A miracle aljazeera revisits the men once celebrated as National Bureau and asks how this ordeal changed their lives chilean miners after the rescue on the jersey. Could the u. S. President ial election be delayed donald trump is criticised for suggesting a spawning the vote in november but could mail in ballots and the coronavirus pandemic spoil the result this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program on iran can the u. S. President ial election is planned to happen just over 3 months from now with the number of corona virus infections still rising in the worlds worst affected country many states are making postal voting easier so americans wont need to queue polling stations but donald trump says the mail in ballots will lead to fraud without providing any evidence the president s tweeted about wanting to delay the election but even his republican supporters are joining democrats to condemn the idea can really help it has more from the white house. Even by his own standards his tweet was nothing short of astonishing on thursday u. S. President donald trump suggested the november president ial election should be postponed alleging potential fraud associated with mail in voting truck tweeted delay the election until people can properly securely and safely vote the president has no Legal Authority to change the election date leading even members of trumps own Republican Party in congress to scoff at the prospect. Well never in the history of the country through wars depressions and the civil war are we ever really. And will find a way to do that again this november 3rd no way should we ever not hold an election from claims that voters identity cant be verified and that a voter my cast more than one ballot i dont want to delay i want to have the election but i also dont want to have to wait for 3 months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesnt mean anything this was going to happen see this common sense so were asking for a lot of trouble and no do i want to see a day change no but i dont want to see a crooked election but President Trump may have had another motive for his incendiary tweet up ending negative News Headlines its been another week of gloomy economic numbers for a president hoping to cruise to reelection on a Strong Economy now a blitter aided by business shutdowns caused by cold it 19 poll numbers are also not trumps favor most show him trailing the Presumptive Democratic president ial nominee joe biden by double digits on thursday will biden didnt address trumps push to delay the election he did blame trump for the historic job losses that have left more than 20000000 americans without work. Because trump so badly mishandled provirus and caused this spiral thats occurred there is no money to be able to keep necessary people employed its not the 1st time trump has expressed reservations about the ad coming president ial election earlier this month he said he may not accept the results of the november poll can you give a direct answer you will accept feel like i have to see you i have to see a lot now can you just say yes im not going to say no and i did last time either with less than 95. 00 days until election day the president suggestions are causing consternation for an already easy electorate looking to uphold the american tradition of a peaceful transfer of power can really help get aljazeera the white house. Lets introduce our panel in washington d. C. Adam goodman a Republican Party strategist in doha clyde wilcox professor a government at Georgetown University and also in washington Simon Rosenberg president of the new Democrats Network think tank a welcome to you all lets begin in washington d. C. With adam goodman lets make absolutely clear that the president can actually delay this election unilaterally he doesnt need congress hes unlikely to get congress because its controlled by the democrats however it does beg the question what is the president s strategy why does he keep bringing up this idea that he might not leave office if the result doesnt go his way human thinking about delays what is the strategy here all seems very confusing well it starts with the idea that upwards of 4 out of 10 americans already distrust at the final election result in any election is accurate. But the president i think is not using the right word he keeps focusing on the word fraud which is i think a tough thing to prove with mail in ballot which is going to be at record absolutely record levels. This time its really the word incompetence for the 1st time in American History were going to have an avalanche of mail in ballots in many states that are not used to anything more than 102025 percent coming that way that are going to have to be handled expertly the 1st time out often with new systems that theyve never used before and depending on something that they dont control the United StatesPostal Service so i think the were likely outcome in a close election is going to be a lot of contention built around the fact that we are for the 1st time having to handle this is massive mailing in terms of validating as opposed to the more traditional method of showing up at the polls which obviously has been impacted by the pandemic i mean out of you do say that he had the president doesnt control the Postal Service yet has absent yakker but the head of the Postal Services is louis one of. His key supporters and somebody who actually has had the time to be able to get this right this fools into the president s. Full pollock right this is his fault well yes and no youre absolutely right that this person who has the United StatesPostal Service is a trump appointee but i dont think anyones going to blame the head of the u. S. Service if theyre having to deal with. Again a massive mouth and im president not a mail in ballots at a time of the pandemic where their own labor resources are stretched and and again my point here is that no one with a new system right out the box gets everything right and i really worry most for this country in terms of what would happen in a close election i was there with Katherine Harris back in the 2000 recount in florida the one thing we couldnt control the one thing that just never quite added up for a lot of americans was the fact that in florida that year it was darn close and our election systems in america yet arent yet good enough frankly to be able to give people confidence complete confidence and a close result that that is the actual and final result so in Rosenberg Biden is leading in the polls by a significant amount of the economy seems to be tanking in the us the president s looking for destruction right well i think whats hope is only a distraction i mean i think that the growth the concern in the u. S. Is that the president in his moment of desperation is would take steps that would be antidemocratic that would prevent there from being a free and Fair Election and a legitimate transfer of power i mean i think that we you know hes got an awful tarion impulse in him and i think that you know the issue of the post office is a very good example post office isnt being stretched across i was actually has very little volume right now theres very little mail happening in america because of the economic downturn. The republicans have refused to fund the post office this year in order to weaken it to make it harder for us to actually conduct you know action this is a purposeful strategy come. From the white house and hes and it looks as if the president is actively trying to undermine both the idea of the legitimacy of the election and the ability for us to carry out an election a time of crisis this mail balloting is not a new thing in america its been around for very long time president actually talks about the import of absentee ballots which he uses and which virtually his entire senior staff use when they vote its just that the system the president hasnt prepared the country for the kind of election that we need to conduct this time because of coban the idea that its a smart thing to gather everybody to vote in person when theres a legitimate alternative is just its ridiculous and so i think the greater concern just to summarize is that the president seems to be toying with things that would allow the him to prevent us from having a pretty and Fair Election and a legitimate transfer of power who were to lose the election. Could wilcox im going to come here in just a 2nd but i dont goodman is shaking his head there in washington d. C. Rosenbergs comments why why why the disagreement i respect simon greatly and some of the points hes making are valid the one it is in is a United States service its been a mess for a long time and i talked to talked to a lot of the election supervisors around the country is im very interested and how prepared are are not prepared they are for this election i can tell you almost universally theyre worried that theyre not going to get it right when i say get it right theyre not going to be able to handle something that never had to face before and already in the primary season this Campaign Season weve seen examples of tens of thousands of uncounted ballots or ballots that came and supposedly too late to be counted in primaries so what is there to lead us to believe thats going to be any different when they value most of those coming in by mail are going to be at 8 you know 2 or 3 times greater than what weve seen in the primaries and i can just come out as one of the late because i just. 95 percent of the elections that have been conducted this year have been conducted without any problems in this in coded in this environment this is just the reason that were struggling because donald trump is trying to prevent us from having a free and Fair Election because he knows hes going to if there is a free and Fair Election hes going to lose badly and i think the problem that we face in america now is that the worse the president s poll numbers get and they continue to get worse and it looks like this could be a wave and landslide election for the democrats the more incentive he has to cheat or to interfere like he did privately in the 2016 election with his work with the russian government in the intervention of the f. B. I. We already have a history of there being outside extraordinary interference in our elections and i think that the president could have taken this whole series of steps to have made this far easier and in fact hes done the exact opposite. Our hope is that you know we are going to continue to work in this next emulous round of this economic package you get the post office only funded to give it the resources it needs not the election properly and i think the big tell will be isnt the republicans continue to to im denying the post office the money it needs to do its business thats that thats i think the great task for the president if he really wants are free and Fair Election on the post office the way its supposed to be funded if he doesnt its clear that hes trying to interfere and prevent us from adding the kind of action that we need a cloud will coax and. This is a very extraordinary election in many different ways not just about the post office there is this allegation as off guess on rosemary brought up of russian into ferentz within the election itself this is a very challenging election on a number of reasons i dont goodman actually said that you know americans simply dont trust the Election Results anymore as a result of all of this is this perhaps the most difficult election in recent history oh yes absolutely but i want to emphasize that one of the reasons that people dont trust the election help comes and its disproportionately republicans is because donald trump keeps saying these things like massive fraud like the chinese will be mailing in ballots this is a time when as a country we could do this its july so yes the post office is you know has problems but we could fund it we could get it ready yes many localities are not used to it but we have 4 months to help them get ready to handle this right so if we believe that are free and Fair Election theres plenty of time but the president really needs to stop undermining the legitimacy i think many people including many republicans are afraid is simply going to reject the outcome of the election and say fraud this and fraud that refused to step down but voting by mail weve been doing it for a long time we know how to do it it will overwhelm some localities but we have time to get them ready. Goodman clyde wilcox makes a very good point you know there is time to get all of this ready but its the president himself that keeps talking this up hes even facing dissent from his own party voices key voices within his own party same to him that this is not the way we should be holding this election. What is going on there what is the strategy for him is it scare tactics well i hope not and i dont agree frankly with the president and some of the writer is sometimes a challenging the authenticity of our democracy and says i dont i think what hes trying to do is to prepare for a battle in the battle will happen frankly after the election itself meaning if its if its a close election it will happen in state supreme courts it will also be happening the u. S. Supreme court if there are a lot of issues that are raised about the process in the county ballots get rid of the word drop this could be on fraud its a say theyre trying Election Department are trying their best to get it right but theyre just overwhelms and say there are close results especially in the key swing states like pennsylvania North Carolina and my home state of florida if that happens that the verdict is then going to go into Court Challenges and state supreme courts and ultimately to the Supreme Supreme Court the United States which means and with ballots being counted still well after election day we might not have a sense of a verdict for a number of weeks and those are the weeks i worry about the most i hope that simon and clive both would agree that insert uncertainty and an election postelection is maybe the biggest threat of all that we face moving forward if in fact thats how this election comes down and we have been having full i mean lets talk about the 2000 election the recount the hanging chads the very confusing election that took place that it did turn into a court battle clyde i want to bring you in head is the american courts system able to cope with i know though one of these very close contested results. You know what before the election i was in uganda and the young legislators i was bidding with asked me what they should do if they had a close election and the United States had an official position that we advised people and that was to take all the time you need to count very carefully to get both parties to agree to the results right and so we should have counted florida the entire state right we should have counted actually new mexico which was also very very close and maybe even wisconsin wisconsin in mexico went for gore but you know bush couldve won in a recount we didnt do that we suit each other until we ran out of time and so i do agree that you know the end certainly might be a problem but the way to solve an uncertainty is not to go to could be suing each other constantly is just to agree in advance lets make sure we count all the birds and i mean this is not that hard if if the leaders of both parties would say we know this is going to be a problem we dont want to have the greatest crisis you know in modern times you know we could pitch in the resources or we could figure this out i mean but isnt that the nature clyde of american politics and is glad its oriel n. H. L. It is effectively 2 candidates swinging at each other i think it was james baker that said that in the 2000 recount that this was a street fight for the American Election thats how he described it its just the nature of american politics right another have to be in so it wasnt 2000 and in both candidates were making really arguments they should not have been making so al gore has saying i want to recount only these 2 counties and george bush was saying im ahead right now lets stop counting right where we should have been saying lets count florida lets count wisconsin lets go out new mexico. Some rosenberg is there of is there a fulton american the american electoral system is it just seemed complicated it is one of the most complicated democracies on the planet maybe its time to simplify it. Its a. Its a tough question i mean our election system is so decentralized its country. You know the listen lets lets hope that i mean as of today this is not going to be a close election and i think that thats actually a significant thing to keep in mind because it creates a structure an incentive structure for the president to do extraordinary things that kind of disrupt the current course of events and whether that was his well thought terry in internet intervention in portland tension in seattle over the last week or his Statement Last night yesterday about potentially delaying the election i mean i think its really important to recognize that one of the most important republican Legal Advisers in the country somebody whos been very close this administration worked very closely called for the president s impeachment and removal over the statement he made yesterday about delaying the elections and there was alarmed throughout the entire Republican PartyMitch Mcconnell and leader mccarthy came out immediately and said no were going to have our election on earth so i think yesterday the Republican Party written large started raising the concerns about the president s current state of mind and his intentions and raising you know sort of warning him that hes got a cool it on his willingness to challenge the system and i think look i think what weve learned just to summarize our democracy was more fragile than we understood that mark in dollar terms time in offices shown us that many things that we thought were sacrosanct were actually norms instead of rules and that weve seen a dramatic weakening of the American Democratic system lets hope this election. Isnt close lets hope theres a decisive outcome i think there will be things continue the way they are and that you know the real challenge i think after the election is that will the president on Election Night i think the fear that we all have on the democratic side is that on Election Night because of. The number of absentee ballots that on Election Night the president declares victory and tries to deal with gena minds any counting that takes place afterwards because democrats are going to be using now far more than republicans will be because the president s been we already have some time now would like to bring in how tim goodman had the 2 points id like to address with you firstly was that a wake up call full publicans when this tweet actually came out today did they become worried and whats your response to us i mean outside yeah it was a wake up on i agree with simon terms you know the criticism i think deserved in terms of some of the rhetoric that the president is. But what simon is saying basically is that this election is over hes way behind and this you know the democrats only worry now is that hes going to claim victory election day thats thats i dont agree with that at all i think what were looking at is potentially a very close election right now the election is donald trump versus coke that is i mean donald trump 1st joe biden yet and i think that can change a lot of things about the end of the day the bottom line is that americans have to feel confident in the final result and the biggest job creator in the political industry today just so everyone understands this arent Campaign Managers or Media Consultants or pollsters it is lawyers both sides are laura gloria rain up like crazy right now anticipating that on november 8th we might have just the beginning of the election in a way as a city that could wilcox is learning up a small thing a healthy thing for the us election system for america generally. Well its a smart thing to do for both sides because of one side is lawyering up the other side obviously has to do it but i sincerely hope that this doesnt come down to a series of lawsuits and trying to challenge ballots and so forth across a series of states i think given donald trump character i really hope its not a colossal that he did it with a different kind of president that if romney was president someone else that a close election fine but without terms character really worry that if its a close election he will. Do everything he can to stay in power we are running out of time but would like tell us all 3 of you this question actually we do talk about a close election a lot but the president and ill begin with the other good in the president s well within his rights if it is a close election to do whatever he feels to do take to make it fair and to get a victory for somebody absolutely and having gone through the florida recount i think im the only one program that actually was there on the ground going through this trip 37. 00 days i think it was youre trying your best in it in kind of an environment of uncertainty to try to get to a result that you think is appropriate and frankly in helping the secretary of state that point Katherine Harris you got a lot of reputational hits i think undeservedly in that in that situation we we as a group had one mandate and this we hard maybe for partisans understand we wanted to get it right clyde this is just part of the american politic political system then presents well within its rights this is you just have to suck up well he is well with it is right to challenge comes that are that are questionable but hes not well within his rights to refuse to accept the outcome of the election hes not well within his rights to try to deal with general myers the outcome he is not well within his rights to use authoritarian means to win so sure he can lawyer up and challenge thats thats within his technical runs but. There are limits to what a president should be should do if he loves his son and are you worried that if it is a very close election or even if its not a close election but dont trump refuse to leave office that youre going to be seen as going after the president of the United States of america the Democratic Party going to be seen as soul loses. No i mean i think thats an i think these are all very complicated and difficult questions and i think that you know we the Democrat Joe Biden is obviously conducting themselves or most integrity and honor during the Selection Process thats something well continue to do i think the country has made their judgment about donald trump they know who years they dont want him to be in office any longer they dont trust him they know that hes capable of legal and from mary x. Ph and Everything Else and so i dont think he has a strong leg to stand on i dont i dont think that the public is going to was and kind of a little less so that way to interfere with the normal democratic processes and i think in some funny way we may end up happening over the last few days is that i think hes going to drive turnout were going to have very very high turnout in this election i think there could be a huge overwhelming rejection of the president and im hopeful that you know that we dont have to get to the point where there is a contest where there were the within a few days of the election the outcome is so clear that the country begins to move on to the next phase just over 3 months to go for any tweets to come and plenty electioneering still to go thanks to all our guests adam Goodman Clyde Wilcox and Simon Rosenberg and thank you for watching if you say the program again any time by visiting a website which is their adult home and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter we are at a. J. Inside story from me in wrong and the whole team here and by for now. The u. S. Is the richest country in the world yet it still doesnt have a universal Health Care System ill be asking why not to influential republican lani trend from top democrat bob dole say it in a special edition of head to head in 68500 a year we would save under medicare reform study this doesnt happen in canada from all spain the full story if people dont die because they cant afford insulin well they die because they cant get access to care head to head on algis iraq. 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Widening the next in the crackdown on hong kong activists china orders the arrest of 6 prodemocracy protesters in exile. Clay watching aljazeera live from doha with me for the backdoor also ahead. A look at a church that we very very thick dark President Trump puts pressure on the Chinese Company behind a Popular Video up in the u. S. Mexico agrees a multibillion dollar deal for International Assistance as it records the worlds a furred highest coronavirus