House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the November general election “must” go as planned after Joseph R. Biden made the unfounded claim that President Trump will try to delay it.
“I know there’s a danger and people are scared, but we must and we will [have the election],” Mrs. Pelosi told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
The California Democrat was responding to comments made Thursday by Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who claimed Mr. Trump thinks the only way he can win the election is to stall it “somehow.”
“Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held,” the former vice president said during an online fundraiser. “That’s the only way he thinks he can possibly win.”
Mr. Trump does not have the authority to delay the Nov. 3 election and has never stated a desire to do so.
“Those are the incoherent, conspiracy theory ramblings of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality,” Tim Murtaugh, communications director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement Friday. “President Trump has been clear that the election will happen on November 3.”
Still, Mrs. Pelosi was asked to weigh in on Mr. Biden’s claim.
“[Mr. Trump] has done so much to undermine our democracy, to undermine our rights, dishonoring the Constitution, undermining the integrity of our voting process, denigrating our newcomers to our country, just degrading our environment, our values, and the rest,” she said.
“So he has done a lot to undermine who we are as America, but the fact is, we cannot allow him to do that to our democracy,” she added. “That will not happen. And God willing, maybe some Republicans might even stand up for our country, our Constitution, and our democracy as well. I think they will.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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