Trump’s former top advisor Steve Bannon said this week that “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November”
The White House has refused to guarantee ICE agents won’t be stationed around polling stations in November’s midterm elections.
It comes after Trump’s former top advisor Steve Bannon said on his podcast that “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”
And it follows chilling comments from Trump suggesting the federal government “should take over the voting” and seize control of elections from state governments.
Today, at a White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if Trump was considering posting ICE agents to polling places in November.
She answered very carefully.
“That’s not something I’ve ever heard the President consider, no,” she said. Asked to guarantee to the American public that ICE agents would not be around polling locations, she refused to do so.
“I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location come November. That’s frankly a very silly and hypothetical question. But what I can tell you is that I haven’t heard the President discuss any formal plans to put ICE agents outside polling locations. It’s a disingenuous question.”
Under the Constitution, the administration of elections in pretty much every part of the country except Washington DC and various overseas territories is reserved for individual state governments.
And for those not run by the states, they’re run by Congress. Trump doubled down on the suggestion in the Oval Office.
Asked whether he really meant it, and whether he knew that would be a pretty serious breach of the US Constitution, the President argued the States only act as an “agent” for the federal government on elections – which is not accurate.
“I want to see elections be honest, and if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me [Republicans] should do something about it.
“If you think about it, the state is an agent for the federal govt on elections. Look at Detroit, Pennsylvania, Atlanta — horrible corruption on elections.”
There is no evidence that there was any large scale misconduct in elections in any of those places in the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
He added: “These are agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else to take over.”
And asked in an interview last night to confirm he’d accept the result of the midterms even if it meant heavy losses for the Republican party, Trump said: “I will…if the elections are honest.”