Thursday on the “Pod Save America” podcast, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) said President Donald Trump was lying about possible fraud in voting by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic because he believes “only wealthy people can be trusted.”

Abrams said, “We need vote by mail. Vote by mail is available in every state. The issue is it is hard to use in a number of states, so we need available vote by mail for every voter to be postage paid. It needs to not have signature matching laws that are hard, that, in fact, are disqualifying. There needs to be a clear process where everyone can have access.”

As an example of a vote by mail issues that need to be addressed, Abrams said, “Texas requires an excuse. The Texas Democratic Party filed suit today to make sure that excuse is lifted. The excuse should be—I don’t want to die.”

When asked about Trump saying voting by mail is highly vulnerable to fraud, Abrams said, “So if you remember in 2017, Donald Trump convened a voter task force. It was so ineffective at finding examples of voter fraud that they disbanded the task force rather than having to issue a report. Because the report would have said, ‘Nuh-uh, it doesn’t exist.’ And that wasn’t going to conform to his lies, to the stories he once told about the election that has passed and the election to come.”

Abrams continued, “If it is so unsafe as you all very ably pointed out, then why does he use the vote by mail system? Because he voted by mail. So did Steven Mnuchin. So is their argument only wealthy people should be able to vote by mail because only wealthy people can be trusted? I don’t think that is what Republicans want to say.”

When the host said, “I think that is their argument though,” Abrams said, “Essentially.”

She added, “I don’t think they want that to be on their bumper sticker. So what we have to do is educate people to understand it is incredibly safe to vote by mail if we have safeguards.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN