LGBTQ Advocates React to Trump’s Ridiculous "Delay the Election" Tweet – NewNowNext

by Sam Manzella 3h ago

President Trump has suggested delaying the presidential election in November, an absurd, incredibly out-of-line proposal that literally no one thinks is feasible.

In a tweet issued this Thursday, July 30, Trump boldly and baselessly declared that universal mail-in voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic would result in the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.

It will be a great embarrassment to the USA, he added. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???

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Never mind that even his staunchest allies from the GOP have rejected his idea (and that tweets do not a policy make). As The New York Times reports, Trump doesnt even have the power to universally change the date of an election. Only Congress could make a decision of that caliber.

As NewNowNext has reported at length, Trump will most likely face off against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden in November. The former VP has already scored an endorsement from HRC and launched a new initiative aimed at LGBTQ voters.

In a media statement, HRC president Alphonso David denounced Trumps poorly received suggestion as a strategy to distract us from his failed response to COVID-19 and boost his own failing campaign:

The President is losing the election because of his cruelty, incompetence, and corruption. There appear to be no limits to his efforts to propagate lies about the safety of this election He has repeatedly contradicted medical experts and science, and has taken us backwards as a nation. If the President is worried about conducting the election during a pandemic, he should support the $3.6 billion in the Heroes Act to help states and local governments implement vote-by-mail and other expanded options for voting. He should be helping ensure every American can vote safely in November, rather than continuing to advance misinformation and to undermine our democracy.

Queer activists and politicians chimed in on Twitter, too:

Trumps nonsensical tweets will come as no surprise to anyone whos followed his administrations vehemently anti-LGBTQ track record. In the summer of 2017, the president issued a series of now-infamous tweets stating he would be banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.

After years of legal battles contesting its validity, the trans military ban actually came into fruition in 2019. LGBTQ advocates are still fighting tirelessly to protect the rights of transgender Americans in its shadow. All this to say, even if it the presidents tweet was just a cruel joke, were taking its implications seriously.

Brooklyn-based writer and editor. Probably drinking iced coffee or getting tattooed.

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LGBTQ Advocates React to Trump's Ridiculous "Delay the Election" Tweet - NewNowNext