With only a little over a fortnight into the New Year, US President Donald Trump has put forth the notion of skipping the midterm elections twice!
Trump's latest notion of cancelling the mid-term elections was discussed when he expressed concerns that Republicans would lose ground during the midterms. He was quoted as saying in an interview with Reuters that "we shouldn't even have an election", referring to all that has been accomplished by the Trump administration.
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Trump is 'joking'
However, when reporters asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about this on Thursday night, she indicated that Trump was "simply joking". Leavitt added: "He was saying 'we're doing such a great job… maybe we should just keep rolling.' But he was speaking facetiously."
One of the reporters followed up on the President's earlier remarks regarding Democracy and asked whether Trump thought that it was "funny" to speak about cancelling elections. However, Leavitt rebuked the reporter for taking the matter way too "seriously".
Trump actually mentioned the possibility of cancelling elections first in his address to House Republicans on January 6 at the Kennedy Centre while they had gathering to prepare agenda for the year ahead. He called out the Democrat party for having "the worst policies" and asked "how we have to even run against these people".
"I won't say cancel the election, they should cancel the election, because the fake news would say, 'He wants the elections canceled. He's a dictator.' They always call me a dictator," he claimed and added that if the Republicans don't win the midterms, the opposition will "find a reason to impeach" him.
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This is not the first time
While federal law does not allow the president to delay or cancel congressional elections, Trump has proposed delaying the presidential elections in November of 2020. In July 2020, Trump suggested that a delay should occur.
