Democratic senators warned that the Trump administration could deploy ICE officers at or near polling places in November, raising concern about recent comments from President Donald Trump and his allies.
The response comes after Trump said in a Tuesday podcast interview that “the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” repeating debunked conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections. He said the GOP “should take over the voting in at least 15 places,” but did not specify which states he was referring to, nor did he acknowledge that the Constitution grants states explicit authority over election administration.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a Sunday interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “this is uncharted territory,” pointing to Trump’s Tuesday comments and the administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown.
“There is a very real threat, without reforms at ICE, that you could have ICE patrols around polling stations,” Warner told host Margaret Brennan. “And people would say, ‘Well, why would that matter if you're all American citizens?’ We've seen ICE discriminate against Latino families. We've seen, as well, mixed families where someone may be legal and others not. And candidly, you don't need to do a lot to discourage people from voting.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to walk Trump’s comments back Tuesday, insisting that “the president believes in the United States Constitution.” But hours later, Trump doubled down, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “the federal government should get involved” in elections in certain places.
He added that “a state is an agent for the federal government in elections” — a claim the president made last summer when he vowed to sign an executive order bringing “honesty” to the midterm elections. In response, critics have noted that Section 4 of Article 1 of the Constitution states: "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof."
Warner and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also raised alarm about the presence of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard at the FBI’s raid of an elections facility in Georgia. The administration has defended her role in the operation, with Gabbard telling lawmakers Monday that Trump personally asked her to be on site for the raid even though she has no domestic law enforcement authority.
But Trump appeared to contradict that explanation on Thursday, explaining that Attorney General Pam Bondi insisted Gabbard attend the raid. Hours later, a spokesperson for Gabbard’s office said both Bondi and Trump requested Gabbard’s presence, writing in a now-deleted social media post, “Two things can be true at the same time.”
Schiff said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that “we have to prepare for the worst,” adding that Republicans in Congress were unwilling to stand up to the president.
“I think he intends to try to subvert the elections. He will do everything he can to suppress the vote,” Schiff told host Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And if he loses the vote — and I think the Republicans now expect they'll get a real drubbing in the midterms — he's prepared to try to take some kind of action to overturn the result.”
Trump’s call to “nationalize” elections largely fell on deaf ears in the GOP, with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune throwing cold water on the idea last week.
But MAGA commentator Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist and close ally of the president, urged Trump to follow through on his threats, pledging on Tuesday: “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November.” Bannon went one step further on his podcast on Wednesday, calling on Trump to send U.S. Army troops to polling sites in addition to ICE agents, despite the fact that federal law prohibits such a deployment.
Democrats considered including a requirement banning ICE agents from polling sites in their list of demands for reforms to the Department of Homeland Security but ultimately decided to omit it.
David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said Sunday on CBS that the courts would likely block any effort by Trump to “nationalize” elections, pointing to a recent ruling by an Oregon judge blocking the Justice Department from accessing the state’s voter rolls.
Becker also called attention to a racist video posted to the president’s Truth Social account depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, sparking outrage from bipartisan lawmakers. The first segment of that video included a minutelong segment repeating debunked conspiracy theories about unproven fraud allegations connected to voting machines in 2020.
“This is a very common methodology for those that are spreading lies about the elections to throw everything against the wall and see what sticks,” he said in an interview with Brennan. “The rest of that video — in addition to the ending — was troubling, because it was a lot of disinformation, just blatantly false.”
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