Multiple Republicans have pushed back against US President Donald Trump's suggestion to delay the 3 November presidential election, saying the contest would be held as planned even as they backed his concerns about mail-in voting.
He raised the possibility of delaying the vote in a tweet earlier, drawing immediate objections from Democrats and raising questions whether Mr Trump was serious.
President Trump also said he would not trust the results of an election that included widespread mail voting - a measure that many election observers see as critical given the coronavirus pandemic.
Some Republicans rejected the idea, with Senator Ted Cruz telling reporters: "We should not delay the election".
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham also told reporters: "I think delaying the election probably wouldn't be a good idea".
US Representative Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the US House Administration Committee, wrote in a tweet that there would "be no delay".
President Trump, without evidence, continued to repeat his claims of mail-in voter fraud and raised the question of a delay, tweeting: "delay the election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"
His tweet came shortly after the United States reported its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression: a second-quarter crash in gross domestic product due to widespread shutdowns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Trump, who is trailing challenger and former vice president Joe Biden in opinion polls, had previously intended to focus his re-election bid on the nation's economic performance.
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
Mail-In Voting is already proving to be a catastrophic disaster. Even testing areas are way off. The Dems talk of foreign influence in voting, but they know that Mail-In Voting is an easy way for foreign countries to enter the race. Even beyond that, there's no accurate count!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020
New York Mail-In voting is in a disastrous state of condition. Votes from many weeks ago are missing - a total mess. They have no idea what is going on. Rigged Election. I told you so. Same thing would happen, but on massive scale, with USA. Fake News refuses to report!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
Mr Trump had previously suggested he would not trust election results - complaints similar to those he raised going into the run-up to the 2016 election - but had not so directly suggested changing the 3 November date.
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Trump has cast doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in ballots, which have been used in far greater numbers in primary elections amid the pandemic.
He has also made unsubstantiated allegations that voting will be rigged and has refused to say he would accept official election results if he lost.
Democrats, including Mr Biden, have already begun preparations to protect voters and the election amid fears that Mr Trump will try to interfere with the November election.
"A sitting president is peddling lies and suggesting delaying the election to keep himself in power," Democratic Representative Dan Kildee wrote on Twitter.
"Don't let it happen. Every American - Republican, Independent and Democrat - should be speaking out against this President's lawlessness and complete disregard of the Constitution."
US Senator Tom Udall, also a Democrat, said: "There is no way @POTUS can delay the election. We shouldn't let him distract us from his #COVID19 incompetence."
Non-partisan US election analyst Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia said the tweet seemed to follow Mr Trump's typical approach of trying to distract voters from bad news.
"Trump suggesting delaying the election (he can't do this w/o congressional approval) seems to be one of his more obvious attempts to change the subject given this morning's wretched GDP numbers," Mr Kondik wrote on Twitter.
Attorney General William Barr was asked in congressional testimony earlier this week whether Mr Trump could change the election date: "I've never been asked the question before. I've never looked into it."
Mr Barr also testified that to his knowledge, a sitting president cannot contest the results of an election if the vote tallies are clear.
