President Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to make dangerously unfounded claims about the legitimacy of the November presidential election by attacking Nevada’s governor and claiming the state will “cheat on the ballots,” warning with no evidence whatsoever that the election will be “rigged.”
“He’ll cheat on the ballots. I have no doubt about it,” Trump said in a call-in session on “Fox & Friends,” referring to Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). “You’re gonna see something with these ballots. You’re gonna see corruption like you’ve never seen. You’re gonna see a rigged election.”
Trump continues to cast doubt on voting by mail, which many Americans are expected to do this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has spread lies and misinformation about mail-in ballots, including by suggesting that people should vote twice, which is illegal. He also repeatedly suggested he will challenge the legitimacy of the November election.
In making his dangerous insinuations Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed several times Sisolak “is in charge of the ballots.” The state’s secretary of state is in charge of administering elections, as is the case in most U.S. states.
Sisolak has been the source of Trump’s attacks because the governor called Trump’s decision to hold an indoor rally Sunday in Las Vegas — violating the state’s COVID-19 rules — “reckless and selfish.”
“The President appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic,” he wrote on Twitter Sunday night.
Supporters were seen not following COVID-19 health guidelines, including that only a small number of people were wearing masks in a packed venue. On Tuesday, Trump claimed he held the indoor rally because Sisolak rejected the campaign’s suggestions for outdoor sites. Sisolak, like many officials across the country, has limited the size of public gatherings to help reduce the spread of the virus. Trump’s rally — indoors or outdoors — was in clear violation of the state’s rule that public gatherings should consist of no more than 50 people.
The president and his allies have routinely flouted public health guidance and downplayed the severity of the pandemic to deflect attention from his own shambolic response.
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