CNN’s Wolf Blitzer apologized Monday after inaccurately indicating that US service members stationed overseas could be affected by the Trump administration’s push to restrict mail-in voting.
The remark came during Friday’s episode of “The Situation Room,” where Blitzer interviewed Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger about a lawsuit filed by Virginia and other Democratic-led states seeking to block President Donald Trump’s March executive order targeting mail-in voting. A federal judge last week temporarily halted the order for 14 days.
Spanberger argued that the administration’s actions were meant to discourage participation. “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,” she said.
Blitzer then told the governor, “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 with the broader point, saying, “That’s true. It’s members of the military service, of our diplomatic service, intelligence services, people serving overseas in service to our country who get their ballots mailed to them at the various postings throughout the world.”
However, Blitzer made a “quick note of clarification” at the end of Monday’s program in reference to his exchange with Spanberger.
“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. 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 told viewers.
“Those groups are covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act, just to be specific on that point,” he added.
A spokesperson for CNN pointed to Blitzer’s comments and declined to comment further.