Trump is ‘fact-checked’ by Twitter over ‘misleading’ claim mail-in ballots will lead to fraud

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 President Trump got fact-checked by Twitter for suggesting that California’s mail-in balloting initiative would lead to substantial voter fraud in the November general election.  

‘There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed,’ Trump had written Tuesday morning. 

The president then insinuated that non-citizens could get ballots. 

‘The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one,’ the president said. ‘That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote.’ 

The president ended the two-tweet tirade by saying, ‘This will be a Rigged Election.’ 

‘No way!’ said Trump, who votes in Florida absentee. 

By Tuesday afternoon, Twitter had labeled the tweets with a blue exclamation mark prompting users to ‘get the facts about mail-in ballots.’ Another page on the social media site called Trump’s tweets ‘unsubstantiated,’ according to fact-checkers from CNN, Washington Post and other mainstream news outlets.  

President Trump was officially fact-checked by Twitter on claims he’s made about mail-in ballots. In the Rose Garden Tuesday afternoon he continued to claim that the widespread use of vote-by-mail would lead to major voter fraud 

Twitter put exclamation marks on two of President Trump's tweets, indicating that he was making unsubstantiated claims about mail-in ballots. The blue exclamation marks popped up on the president's tweets Tuesday afternoon, a first for the social network

Twitter put exclamation marks on two of President Trump’s tweets, indicating that he was making unsubstantiated claims about mail-in ballots. The blue exclamation marks popped up on the president’s tweets Tuesday afternoon, a first for the social network 

Twitter users who clicked on the blue exclamation marks were sent to a page that explained why the president's claim was unsubstantiated, including that fact-checkers said there was 'no evidence' that vote-by-mail was linked to voter fraud

Twitter users who clicked on the blue exclamation marks were sent to a page that explained why the president’s claim was unsubstantiated, including that fact-checkers said there was ‘no evidence’ that vote-by-mail was linked to voter fraud 

California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that implements a plan to send every voter in the state a ballot for the November general election

California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that implements a plan to send every voter in the state a ballot for the November general election 

President Trump spouted off about election fraud Tuesday morning, pointing a finger at California where the GOP has filed several lawsuits. The original tweets did not come with a warning

President Trump spouted off about election fraud Tuesday morning, pointing a finger at California where the GOP has filed several lawsuits. The original tweets did not come with a warning  

TWITTER’S TRUMP ‘FACT CHECK’: THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Twitter labeled two linked Trump’s tweets as ‘misleading’ Tuesday, their first ever action against the president on the platform.

They added a link to a series of articles from outlets including CNN and the Washington Post – but put their own summary at the top of the page with Twitter’s bullet-point version of why they labeled the tweet misleading.

But the company left a series of unanswered questions about the process of fact-checking including:

  • Why were these tweets selected?
  • Who in Twitter decided they were ‘misleading’?
  • Are all of Trump’s tweets checked for being misleading?
  • How can the ballot claims be labeled misleading while a conspiracy theory that Joe Scarborough murdered a women who died of natural causes while he was hundreds of miles away does not?
  • Is there a complaints process or did Twitter make the decision to label the tweets itself?
  • If it did it itself, who actually decided? 
  • How does someone who has been labeled misleading appeal?
  • Twitter claims simply to offer a platform to its users, and not to be a ‘publisher’ like a traditional newspaper or broadcaster. But they summary of its factcheck is an editorial product – so who wrote the claims at the top of the fact-checking page and how can they be held accountable?
  • Are people subject to labeling for being ‘misleading’ given advance notice to allow them to delete their tweets? 
  • Will Trump’s tweets about being factchecked also be factchecked? 

‘These tweets contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots,’ a statement from Twitter read. 

Trump’s 2020 campaign was quick to slam the move. 

‘We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media “fact checkers” is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility. There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them,’ campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement.  

The move to fact-check Trump came the same day Twitter refused to delete tweets written by the president in which he suggested ‘Morning Joe’ host Joe Scarborough murdered a Congressional aide who worked for him in 2001. The widower of the woman who died sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey begging for Trump’s tweets about this conspiracy theory to be deleted. 

While Twitter wouldn’t budge on deleting Trump’s tweets, the site had promised to be more proactive about labeling factually inaccurate content. 

For weeks Trump has said that states, not wanting to expose the voting public to COVID-19, shouldn’t be implementing full-scale mail-in balloting plans. 

The president has drawn a distinction between absentee ballots, which he said can be used for special purposes, and governors sending every American voter a ballot to send back in.  

‘I have to do an absentee because I’m voting in Florida and I happen to be president and I live in that beautiful house over there that’s painted white,’ he said in the Rose Garden Tuesday.   

Trump’s tweets came after the Republican National Committee and two other GOP groups filed a lawsuit Sunday against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had signed an executive order to use mail-in ballots for the November election. 

‘In California the governor, I hear, is sending millions of ballots all over the state. Millions, to anybody. People that aren’t citizens, illegals, anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot,’ Trump said at the White House Tuesday.

‘We are not going to destroy this county by allowing things like that to happen. We’re not destroying our country,’ he added. 

Republicans long have been suspicious that making voting easier would elect more Democrats. Young people, for instance, tend to tilt more Democratic, but are also less likely to vote. 

California was the first state in the country to commit to sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters for the November election, a move responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Democrats continue to use this pandemic as a ploy to implement their partisan election agenda, and Governor Newsom’s executive order is the latest direct assault on the integrity of our elections,’ RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.

The RNC said that voting by mail creates an opportunity for fraud. 

Republicans, including Trump, have claimed mail-in voting is susceptible to rigging.

‘No state that conducts all-mail elections automatically mails ballots to inactive voters because it invites fraud, coercion, theft, and otherwise illegitimate voting,’ it added.

The lawsuit asks for Newsom’s order to be barred as unlawful and was filed by the RNC, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the California Republican Party.

Numerous studies have found little evidence of voter fraud connected to voting by mail. Democrats say it is necessary to counter health risks from the coronavirus by helping to prevent crowds at polling places.

Last Wednesday, Trump denounced plans to expand voting by mail in Michigan and Nevada, two key swing states.  

He briefly threatened to withhold federal funding for the two states but dropped the warning after an avalanche of criticism from Democrats.   

Since winning the 2016 election via the Electoral College, but losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, the president has alleged that ‘millions’ of people voted illegally in California and that’s how Clinton had such an edge. 

There was no evidence of widescale voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.