US elections to go as per schedule, say Trump advisers after President calls for delay

Rebutting the suggestion to delay the 2020 US Presidential elections due to the coronavirus pandemic, the White House and US President Donald Trump’s advisers said that the vote will indeed go ahead as planned on November 3. As per reports, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that Trump was just raising concerns about the mail-in ballots when he suggested the idea of delaying the 2020 elections and it had nothing to do with the ongoing pandemic. Reportedly, Mark was also optimistic about the Republican Party win in the elections. Jason Miller, Presidential campaign adviser also said that the elections will indeed take place on November 3. He further added that even Trump wants the vote to go ahead as scheduled.

Read: 'I Don't Want To Delay,' Says Trump After Loudly Demanding Delay In US Elections

Read: Donald Trump Claims 99% Coronavirus Cases In US Are 'harmless' As Infections Spike

Donald Trump calls for postponing US elections

Last week, Trump had floated the idea of delaying the 2020 elections. However, the idea was immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress. The critics of Trump said that the US president is just trying to distract the people from the poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic by his government.

Over the past few months, the US President has been trying to undermine confidence in mail-in balloting. Trump has often claimed that mail-in balloting would lead to voter fraud. Taking a cue from Trump, Mark also seemed apprehensive of mail-in balloting, saying that it should be handled properly.

Read: Donald Trump Calls For Postponing US Elections, Says Mail-in Voting Will Be Inaccurate

Read: Anthony Fauci Says Donald Trump’s Signals On COVID-19 Measures 'not Helpful'

The US president has been subjected to severe criticism for his handling of the ongoing pandemic. As per reports, over 65 percent of Americans disapprove of their president's handling of COVID-19. Trump has received support for the upcoming 2020 elections only from his own party and base.

Recent polls indicate that he has quite a lot of support from Republicans over his handling of COVID-19 (74 percent), while the Democrats' approval is only in single digits. The US is the worst-affected country by COVID-19, with over 4.6 million confirmed cases and 150,000 deaths as of now. A total of fresh 58,947 cases were reported nationwide on August 2.

(Image credit: AP)