CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer issued a correction Monday after he incorrectly stated that US troops abroad would be affected by the Trump administration’s directives concerning mail-in voting. During a segment on “The Situation Room” with Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Blitzer suggested that military personnel relying on mail-in ballots would be impacted by the administration’s actions.
“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,” Blitzer told Spanberger. The governor affirmed his statement, adding that members of the military, diplomatic, and intelligence services serving overseas depend on mail-in ballots sent to their various global postings.
Later in the program, Blitzer clarified his earlier remark. “We discussed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s directives for the Postal Service on mail-in voting. A comment I made suggested that US military and overseas voters’ ballots would be impacted by these directives,” he stated. “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 further specified that these voters are covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act. A CNN spokesperson pointed to Blitzer’s on-air correction without further comment.