Trump claims ballots were found in the trash — but won't say where
It’s Trump’s latest attack on mail-in voting.
Donald Trump claimed on Thursday, without providing any evidence, that ballots with “Trump written on it” were found in a garbage can “in a certain state.”
“They found six ballots in an office yesterday in a garbage can, they were Trump ballots. Eight ballots. In an office yesterday in a certain state,” Trump told Fox News radio. “And they were. They had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can.”
Trump did not explain why the ballots, which come with his and Joe Biden’s name already printed on them in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., would need to have his name “written on” them.
Trump has frequently made up stories as part of his campaign to attack mail-in voting, which states have expanded across the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed 200,000-plus Americans.
Later on Thursday, the Justice Department released a statement confirming that “a small number of [mail-in] military ballots were discarded” in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and stating that the FBI had been working with Pennsylvania State Police since Monday to determine what had happened. Only nine ballots were discovered at the time.
“Some of those ballots can be attributed to specific voters and some cannot. All nine ballots were cast for presidential candidate Donald Trump,” the Justice Department stated.
That statement was later deleted from the Justice Department website. A subsequent statement claimed that nine mail-in ballots had been “discarded and then recovered” and that only seven of those ballots had been cast for Trump.
“Two of the discarded ballots had been resealed inside their appropriate envelopes by Luzerne elections staff prior to recovery by the FBI and the contents of those 2 ballots are unknown,” the revised statement read.
From the Sept. 24 edition of Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show”:
BRIAN KILMEADE, Fox News: Mr. President, yesterday you created some news, as you usually do, one of the things you said when asked about if you lose the election will you accept the result, you said, “well, we’re going to have to see what happens, you know, I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster.”
Many think you were saying you’re going – if you do lose, you’ll never ever leave. That’s not what you’re saying, we just spoke to Lindsey Graham, he said, “We have to — we have every reason to contend anything that might be controversial.” And I’ll paraphrase, he said if it gets to the Supreme Court and they decide Joe Biden won, Joe Biden won.
Do you agree with that?
DONALD TRUMP: Oh, that I would agree with, but I think we have a long way before we get there.
These ballots are a horror show, they found six ballots in an office yesterday in a garbage can, they were Trump ballots. Eight ballots. In an office yesterday in a certain state. And they were — they had Trump written on it, and they were thrown in a garbage can.
And this is what’s going to happen. This is what’s going to happen. And we’re investigating that.
This article was updated to include additional comments and revised information from the Justice Department.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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