Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed back against President Trump’s criticism of mail-in voting, claiming the the president “wants to preserve the right for Russians to have a vote.”
“I just want a presidential standard for every citizen in the United States. You want to mail in your ballot to Florida and stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Great, I am all for it. Everybody else gets the same thing the president gets. Either we’re all in the same boat or we’re not,” Emanuel told the hosts of “The View.”
The former Obama White House chief of staff criticized Trump for mailing in his ballot during the Florida primary election while currently opposing allowing all Americans to do the same.
“I know that the president, who should not be named, wants to preserve the right for Russians to have a vote here. I just want to make sure that Americans have a right to have a vote, too. So, he’ll take care of Russia, but let’s take care of every other American, too.”
Emanuel’s comments came after California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order that will send every registered voter in the state a mail-in ballot for November’s presidential election — immediately raising concerns from Republicans that it could lead to fraud and abuse.
The move is in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down a number of in-person voting opportunities in primaries and local elections out of fear of the virus spreading. California will now automatically send voters their ballots ahead of the general election.
President Trump opposes the practice of voting by mail, alleging that it is prone to corruption and ballot fraud.
“Mail ballots, they cheat,” Trump said last month. “Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases.”
The president has not produced evidence of the voter fraud he alleges.
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Furthermore, a Republican Party donor was named on Wednesday to lead the U.S. Postal Service, which President Donald Trump has criticized for not charging companies like Amazon more for package delivery.
The Postal Service’s Board of Governors announced it had chosen North Carolina businessman Louis DeJoy to be the U.S. postmaster general, as the agency grapples with severe financial stress due in part to the coronavirus pandemic. DeJoy replaces Megan Brennan, who announced in October that she planned to retire.
“The View” co-host Whoopi Golberg asked Emanuel about Trump’s recent move. Emanuel responded that it indicates Trump’s distrust of the Post Office and his hatred for Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post.
Emanuel proceeded to accuse Trump of joining with China and Russia to “destroy the confidence” in America’s institutions.
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“Everything China and Russia are trying to do to America is to destroy our confidence in the institutions we have and in our government,” Emanuel said, calling Trump a “pawn” of Moscow and Beijing.
“If you look really at a wide-lens view of what [Trump] is trying to do, he is undermining, whether it’s the Post Office, whether it’s the court system, whether it’s the rule of law, whether it’s actually how you respond to a pandemic, our public health system. He is undermining all our confidence in our capacity.”
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
