President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to ‘nationalise’ elections drew pushback yesterday from legislators, including from a few Republicans, as Democrats voiced fresh concern that he intends to interfere with the November midterms that will determine control of Congress.
In a podcast interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino released on Monday, Trump repeated his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and said his party should ‘take over’ and ‘nationalise’ voting in at least 15 places, without detailing what he meant.
Under the US Constitution, state governments oversee elections, not the federal government, and most contests are administered by county and local officials. Democratic elected officials and voting rights advocates said Trump’s comments, just days after the FBI searched the election office in Fulton County, Georgia, for 2020 ballots, show he plans to try to undermine or perhaps even manipulate the results of this year’s elections.
“This is not about the 2020 election,” Democratic US Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said at a Press conference. “This is frankly about what comes next.”
The party in power has historically lost seats in midterm elections, and Democrats need to flip only three Republican-held districts in November to gain control of the US House of Representatives.
A senior Republican campaign operative said that it did not appear that there was an overarching strategy behind Trump’s comments.
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