California [US], August 29: Former US President Donald Trump has made bold statements about his chances of winning the state, which is considered a Democratic stronghold, in the November US election.
The Hill reported that in an interview with American television psychologist Phil McGraw, also known as Dr. Phil, Mr. Trump complained about the mail-in voting system in the state of California , accusing such an election organization of being "dishonest".
"Everything is mailed. They sent out 38 million ballots," he said in an interview that aired on Aug. 27.
Mr. Trump has long been a critic of the "ballot collecting" mechanism in some states, where one person can act as a representative to collect votes from others - often in the same family - instead of each individual having to go to the polling place.
Indirect voting became popular in the 2020 election due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic . Mr. Trump criticized this as easily creating cases of voter fraud .
"If Jesus came down to earth and became a vote counter, I could win California. In other words, if we had honest vote counters, I would win California," he said.
Mr. McGraw was surprised by Mr. Trump's announcement. California has long been considered a Democratic stronghold with no Republican presidential candidate having won the state since 1988. In 2020, US President Joe Biden beat Mr. Trump in California by 30 percentage points.
Vice President Kamala Harris 's campaign issued a statement on August 27 that Mr. Trump "has reached a level of delusion that even Dr. Phil would have difficulty diagnosing."
Democratic Representative Ted Lieu of California also took to social media to mock Trump's comments. "I'm just a regular Catholic but I don't think Jesus would come down to earth for someone who was convicted by a jury," Lieu wrote.
The Hill /Decision Desk HQ poll found that before President Biden withdrew, he also led former President Trump by about 25 percentage points in California.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
