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Americans’ support for mail-in voting jumps amid safety concerns during the virus pandemic. As Ohio holds its virtually all-mail primary Tuesday, a new AP-NORC poll finds Dems more likely than the GOP to support elections exclusively by mail. (April 27)

AP Domestic

WASHINGTON – Twitter fact-checked and labeled some of President Donald Trump’s posts as misleading on Tuesday. 

Trump responded by saying Twitter was “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Twitter, which has been Trump’s favorite platform to post unfiltered views to his millions of followers, added a warning phrase underneath two of his tweets in which the president reiterated unsubstantiated claims about mail-in ballots, calling them “fraudulent” while also predicting that “mail boxes will be robbed.”

The warning phrase reads, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” When clicked upon, that opens a Twitter “moments” page that includes news stories and fact checks about Trump’s claims.

….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

More: Republicans, Democrats push ahead on absentee voting even as Trump blasts Michigan over it

The header reads: “Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to ‘a Rigged Election.’ However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.”

“Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to ‘anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.’ In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots. Though Trump targeted California, mail-in ballots are already used in some states, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.”

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Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough told USA TODAY that the two tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots. This decision is in line with the approach we shared earlier this month.”

More: 20 Republican lawmakers file lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over new proxy voting system

The social media platform previously stated that they would start using these “labels and warning messages to provide additional explanations or clarifications in situations where the risks of harm associated with a Tweet are less severe but where people may still be confused or misled by the content.”

Rosborough said this is the first time Twitter has labeled any of Trump’s posts as misleading. 

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Trump said the social media site is “saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post……..Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”

.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Trump’s labeled tweets on mail-in ballots specifically target California, and come a few days after the Republican Party launched a legal battle to block California Gov. Gavin Newsom from sending all voters in his state mail-in ballots for the general election, arguing the move is unconstitutional and invites voter fraud. 

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The Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and California Republican Party filed a lawsuit Sunday against Newsom and Secretary of State Alex Padilla in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

More: Republicans sue to block California Gov. Newsom from mailing ballots to all voters

In response to Twitter’s decision, Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager wrote in a statement, “We always knew that Silicon Valley would pull out all the stops to obstruct and interfere with President Trump getting his message through to voters. Partnering with the biased fake news media ‘fact checkers’ is only a smoke screen Twitter is using to try to lend their obvious political tactics some false credibility.”

“There are many reasons the Trump campaign pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and their clear political bias is one of them,“ he continued.

More: Widower of late Scarborough staffer asks Twitter to remove Trump tweets, Twitter says no

Twitter’s decision to label the tweets came shortly after the social media site received criticism following a widower asking them to remove posts by Trump seeking to link his wife’s death in 2001 to talk show host Joe Scarborough, a prominent Trump critic. 

Twitter responded with a statement saying it is “deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” but indicated it would not delete any of Trump’s tweets.

The social media site has ramped up the warning labels with questionable information during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Contributing: William Cummings, David Jackson, Nicholas Wu, Joey Garrison

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