Jared Kushner On Possible November Election Postponement: ‘I’m Not Sure I Can Commit One Way Or The Other’
In a Tuesday interview with TIME, Jared Kushner, senior advisor to Donald Trump, said he could not commit with certainty to the November 3 election date.
“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan,” he said, when pressed about the possibility of the election being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Hopefully by the time we get to September, October, November, we’ve done enough work with testing and with all the different things we’re trying to do to prevent a future outbreak of the magnitude that would make us shut down again.”
Kushner’s comment comes as theories swirl about the possibility of Trump attempting to cancel the November election. As noted by Elliot Hannon in Slate, Kushner later clarified that he was not aware of any discussions about moving the date of the vote, though Hannon remained skeptical.
“That would be reassuring, but these guys lie about anything and everything, even the things that don’t matter and they didn’t need to lie about in the first place,” he wrote.
A 2014 report from the Congressional Research Service concluded that the president and his staff could not postpone an election, even in the case of an emergency, CNN reported. In addition, the publication noted the Constitution dictates Trump’s current presidential term ends on January 20, 2021, even in the absence of a preceding election.
While Kushner acknowledged that the executive branch doesn’t theoretically have the power to unilaterally postpone the election, Hannon noted that the president and his administration have circumvented Congress previously and on numerous occasions.
“You don’t think that could happen again?” he asked.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden predicted Trump would attempt to postpone the election in a virtual fundraiser last month. He pointed to Trump’s resistance to funding the postal service and suggested it’s part of a plan to block vote-by-mail efforts that top Democrats — including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — are pushing to implement amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to Trump, such efforts are part of a Democratic-led plan to rig the election.
Trump previously pushed back against suggestions that he was planning to postpone the election and said he looks forward to November 3, when he will face off against the Democratic nominee.
According to Congressional research, only one federal election has been postponed in U.S. history — the 2018 race for the U.S. House Delegate in the Northern Mariana Islands, which was hit by a super typhoon before the event.
