Biden says Trump will try to delay elections amid virus

ANKARA

US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden predicts President Donald Trump will "try to postpone" November elections, after multiple states delayed primaries and caucuses due to the novel coronavirus.

"Mark my words, I think he is gonna try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can’t be held," Biden said on late Thursday during an online fundraiser event, cited by Politico.

"That's the only way he thinks he can possibly win," he added.

Biden often reiterates the presidential election can be held safely during the pandemic.

"We ought to be able to do, we were able to do in the middle of a Civil War all the way through to World War II, have Democratic and Republican conventions and primaries and elections and still have public safety. And we're able to do both. But the fact is it may have to be different," he said in an interview with MSNBC on March 31.

While Democrats push to expand vote-by-mail for the election to secure social distancing guidelines, the idea drew opposition from the Trump administration.

"Mail ballots, they cheat," the president said in early April. "Mail ballots are very dangerous for this country because of cheaters. They go collect them. They are fraudulent in many cases."

The US continues to lead in COVID-19 cases and virus-linked deaths worldwide. Maryland-based Johns Hopkins University's running tally counted over 869,100 infections and nearly 50,000 deaths with almost 81,000 recoveries.