Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is warning Americans that President Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues are attempting to make it more difficult to vote in the upcoming November election.
In his speech delivered at George Washington University on Thursday, Sanders accused Trump of deterring Americans from voting with his claims that there is evidence of widespread voter fraud.
“We have a president today who calls mail-in ballots a hoax and a scam. Trump’s strategy to delegitimize this election and to stay in office if he loses is not complicated,” Sanders said.
He added, “Finding himself behind in many polls, he is attempting massive voter suppression.”
Sanders claimed Trump is fostering chaos, confusion, and conspiracy theories by discrediting the integrity of the election.
Watch his comments below:
Trump's strategy to delegitimize this election and to stay in office if he loses is not complicated. Finding himself behind in many polls, he is attempting massive voter suppression. pic.twitter.com/0Vi4UpBMIs
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 24, 2020
He pointed to Trump’s interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace when he refused to say he would leave office if he lost the election.
Sanders pivoted to the president’s attacks on the U.S. Postal Service.
He claimed Trump “made clear” he wants to defund the Postal Service in order to “limit the use of mail-in ballots.”
Sanders cited Trump’s suggestion that “if we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting. They just can’t have it.”
He slammed Trump for putting the lives of Americans at risk amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“What Donald Trump is saying to tens of millions of Americans is that at a time when over 200,000 of our people have already died from the coronavirus, you have a choice,” Sanders said.
He continued, “You can either risk your health or even your life by walking into a voting booth, or you can’t vote. How outrageous. How disgraceful is that.”
His comments come just one day after Trump was pressed on whether there would be a peaceful transfer of power following the presidential election if he loses, as IJR previously reported.
“Well, we’re going to have to see what happens,” Trump said.
