Rested up after his time on his golf course in Sterling, Virginia on Saturday and Sunday and a flurry of attack tweets and Twitter rants over the entire Memorial Day long weekend, Tuesday morning found more of the same from President Donald Trump.
Instead of upsetting the widower of a woman Trump keeps using as a tool in one of his feuds, the President took aim at another Democrat lead state with claims of voter fraud related to vote by mail ballots.
While Trump remains silent on all of the Republican lead states ramping up their vote by mail efforts in preparation for November's election, he took another shot at California one of the President's favorite targets.
Tuesday morning he tweeted:
"There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed."
"The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one."
"That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote."
"This will be a Rigged Election. No way!"
While GOP lead states like Florida and Georgia will apparently be above reproach with their mail in ballots, California is incapable of not committing election fraud according to Trump.
However in the 2018 election, the only substantiated case of election fraud was perpetrated by a Republican candidate in North Carolina that eventually led to the results being overturned and a new election with a new GOP candidate being held.
But Trump's latest salvo fired at California did not go unanswered. Election fraud expert Brian Klaas called the President's claims lies.
Klaas is an American political scientist and global politics assistant professor at University College London. He is also a columnist for The Washington Post.
He is also the co-author of How to Rig An Election.
In response to Trump's tweets, Klaas posted:
"I study election rigging. I co-authored a book called How to Rig an Election. These tweets are lies."
He also provided a motive for the President's latest lies on Twitter:
"The purpose of these tweets is to lay the groundwork to reject or dispute election results if he loses."
Klaas' motive tracks with why the President would want to cast doubt only on states where he is likely to lose in November while remaining silent about states—despite their multiple allegations and substantiated issues with election irregularities—where he is likely to win.
Klaas wasn't the only one to see through Trump's selective lies about voting by mail.
People had some questions and Klaas was happy to answer.
There were no such interactions on Trump's posts.
And one person pointed out that in order to vote in an election you must be a resident of the place where you are voting.
But President Trump has no permanent residence in one of the states he votes in now.
FYI. In 1993 trump made a deal with palm beach county that Mar A Lago is a club, not a residence. He got this deal to lower taxes on the property. Anything that refers to Mar A Lago as his residence is a lie. Trump has no legal residence in Florida.
— HarryB1120 (@HarryB1120) May 26, 2020
But one person replying to Klaas tried to see things from the perspective of the President's supporters.
Why would I listen to you, an expert, when I could listen to a verifiable liar who consistently tweets nonsensical bullshit?
— Tim Anderson (@Rybug923) May 26, 2020
Five states currently conduct all elections entirely by mail—Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah—a fact Trump keeps ignoring in his attacks on Blue states' attempts to expand their own voting by mail.
Brian Klaas is the author of The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy and The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy.
