Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News this past Friday that Republicans should fight Democrats regarding mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, the same way the Democrats fight, stating that the GOP has “no choice” but to “live with the system that stinks” until Republicans come back into control and make necessary changes in the future.
To be precise, Trump still believes there needs to be reforms to election processes. “The best thing would be same-day voting, paper ballots, voter ID, et cetera,” Trump stated, reiterating points he's made in public statements and interviews on this subject.
The president also attacked the mail-in voting and ballot-harvesting systems currently in use nationwide as “corrupt.”
“The system, it's not a question of being broken – the system is corrupt,” Trump alleged to Breitbart News. “It’s a corrupt system. A mail-in ballot will always be corrupt. When you go to a polling location and they want your identification and everything, the way—you can’t really vote unless it’s a legit deal. If you have mail-in ballots, nobody has any idea where it’s coming from or where it’s going to and then it travels through so many hands. Jimmy Carter came out a long time ago with a number of highly respected people and they wrote something, and the one thing that come out loud and clear is that mail-in ballots are corrupt. France had it, a lot of countries had it and they went away from it now.”
While Trump’s questioning of these issues isn't something new, the interesting aspect here is that he acknowledges that, at present, Republicans do not hold the positions they should, whether at national, state, or local levels, to be able to pass significant reforms in this area. Therefore, until such time as they do, Trump states that Republicans should continue to “shame” Democrats but recognize that the system is what it is. Perhaps more importantly, Trump stated that the GOP should be able to compete with Democrats on the battlefield of elections and attempt to beat the Democrats with respect to mail-in voting.
“You're right,” Trump stated when Breitbart News noted that Republicans can't change the rules when they're not in control. “But you can shame the hell out of people and you can shame the Democrats. The Democrats know it’s corrupt and the Democrats should want to fix it but they don’t because they do have an advantage under that system. For the time, though, we have to live with the system that stinks so we have to fight it like they do, which is your question.”
When asked specifically if Republicans should compete with Democrats in the fields of mail-based voting and ballot harvesting, where they are legal and in practice, Trump said the GOP has “no choice.”
“They have no choice. They have to,” Trump replied when asked specifically whether Republicans should pursue mail-in votes and ballot harvesting when and where they are legally permitted and practiced. He also said that Democrats should want to improve the election system, too.
“But the Democrats should want to fix it too because it's a corrupt election,” Trump declared. “Our elections are totally corrupt. The Democrats should want to fix that. They don’t because it is to their benefit the way it is now. But the Republicans have no choice but to fix it. It’s going to be very hard but the Republicans have to fix it.”
