Trump calls on Republicans to ‘nationalize’ future elections

CNN

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Samantha Waldenberg, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting” in an interview that aired Monday, as his administration pushes to overhaul election ground rules ahead of the pivotal midterm races this year.

“The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump told Dan Bongino, the former deputy director of the FBI, in a podcast appearance.

The president’s comments come less than a week after the FBI searched an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, which has long been a centerpiece of Trump’s baseless claims that his 2020 loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent. The search was related to a Justice Department effort to seize election records and search for alleged voter fraud in the county, CNN previously reported.

“We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won, that show I didn’t win,” Trump said. “Now you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things come out.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Trump himself directed her to go to Atlanta for the controversial search. In a sign of his involvement and interest in the probe, Gabbard put the president on the phone with some of the FBI agents involved in the search, according to two sources familiar with the call, with one source saying the conversation consisted of a brief “pep talk.”

The White House said Tuesday that Trump was talking about the need for a national voter ID requirement when he called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting.”

“What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, adding that Trump had spoken with GOP congressional leaders about the legislation, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. “It provides very commonsense measures for voting in our country, such as voter ID.”

Leavitt said Trump’s comment about taking over the voting in 15 places was also tied to his desire for a voter ID law, insisting he was referring to states where he believes there’s been a “high degree” of election fraud.

Critics have warned the SAVE Act threatens to restrict voting access by creating unnecessary hurdles that will make it harder to register to vote and wrongfully disenfranchise legitimate voters.

Elections are run by state and local officials, with the federal government playing only a limited role. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from attempting to revamp how elections are conducted.

Last year, he signed an executive order seeking to require voters to show proof of US citizenship when registering to vote in elections and prohibit states from counting mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. While it’s been partially blocked in federal court, noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections.

On several occasions, Trump has pledged to change how the country votes, zeroing in on methods he falsely claims lead to fraudulent voting. In August, he said he was going to “lead a movement” to end mail-in ballots, and vowed to sign an executive order banning them, in addition to voting machines. He did not end up signing the order.

The president also kicked off a rare mid-decade redistricting campaign intended to help Republicans win additional US House seats in November’s midterm elections.

The Justice Department, which has amplified claims that undocumented immigrants have infiltrated US elections, without independent evidence, has sued two dozen states for full voter rolls, including personal information such as Social Security numbers and home addresses.

Some Democratic election officials have moved to prepare for potential federal government intrusion in the midterms. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told CNN late last month that he and his colleagues have discussed a range of moves, from seeking to protect voters from interactions with federal law enforcement at polling places to navigating the administration’s push for access to personal information about tens of millions of voters.

“This is now a legitimate planning category. It’s extraordinarily sad, but it would be irresponsible for us to disregard the possibility,” Simon said during the annual winter meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Democratic secretaries of state said they were reluctant to provide explicit details about their advance planning for fear of alarming voters or providing a roadmap for any bad actors. But they said their preparations were evolving with the novel risks posed by the administration.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Fredreka Schouten, Kristen Holmes and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.