The idea, delivered in a tweet Thursday morning, was quickly blasted by commentators -- even members of Trump's own party in Congress. But it did keep his name in the headlines.
"It's insulting to the American public to even suggest that this sacred constitutional right should be undermined by an authoritarian President tanking in the national polls to Joe Biden," wrote historian Douglas Brinkley. "From the earliest days of the republic, regular elections and orderly transfer of power have been signatures of American democracy," he added, noting that even in wartime voting dates have been sacred.
But the tweet had a purpose, John Avlon pointed out: to sow doubt in the election results. Trump "is terrified that he will be exposed as a loser," and is "willing to dismantle faith in our democracy to avoid that personal pain."
In the New Yorker, Susan Glasser warned, "this is the kind of statement that should haunt your dreams. It is wannabe-dictator talk. It is dangerous even if it is not attached to any actions. And those who think that some actions will not follow have not been paying attention. My alarm stems from having covered Russia when Vladimir Putin was dismantling the fragile, flawed democratic institutions that the country had established after the fall of the Soviet Union."
"The upcoming election is our biggest opportunity to check a runaway President," noted Julian Zelizer. But with his attacks on the legitimacy of the election and on mail-in voting, Zelizer wrote, "Trump is now going after a core pillar of our democracy ... will anyone do anything about it before it is too late?"
George Stern administers elections in Colorado's Jefferson County, the state's fourth-largest. Under state law, all voters get a ballot by mail, but they also have the option to vote in person. Voting by mail increases turnout, saves money and "delivers acclaimed security," he wrote.
Watching John Lewis' funeral, former Ronald Reagan aide Mark Weinberg noted that it was clear that former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama "believed deeply in the goodness of America, the nobility of public service, and the promise of our future." Trump chose not to attend the service, and he did not pay respects in person when Lewis' body was lying in state at the Capitol. "It was not lost on anyone who watched on Thursday that the man who lives and works where Clinton, Bush, and Obama did, disrespected a national hero and shrank from the moment," Weinberg wrote.
Biden's big reveal
Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden has been running a low-key campaign from his Delaware home. It may be all he needs to win, since the polls show him well out in front of Trump. But he will have all eyes upon him very soon: the moment he picks his running mate. He's promised to decide this coming week, though the choice may be announced later.
A possible peek at his thinking came Tuesday, when an Associated Press photographer captured Biden holding handwritten notes about Sen. Kamala Har
