be trying everything they could think of to treat those whose lives are endangered. Those who comments and actions are indefensible are those who make statements without regard for facts and without information that others might have.
Let’s see, I shipped a parcel from Ohio to Michigan, a 2 1/2 hr drive. Sixteen business days later, after going to Pittsburgh, PA the parcel still has not arrived at it’s destination. And Trump gets skewered for wanting to reorganize the postal service? For all the Green Dealers, how about getting the 3rd rate junk mail out of my mail box daily that goes straight to the dump?
Republicans Fight Mail-In Ballots..
Then Trump Threatens Post Office
President Trump and his Republican allies are launching an aggressive strategy to fight what many of the administration’s own health officials view as one of the most effective ways to make voting safer amid the deadly spread of Covid-19: the expanded use of mail-in ballots.
The scene Tuesday of Wisconsinites in masks and gloves gathering in long lines to vote, after Republicans sued to defeat extended, mail-in ballot deadlines, did not deter the president and top officials in his party. Republican leaders said they were pushing ahead to fight state-level statutes that could expand absentee balloting in Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona and elsewhere. In New Mexico, Republicans are battling an effort to go to a mail-in-only primary, and they vowed on Wednesday to fight a new move to expand postal balloting in Minnesota.
The new political effort is clearly aimed at helping the president’s re-election prospects, as well as bolstering Republicans running further down the ballot. While his advisers tend to see the issue in more nuanced terms, Mr. Trump obviously views the issue in a stark, partisan way: He has complained that under Democratic plans for national expansion of early voting and voting by mail, “you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”
As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a national trend toward voting by mail, experts say it can be conducted safely, despite Republican claims of corruption.
At his daily news briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he believed vote-by-mail had been abused to hurt Republicans, and “I will not stand for it,” though he allowed that mail ballots could help some older voters — an important part of his voting base. It was a slight modulation that came at the urging of his advisers.
He expanded on the idea on Twitter on Wednesday evening, calling absentee ballots “a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military, and others who can’t get to the polls on Election Day.” He added that universal mail-in voting “shouldn’t be allowed!”
In their efforts to fight expanding vote-by-mail, Republican officials are counting on a crucial and powerful ally: like-minded judges. This week, conservative majorities on the U.S. Supreme Court and the highest court in Wisconsin indicated they did not view the pandemic as cause to yield on ideology, issuing party-line rulings rejecting Democratic efforts to defer Tuesday’s vote or extend mail-in balloting.
Edited From: “Why Republicans Are So Afraid Of Vote By Mail”
The New York Times, 4/10/20
REGARDING ABOVE:
Trump’s demands that the Post Office hike rates for deliveries of Amazon shipments seems to be nothing more than a personal feud with Amazon owner Jeff Bazos. The latter happens to own The Wasgington Post which Trump considers a mortal threat.
Most independent analysts see no logical reason for the Post Office to hike its rates on Amazon-like parcels. Those deliveries happen to be the one profitable segment of the Post Office’s business these days.
The main problem at the Post Office is an onerous requirement that a Republican Congress imposed in 2006 that forces the Post Office to fully fund its Health and Pension liabilities. No other Government agency has been burdened by such requirements. Cynics believe Republicans imposed that requirement because they really seek to privatize (and liquidate) the Post Office.
what a half-ass comment. take a vacation.
Of course, Trump could not get away with that, because surely the Republican Senate would stop him, or the Republican Supreme Court, as they have stood up to him so many times before. And there is no way they will find a “contrarian” law professor to take a position that this is within Trump’s emergency powers to give him cover. And there is no way FoxNews would go along with this.
Never happen Sar, you’re right! Those leaders have demonstrated their independence and integrity repeatedly over the last several years, from protecting the Congressional power of the purse, to McConnell standing up for the dignity of his members against WH attacks, regardless of party, to insisting on maintaining the never broken Senate principle and tradition of hearing witnesses during an impeachment hearing. It’s been inspiring!
Seems farfetched, until you realize postponing the election is exactly what Guiliani tried to do after 9/11 to keep him in the Mayor’s seat longer. And Guiliani is on Team Trump right now. So who knows what sort of options they are exploring.
Nobody wants a ‘re run of Obama.
From 2018, but probably worse for Trump now:
“Americans, by a wide margin (56 percent to 37 percent), think Barack Obama was a better president than Donald Trump has been, according to a CNN poll of adults released this week. Americans think Hillary Clinton would have been a better president than Trump has been, but by a much smaller margin (47 percent to 44 percent)…”
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-americans-like-obama-so-much-better-than-trump/
Well, you have to admit that a coup by the Post Office would be somewhat refreshing. I’m bored by the same old conspiracy theories about FEMA and the CIA. 🚁 🛸🧥
I know, right? The Post Office takes over and forces everyone to stamp themselves in order to travel from one location to the next.
Nice piece Professor. And a compelling reason that Biden’s selection of his VP candidate is more important than ever.
Federal elections as undertaken must respect certain provisions in the U.S. Code, but they are actually administered by state and county governments, always and everywhere. The only circumstance in which polling might be cancelled would be if there was such disorder in a particular locus that civilian courts could not operate and martial law was necessary. In that case, they might be postponed in a particular county or set of counties, and the decision would be made by the state governor having deployed the National Guard.
This is just a stupid person’s fantasy.
Again, with proper protective equipment, there is no impediment to holding ordinary elections. Congress can provide a conduit by declaring election day a general holiday, one time only. State governments can insert a temporary provision in state codes requiring masks, social distancing, and sanitizer at polling places. No, none of our otiose legislatures will actually do this.
I’m still waiting to here ANYTHING about Biden that qualifies him to be in any public office.
US Senator and head of numerous major committees for 36 years and active VP for 8 years. On 1st name basis with industry, political, and international leaders. It is true that he DID NOT start Biden University, so the incumbent has that on him.
Conservatives and Trump supporters don’t respond apoplectically to what he says, even when it’s not perfectly stated. WHY? because the Press and the Democrats take almost EVERY comment out of context twisting and turning it into their version of apostasy screaming that conservatives are evil. We are tired of the Press’s and Democrat’s screeching and screaming in an attempt to evoke emotional and illogical responses from the sheep in the country. And we also know how derelict the Press is in reporting the inanity of so many Democrat’s statements. The Press has devolved into a disgusting arm of the Democrats and far-Lett. Everyone needs to ignore most of what comes across the airways. This is truly unfortunate but just true.
Contemporary liberals have succeeded in making liberal discourse valueless. It doesn’t need reform. It’s needs a refoundation.
Jon, the moral equivalency game was just shattered by the Trump age. It’s a relic and it doesn’t apply anymore. I mean, I guess you can go there on this blog because, well, ummm, yeah this blog is what it is. Besides, I bet Trump is floating the idea of a postponement/cancellation around right now and his staffers are countering with the points you made about the clock running out on January, 20. Trump does have impending insurance fraud to worry about without a statute of limitations card to skate, after all.
In reality, what Biden is doing is playing Trump psychology by seeking to attach a shady motive to someone just by saying it. Framing it as Trump and his administration already planning on losing (which they’d be crazy not to be planning on). Plus there’s probably plenty of back channel Washington chatter of: can you believe he actually was talking about that this afternoon?? Looks like the birther in charge is getting a bit of his own medicine.
Again, the President is not responsible for the issue of your imagination.
Again, your cliched responses land with a thud. Sort of like a watermelon hitting a sidewalk.
Pretty amusing that a woman with professional ADHD whose personal finances are a mess is being considered for the position of the President’s understudy. Her time in public office consists of several terms in the Georgia Legislature, and that’s it. Oh, and she has such grace under pressure.
You remember how a mess of partisan Democrats and fraud Republicans like Kathleen Parker and Charles Fried told us it was just appalling that Sarah Palin was the Republican VP nominee? Well, Sarah Palin had 11 years under her belt as a public executive – mayor, state bureau chief, and Governor.
Again, they have no principles, only improvisations. Each day begins anew. The past is another country, and borders are closed.
Doubly amusing when you consider the President never held any office, suffers from malignant narcissism, lies compulsively, and is a known rip off artist, tax cheat, and self proclaimed “King of debt”.
BIDEN does not what day it is, if the sun is out and does not know where he is? CNN, MSNBC, NBC and etc. they are PR for the DEM’s. Stacy Abrams she is as crazy as Biden, two jokers plus a media full of jokers.
Abrams plus Biden equals less than half a brain.
Perfect for Democrats.
Stacey Abrams is a kook, and there was no reason to question her further because she has poop for brains and would not say anything rational. In short, a really good Democrat.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
She’s been completely financially irresponsible in her private life, so that’s another excellent qualification for Democratic leadership.
Or the Presidency, going by the incumbent.
Stacy Abrams, I never heard of her, but she is a resurrected former Democrat state representative from the fine state of Georgia, evidently.
She is NOT the prolific AA porn star whose movie biography is here. That one is Stacy Adams. Repeat, they are NOT the same person.
Here is the imdb for Stacy Adams:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2806912/
Ms Adams also had a small role in the comedy “Black Dynamite” — i believe she plays the nurse in this theatrical trailer.
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi896205337?playlistId=tt1190536&ref_=tt_ov_vi
‘“Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow”
No……more likely: “Mark my words, I think Biden is going to try to kick back the debates somehow.
+1
Trump has mused about adjuring Congress so he can do recess appointments, so expecting crazy from Trump is rational. Lets also remember that Rudy (one of Trumps advisors), did suggest in 2001 that the NYC election be postponed. The Post Office delivers may absentee ballots, many of which are demographically Trump supporters, in addition to the entire election in two states. So it is not a conspiracy to think that Trump may try to push the election, even though it would fail. Also it is not a “conspiracy” if it involves one person doing one action. Biden is trying to get ahead of the game by bringing up the issue now, and getting everyone on record saying how crazy the idea is.
What’s pathetic is that you fancy this is sound reasoning.
It takes a woman, a legal scholar and law professor in Italy, to state the obvious: abuse of power by decisions of the executives
https://www.milanofinanza.it/news/finita-la-pandemia-gli-italiani-rischieranno-di-restare-esposti-agli-abusi-di-tanti-poteri-2442038
Finita la pandemia gli italiani rischieranno di restare esposti agli abusi di tanti poteri
(translation: After the pandemic, the Italians will risk being exposed to the abuse of many powers)
The problem with the ongoing apology defense of Trump by Turley is that Trump is immune to the logic, the Constitution, and any law with which he does not agree and therefore does not observe. Turley has nearly always presented such reasoning in defending Trump’s clearly illegal actions, and here he is again. The withholding of virus funding to force postage increases would be an action of prison caliber were it anyone else, except for those who have drunk the Kool-Aid.
Depends on how you define the word “is”
Aspinwall is an example of the phrase: The Constitution is like the Bible. There are so many people who are happy to tell you what’s in it despite the fact that they’ve never actually read it,.
As bad as illegally shipping guns to Mexican drug cartels (Fast and Furious)?
Prof. Turley is not apologizing for Pres. Trump, and only a Trump hater would interpret what he said, as an “apology.” I have never seen Turley defend any “illegal” actions by Trump, and your charge is ludicrous.