In a wild new interview on Axios, Donald Trump revealed how far his dangerous and frankly, criminal delusion (whether he believes it himself or is knowingly pushing lies) has gone about the extent of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S.
Trump’s analysis, his comparison of how the U.S. is doing compared to the rest of the world, is drawn from deaths as a proportion of coronavirus cases and not as a proportion of population, as reporter Jonathan Swan pointed out.
“You can’t do that, ” Trump told him.
“Why can’t I do that?” Swan asked.
Trump went on to have a huge blow-up about mail-in voting and absentee ballots: “In the interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Trump continued his campaign of raising doubts about voting by mail — which he has done repeatedly on Twitter and in public comments — but amplified it by tying it to the prospect of a lengthy election count.”
Said Trump: “You know, you could have a case where this election won’t be decided on the evening of Nov. 3. This election could be decided two months later. … lots of things will happen during that period of time. Especially when you have tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There’s never been anything like this.”
The truth, as Axios notes: “It is true that voting by mail is likely to expand significantly because of the pandemic. But voting by mail itself dates back to the Civil War, and 1 in 4 Americans have used it in the last three federal elections, per the Brennan Center. … States that allow mail-in voting generally have a wide variety of security measures, like making people request ballots with personal information (like a driver’s license number), unique bar codes on ballot envelopes, ballot tracking, and secure drop-off locations.”
Trump also had nothing nice to say about civil rights icon and longtime Congressman John Lewis except that he didn’t come to his inauguration or speeches: “Nobody has done more for black Americans than I have.”
Watch the full interview:
