President Donald Trump faced harsh criticism for his tweet today, suggesting that the November 3 presidential election be postponed due to his concerns over ballots cast by mail. Both Democrats and Republicans have called him out for his words. Steven Calabresi, the founder of the Federalist Society, even called Trump’s suggestion grounds for immediate re-impeachment unless he relents.
Calabresi laid out his conservative credentials in the New York Times opinion piece. Since 1980, the Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law professor stated that he has voted Republican for decades. Among those names he cast a ballot for are Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Trump. Also, Calabresi expressed his opposition to Trump’s impeachment last fall, and he believed that Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in 2016 wasn’t constitutional.
Several people, including former Vice President Joe Biden, warned the public over the past few months that Trump wanted to postpone or cancel the vote, and Calabresi didn’t buy it. Today’s message from Trump, however, changed his mind.
“But I am frankly appalled by the president’s recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist. But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate,” wrote Calabresi.
The message that had the professor so riled up was one that Trump sent out this morning, causing immediate backlash. He aired concerns over a push for mail-in voting in the U.S. because of the danger posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
According to Calabresi, the U.S. carried on casting ballots, as mandated by a federal law passed in 1845, many times throughout severe circumstances, including the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. He expressed unequivocally that the vote must go on as planned, and that mail-in votes will likely become prevalent this year due to COVID-19. The author also noted that each state should decide how to conduct its plebiscite.
Calabresi also went even further. He urged every single Republican in Congress to denounce Trump’s suggestion. The Federalist Society co-founder also asserted that if they support the commander-in-chief’s idea, they should never be elected to Congress again.
So far, Trump has defended his idea to push back this year’s election.