President Donald Trump is not backing down from his stance that elections need to be nationalized.
Trump is continuing his support for the move even though there has been backlash from both Democrats and Republicans, per The Hill.
“I want to see election be honest and if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,” Trump said after signing legislation to end a partial government shutdown.
“Because if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump continued. “I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do ’em anyway.”
He continued to criticize how some states handle election.
“But when you see some of these states, about how horribly they run their elections, what a disgrace it is, I think the federal government [should get involved],” he added.
The topic of transferring control of elections from certain states to the federal government was first broached Monday during an interview Monday with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino who returned to his podcast.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places,’” Trump said. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
On Tuesday, Trump referenced Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta — all Democratic-run cities — where “horrible corruption on elections” is occurring.
“The federal government should get involved,” the president 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 should take it over.”
The Constitution allows states the authority to determine the “times, places and manner” of holding elections. It also states that Congress “may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said Tuesday Trump’s words are the “oldest trick in the book of dictators.”
“Just say that elections are fake, say certain people’s votes don’t count, your side should control elections for some made-up reason or another,” he said in remarks from the Senate floor. “Well, we’ve seen this again and again in other countries, but never in the United States of America, until now.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) also is “not in favor of federalizing elections,” he said Tuesday.
“I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power,” he said. “And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one. In my view, at least, that’s always a system that has worked pretty well.”
