President warns against mass mail-in voting, says he does not want to delay election

President Trump on Thursday expressed concern that mass mail-in voting could create a scenario in which the 2020 election results remain in limbo for a protracted time period and fraud could abound.

The president earlier on Thursday raised the issue on Twitter, appearing to question whether there should be some sort of election delay. As he did in his tweet, the president during remarks at a White House press briefing drew a distinction between absentee voting and mass mail-in voting.

"With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history," Trump tweeted. "It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

While communicating his concerns, Trump said he does not want to see a delay in the 2020 general election. 

"But I also don't want to have to wait for three months and then find out that the ballots are all missing and the election doesn't mean anything," he explained while responding to a press question. "That's what's going to happen, Steve, that's common sense. And everyone knows it. Smart people know it. Stupid people may not know it. And some people don't want to talk about it, but they know it."

During the press conference, the president called for national reopening, but emphasized the need to protect those most susceptible to being harmed by the coronavirus.

"The scientific path forward is to protect those at highest risk while allowing those at lowest risk to carefully return to work and to school with appropriate precautions," he said.