Former White House adviser Steve Bannon told listeners on his War Room podcast that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will surround the polls” during the midterm elections, declaring, “we’re not going to sit here and allow [them] to steal the country again.” He added, “You can whine and cry and throw your toys out all you want but we’ll never again allow an election to be stolen.”
The comment followed remarks by Donald Trump, who said Republicans should in some places “take over” the voting process. On former Deputy FBI Dan Bongino’s podcast, Trump urged Republicans to “nationalize” voting in certain jurisdictions: “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump also accused some states of mishandling counts, saying, “We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes — we have states that I won that show I didn’t win.” He pointed to developments in Georgia tied to a recent law-enforcement action, saying, “Now you’re going see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things,” a reference to an FBI raid in Fulton County. Fulton County has been at the center of several election-related investigations.
The exchange marked an escalation in rhetoric about election administration. The U.S. Constitution’s Article I assigns state legislatures the power to set “the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives,” though Congress can enact federal regulations. NBC News has explained that the Supreme Court has interpreted that language to give states primary authority over many voter-related processes, including registration and supervision.
When asked for further comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “President Trump cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections — that’s why he’s urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting.” Abigail Jackson
Federal courts have blocked several of the administration’s efforts to change election rules, preventing parts of an executive order that would have required proof of citizenship for federal voter registration from taking effect.
