GOP officials are begging Trump to stop attacking mail-in voting — and warning it'll cost him the election: report
President Donald Trump speaking on the 4th of July (screengrab)

On Thursday, CNN reported that Republican officials around the country are urging President Donald Trump to stop with his conspiracy theories attacking mail-in voting — because it could torpedo the GOP in the November election.


"Behind the scenes, top Republicans are urging senior Trump campaign officials to press the President to change his messaging and embrace mail-in voting, warning that the party could lose the battle for control of Congress and the White House if he doesn't change his tune, according to multiple GOP sources," reported Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb. "Trump officials, sources said, are fully aware of the concerns."

"The impact could be detrimental to the GOP up and down the ticket, according to a bevy of Republican election officials, field operatives, pollsters and lawmakers who are watching the matter closely," continued the report. "Every vote will count in critical battleground states, they argue, fearful that deterring GOP voters from choosing a convenient option to cast their ballots could ultimately sway the outcome of races that are decided by a couple of percentage points."

Trump has spent months baselessly claiming that mail-in ballots are "corrupt" and an invitation to widespread voter fraud, and that people will steal ballots and use dead people's names. This is despite the fact that he and many of his officials and advisers have voted by mail.

According to the report, the rhetoric is starting to turn Republicans off the practice.

"Glen Bolger, a top Republican pollster, told CNN he had just surveyed a battleground state and found that three-quarters of voters who plan to vote by mail or absentee vote intend to support former Vice President Joe Biden; just 15% of mail-in voters in that survey planned to use the mail option to vote for Trump," said the report. "Bolger declined to name the state, but said it exemplified the real problems for Republicans if the trend continues."

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