Thread by @Brandi_Buchman

Ratcheting up his attacks on mail-in voting, President Donald Trump pondered openly on Thursday about delaying the November election many polls show him destined to lose.

Spoiler: He can't do that.
DEVELOPING: courthousenews.com/trump-cant-del…

UPDATED. @RepRaskin told me today Americans must be vigilant against any attempts to corrupt the November election and that includes "piercing the fog of propaganda" Trump holds up as he floats the idea of moving the election - something he cannot do.
courthousenews.com/trump-cant-del…

The inherent danger of Trump’s tweet also alarmed @NormEisen who served as counsel to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee when Trump was impeached last year.
He told me:

“Of course, as so often the case with Mr. Trump, the tweet is half provocation and distraction because he does not want to talk about today’s disastrous economic numbers, the Russian bounty scandal, or the John Lewis funeral," @NormEisen told me.

courthousenews.com/trump-cant-del…

.@moevela, attorney and former director of administration for @JoeBiden told me Trump’s latest legally baseless assertion was indicative of a “flailing political campaign.”

"This is very much in his playbook of distraction because no one in his admin. or him wants to talk about the fact that the economy is not in a v-shaped recovery the way he was touting. The pandemic took away the only thing he had in his arsenal & now he is scrambling." @moevela

To wit - Trump’s tweet arrived, incidentally, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy contracted at its fastest rate ever on record in the second quarter of FY2020.
bea.gov/news/2020/gros…

Now about the legality.

Trump does not have the constitutional authority to delay or move the election date.

And theoretically, even if Congress moved the date - there is still a catch for any president who tries to overstay his democratically elected welcome.