CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer offered an apology on Monday after wrongfully suggesting that U.S. troops abroad would be affected by the Trump administration’s actions against mail-in voting. During Friday’s ‘The Situation Room,’ Blitzer interviewed Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger about the lawsuit filed by Virginia and other states against President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict mail-in voting. The order had been temporarily blocked for 14 days by a federal judge.
Governor Spanberger commented on the perceived efforts by the Trump administration to intimidate voters. ‘The continued attacks that we’re seeing from the Trump administration is really just an effort to get people fearful, to get people to stay home, and, in many cases, to eliminate what is a valid, safe, secure way for people to be able to have their voices heard and to vote,’ Spanberger stated.
Blitzer added, ‘And in Virginia, you have a lot of military personnel who totally rely on mail-in ballots if they want to be able to express their opinions.’ Spanberger agreed, noting that such services are vital for military, diplomatic, and intelligence personnel overseas.
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However, Blitzer made a clarification later, correcting his earlier statement regarding the impact on military voters. ‘We discussed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s directives for the Postal Service on mail-in voting. A comment I made suggested that U.S. military and overseas voters’ ballots would be impacted by these directives. I want to be clear right now: those ballots are exempt from the Postal Service’s new rules implementing the president’s March executive order,’ Blitzer explained.
He further clarified, ‘Those groups are covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act, just to be specific on that point.’ CNN did not provide additional comments beyond Blitzer’s clarification.
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