Trump Suggests Do-Over In NYC Congressional Race Due To Delays

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — President Donald Trump on Thursday used the Upper East Side's June congressional primary election to advance a baseless claim that the use of mail-in ballots enables voter fraud, and suggested that the election be held again.

Results from the 12th District Democratic primary between incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney and challenger Suraj Patel were delayed for weeks due to delays in distributing the ballots to voters and inconsistencies in processing the votes.

Maloney was certified as the winner Aug. 4, leading Patel by about 3,500 votes, but Patel did not concede, vowing to press on with a lawsuit seeking to reinstate thousands of absentee votes that were rejected in the district. Following a federal judge's ruling, the city's Board of Elections announced Aug. 11 that it would begin to canvass absentee ballots that had been sent without postmarks.

Earlier this month, Trump suggested that the 12th District election be held again, and he repeated that claim Thursday in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity.

"They should do that election over again in Manhattan," Trump said. "It's a disgrace, that election."

In the interview, Trump criticized Maloney, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, as "not a very good" representative, and said she "should not be allowed to accept that position."

"They declared her a winner over a guy that's right now looking around saying, what happened? He thought he won," Trump said.

In a statement, Maloney condemned Trump for "yet again using NY-12 to try and undermine confidence in our election process with baseless conspiracy theories and outright lies."

"It's just another example of how incapable he is of being President, and why we must defeat him and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November," Maloney said.

The Patel campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

For months, Trump has sought to delegitimize mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it is unreliable and part of a Democratic plot to "steal the election."