Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) argued President Donald Trump was attempting to commit a crime with his threat to withhold funding allocated by Congress for coronavirus pandemic response.
Trump tweeted the threat after it was revealed some states, including Michigan and Nevada, were mailing out absentee ballot applications.
Michigan sends absentee ballot applications to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020
State of Nevada “thinks” that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, “I think” I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections. @RussVought45 @USTreasury
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked Harris about a point she made earlier on the network and likened the threat to Trump’s prior impeachment charge dealing with Ukraine, for
“I just want to reemphasize that point that you made so strongly. This is in effect what the president got impeached for, isn’t it?” O’Donnell asked.
“Well, it is yet again at least an attempt at committing a crime by Donald Trump,” she replied. “In terms of the fact that it is a crime, it’s literally a crime. It’s a violation of the United States Code to withhold money from the states in a way that would interfere with people’s ability to vote. So, yes, but then we also know that the president doesn’t seem to be burdened by the laws or following the laws. So, this is nothing — this is nothing new, Lawrence.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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