Trump says states are agents of federal government in elections
By Donald Judd, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that “a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” as he defended his call for Republicans to nationalize elections.
“I want to see elections be honest — and if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during an Oval Office signing ceremony with Republican lawmakers.
“A state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway,” he said, adding that it’s a “disgrace” how “horribly” some states run elections.
Elections are run by state and local officials, with the federal government playing only a limited role. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from attempting to revamp how elections are conducted, as his administration pushes to overhaul rules ahead of the midterm elections.
The president named Atlanta, where less than a week ago the FBI searched an elections office as part of a Justice Department probe into alleged voter fraud, and other cities with Democratic strongholds as seeing “horrible corruption on elections.”
“The federal government should not allow that,” he said Tuesday. “The federal government should get involved. 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 over.”
Pressed by Collins on the provisions in the Constitution that local officials administer elections, Trump said, “They can administer the election, but they have to do it honestly.”
Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was talking about the need for a national voter ID requirement when he called on Republicans to “nationalize the voting” in an interview that aired Monday.
“What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act,” Leavitt told reporters, referring to legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. “It provides very commonsense measures for voting in our country, such as voter ID.” Noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections.
On several occasions, Trump has pledged to change how the country votes, zeroing in on methods he falsely claims lead to fraudulent voting and kicking off a rare mid-decade redistricting campaign intended to help Republicans win additional US House seats.
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