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JUDY WOODRUFF: President Trump held a press briefing at the White House again tonight. Our Yamiche Alcindor was there. and she joins me now. So, Yamiche, first of all, we understand the president made comments about this massive explosion in Beirut today, 70 -- more than 70 dead, thousands injured.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right. President Trump took questions on that topic. And he said it looked like a bomb or some sort of attack happened in that city. But there's no confirmation of exactly what happened. Of course, there was that massive explosion. But the president said it just looks like that. And military officials are still looking into exactly what happened there.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And the other thing I want to ask you about, Yamiche, is, the president had comments on mail-in voting again.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right. The president over and over again has come out against the idea of mail-in voting. He said, without any sort of evidence, that mail-in voting would be fraught with fraud and that people would be trying to game the system. But, today, he tweeted and again doubled down on this idea during the briefing that Florida is the state that can do this mail-in voting without any issues. Critics of the president say he's trying to carve out this state because it's a key battleground state, the state he won in 2016. The president says that's because it's safe and that it's clean there. But, from what we understand, there is no evidence that mail-in voting involves any fraud. And in the middle of a pandemic, a lot of Americans are going to be trying to cast their ballots by mail, doing absentee ballot, because they're trying to avoid big crowds that would possibly have people be infected with the coronavirus. So that's -- this is the president changing his stance on mail-in voting for one state, Florida.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Because, in fact, just quickly, Yamiche, the president and others in the administration have acknowledged that they in the past themselves have been voted by mail.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: That's right. The president has Florida residency. So, he has voted by mail. So has the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. But the president still insists that people who live in a state, say, other states other than Florida, meaning Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, if you live in the state, you should physically be going in November and voting, instead of actually voting by mail, which is what, of course, a lot of Americans want to do. I should also note that the president was saying that there was fraud in a New York election. Again, there's no evidence that there was any fraud in that election. And it's clear that there are a lot of Americans who are simply afraid, Judy, to walk into these lines where you might be shoulder to shoulder with people as you're trying to cast your ballot. Of course, 2020 is going to be highly contested. And a lot of people want to take part. But if there's record turnout, there could be some sort of virus outbreak. So a lot of people are looking to vote by mail. And the president is still coming out against that, except, of course, for Florida, where he owns Mar-a-Lago and where he vacations a lot.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It's an issue that we are certainly going to continue to be looking at for the weeks and the months to come through this election. Yamiche Alcindor reporting for us tonight from the White House. Thank you, Yamiche.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks so much.
