Jocelyn Benson responds to Trump's 'rogue secretary of state' tweet

FOX 2 - Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson responded to a tweet by President Donald Trump after he said he will withhold aid in light of absentee ballot applications being set out to voters

Trump tweeted, "Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of primaries and the general election. This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this voter fraud path!"

The president later corrected his original tweet, adding the word “applications.”

FOX 2: "To clarify we are talking about Michigan Absentee Ballot Applications not absentee ballots as the president indicated in that initial tweet?" 

Benson: "Yes, we have the authority as does anyone we have it available on our website, to send everyone an application to request their ballot."

FOX 2: "I think you mentioned this in your tweet, Nebraska, Iowa and West Virginia have all done something similar under Republican leadership what makes them different than Michigan?"

Benson: "I don't know. My male colleagues in other states, who are Republican secretaries of state have been working to similarly inform their citizens about their right to vote."

FOX 2: "Is there any evidence that mail-in voting is less secure or more prone to fraud?"

Benson: "No."

Democrats are calling out the hypocrisy of the Trump's tweet. 

State Sen. Jeremy Moss tweeted, "A reminder that the Michigan Republican Party sent out absentee ballot applications ahead of our March presidential primary.  I didn't hear about this being illegal/without authorization/rogue. Because it's not." 

A group of Democrats more generally took issue with the President's job handling the coronavirus pandemic generally.

No-excuse absentee voting is now a part of the Michigan Constitution. Benson said federal funding was used with the CARES Act to help with this mailing.