The NPR Politics Podcast - Trump Suggests Unprecedented Election Delay. Congress Isn't Interested.

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

The president tweeted the proposal just after a report showed the U.S. economy shrank by one-third, the worst contraction in history. Legally, rescheduling the election would require changing a law that dates back to 1845.And, Asma Khalid reports from Duval County in Florida, which could support a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since Jimmy Carter.This episode: congressional correspondent Susan Davis, White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, and campaign correspondent Asma Khalid.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Jason in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where I'm about to watch NASA's Perseverance rover blast off on top of an Atlas V rocket on its way to Mars. This podcast was recorded at 2.06 p.m. on Thursday, July 30th. And we're on our way to Mars. Go Atlas V. Go Perseverance. All right, here's the show. I have always wanted to see a space rocket launch. I get nervous with them, but I guess this was unmanned, so you don't need to be nervous about that. There's nothing to worry about. Yeah, yeah, so I could see that. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress.

I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the presidential campaign. So Election Day in this country is determined by a law that's 175 years old. And it says basically that elections must be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But this morning, the president suggested delaying the election, something he alone does not have the power to do. So Ayesha, what exactly did President Trump say?

He had this tweet this morning that is full of statements that are inaccurate. Basically, the thrust of it was, he said that if you do universal mail-in voting in 2020, that you will have an inaccurate and fraudulent election um the most inaccurate and fraudulent election in in history and then he had this this question at the end delay the election until people can properly securely and safely vote three question marks of course, the fact is that the president does not set the date for the election. He doesn't do that. Nor can he change it. No, he cannot change it. It is in the power of Congress.

The reason why we are talking about this is because he is president. And the fact that he is saying this, it matters. And if he's trying to raise questions about the election before it happens, it matters. But it is also very important to say that he cannot do that on his own. You know, this reminds me that back in late April, there was this virtual fundraiser where Joe Biden suggested at the time that Donald Trump was going to try to do something like this. You know, he said something along the lines of the fact that he thought Trump was going to try to kick back the elections, find some sort of rationale for this. And I will say, you know, at the time, folks suggested, specifically Republicans, that that was just a far-fetched idea, right? I mean, I remember the response at that time. The Trump campaign accused him of just being incoherent, that this was some sort of

conspiracy theory from Joe Biden. And they called it propaganda. They said it was absolutely, you know, not true. And Trump himself said he hadn't thought about that. He likes the date. Why would he move it? And lo and behold. I also just want to note that he drops this tweet this morning, right around the same time that some pretty terrible new economic news comes out. So yes, just this morning, we had the news about the US gross domestic product. Basically, that's how we measure economic activity. And for the US, the GDP contracted over the last three months by 33%. That's the most in history since these numbers have been taken. So this is the worst hit that the economy has ever been through up until now. And that happened this morning.

And then he tweets this. And I will say, I asked the Biden campaign today if they had any additional response to what the president had suggested about possibly delaying the election. And I just got a one line response back that our GDP statement is the response. So, you know, this is one of those tweets that when the president does something like this, that's so provocative and false in so many ways, the information in the tweet is not even accurate, that it sends reporters on Capitol Hill scurrying to ask Republicans what they think about it. And so often lawmakers say, I didn't see the tweet, I didn't know about it. And this tweet was really different to me, because Republicans very quickly from the top down,

distanced themselves from the tweet and basically said that's not going to happen. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made clear that's not an option. Marco Rubio of Florida, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, one by one by one, no hesitation to say this is out of bounds and it's not going to happen. And I just think it's so notable because Republicans are generally very reluctant to criticize the president. But on this matter, very quick to condemn that comment. And we should say in the history of this country, the U.S. has never delayed its elections through all the turmoil and wars and all the things that have happened. The U.S. has not delayed its presidential elections.

It's been able to hold its elections. So this is something that has never happened in U.S. history. So I'm not changing the date on my calendar this year. We're going to keep it Election Day 2020. No worries. All right, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about some of Asma's reporting out of Florida. Until recently, Edmund Hong says he didn't speak out against racism because he was scared. My parents told me not to speak up because they were scared.

But I'm tired of this. Listen now on the Code Switch podcast from NPR. And we're back. And Asma, you're down in Florida, which I just want to say before we get into your reporting of where you are, it's fascinating to me that in this summer ahead of the election, we're talking about Florida. We weren't talking about Florida as a swing state this time last year. You know, right. People didn't think that Florida was necessarily going to be as competitive as it looks like it is right now, in part because in 2018, when Democrats did really well across the country, Republicans at a statewide level here in Florida

managed to pick up some big wins. So Ayesha, I mean, Florida is kind of now President Trump's home state. He's, you know, officially moved his residence down there. Mar-a-Lago is down there. How concerned is his campaign that we're talking about Florida at this point in the race? You know, the campaign keeps its cars kind of close to its vest and they always put forward this kind of happy front. You know, Trump says, you know, don't believe the polls. Yeah, our polls are showing that things are great. But you can see like Trump has been going and, you know, visiting Florida, not just to, you know, play golf, but holding some, you know, events there where he can talk about his message. And that's a sign that they think that this is a place where there could be some issues and that he wants to make sure, because

Florida is very important to them, that he can protect the seniors and all of that and that he can get his message out there. So Asma, where exactly in Florida are you? So I'm in Jacksonville, Duval County. And I know we were all talking about Jacksonville because we thought the RNC was going to be held here. But with or without the RNC, Duval is actually, to me, this amazing kind of recent bellwether, right? So if you look at presidential elections dating back to Jimmy Carter in 1976, that's the last time that the county had voted for a Democrat at the presidential level. But it has been trending more and more tightly, I would

say, in recent presidential election cycles. And to me, the biggest indication of that was when you look at 2016, Donald Trump won the state of Florida, but he actually did worse here in Duval County than Mitt Romney had four years prior when President Obama won the state. So what is happening in Duval that might make it more competitive for Joe Biden? And this is sort of the question I've been asking everyone, Republicans, Democrats, you know, political science professors, pollsters. And they all point to, I would say, relatively the same couple of major reasons. One is that, you know, Duval County is younger than many other cities in Florida. Young is kind of relative here in Florida, but I will say it is younger than many other cities. And we all know that young voters tend to prefer the Democratic Party. The other thing I've

heard a lot about, and you look at data from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and it backs this up as well, is that there has been just an influx of voters from other parts of the country who have moved here. And you look at where, you know, folks are moving from, you see many people from New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. And one of the things I hear from Republicans is this criticism of, well, you know, these are northern Democrats coming down here and kind of changing the culture of our county. But one of the reasons why they are moving here is, you know, Jacksonville has seen a booming economy when you talk about health care, finance, IT. And so whereas like in other parts of the state, I feel like you get a lot of older

retirees. What you're seeing in Duval County are young professionals, and often it's a more diverse population than you might have moving to other parts of the state. So Asma, what are you hearing from people on the ground in Duval? I mean, are they, you know, flocking to Biden? What are you hearing? Yeah, this idea I think of people flocking to Biden, What are you hearing? Yeah, this idea, I think, of people flocking to Biden, I think is such an interesting question, because I will say I don't meet many people in general who have a kind of passion or enthusiasm for Joe Biden that we see on the other side when

it comes to President Trump. And I think the biggest example of that is this young woman I met recently. Her name is Monique Sampson. She's 23 years old, African-American, grew up most of her life here in Jacksonville. And she's an activist. She's been really involved with a lot of the recent protests that have been occurring here in the city of Jacksonville. And, you know, for me, what was so interesting in talking to her is she was a supporter of Bernie Sanders during the primary, like many young people were. But she also just really wasn't sold on Joe Biden, she told me, until pretty recently. Before this, before COVID, before George Floyd, I thought that Joe Biden and Trump were different wings on the same bird. And now I'm not. Explain that.

In the sense of like Joe Biden's also a warmonger. Trump is a warmonger. Joe Biden also had, under the Obama administration, also had really terrible policies. But they're completely different people in the sense of, I'm not thrilled to be voting for Joe Biden. I'm not thrilled about it at all. In fact, I feel like I'm settling. For a very long time, I wasn't going to vote for him. And then COVID happened. And I was like, you know what? He sucks, for lack of a better term. But he wouldn't view 150,000 deaths as progress.

God, there's so much in that that captures so much of the moment of this election. And that one, Democrats aren't that excited to vote for Biden. They're really excited to vote against Donald Trump. And that the pandemic's been a tipping point. And I think here in Florida, you hear a lot about COVID. You know, with the COVID dynamic here, you get the sense that a lot of people know someone personally who's been affected by the virus. And I will say her opinions around COVID, I don't think are particularly unique. That when you look at the number of deaths, when you look at how severe the virus has

been here in the state of Florida, there is a recognition, she says, that had it been a Biden presidency, maybe the situation would have just been handled from a public health perspective differently. Okay, so there's Duval County, but Florida, I mean, it's a huge diverse state. And for the places that Biden might be doing well, are there other places where Trump is able to sort of juice up his numbers? Yes, there are most definitely kind of exurban counties right outside of Jacksonville, places that are more rural, places that are wider than the Jacksonville area, where Republicans have traditionally done pretty well. And to me, one of the most interesting places, actually, of all of this is St. John's County.

It borders Duval. It is known around here as having one of the best school places, actually, of all of this is St. John's County. It borders Duval. It is known around here as having one of the best school districts in the entire state, one of the most well-educated, college-educated populations in the state. And yet it is also a place where Donald Trump did pretty well in 2016. And I asked the county chairman there, Brandon Patty, about this because it does seem to kind of run counter to some of the trends we've seen about the suburbs nationally. When St. John's started developing more and the secrets started getting out about the great schools

and, hey, it only adds five minutes to your commute, ten minutes to your commute, it's safe, the sheriff's office is real good. The schools are great. Next thing you know, St. John's develops into a conservative heavyweight. And Trump has been talking about the suburbs and the suburban housewives and, you know, all of that for in very explicit terms for the last few weeks, you know, trying to make this case that he is going to protect the suburbs, keep out people who are poor, and keep out crime. So is that the sort of message that they think will play well in St. John's County? Well, the St. John's chairman didn't tell me that, but you talk to people around Duval County, and there is an assumption that, you know, part of the reason you've seen some of this growth in St. John's is because it is a wider place. It's more

affluent. And some of these law and order messages, people do feel resonate with the folks in St. John's. I mean, you know, if you did listen carefully to what the chairman said, he referenced safety and having a good sheriff's office. Those are indirect references, right, to the law and order message that we've heard from President Trump recently. All right. Well, I think we're going to leave it there for today. But you can find more of Asma's reporting on NPR.org and on Twitter. We'll be back tomorrow with our weekly roundup. And in the meantime, you can sign up for a roundup of our best online analysis at NPR.org slash politics newsletter or follow the link in the description of this

episode. I'm Susan Davis. I cover Congress. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I cover the White House. And I'm Osma Khalid. I cover the presidential campaign. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.