Donald Trump’s approval numbers are in the tank, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that on multiple occasions in recent weeks he has teased the idea of somehow canceling the midterm elections. The White House has insisted Trump was “joking,” but it certainly didn’t seem like he was playing around when he proposed another wild idea to Dan Bongino: that Republicans should “take over” and “nationalize” the nation’s voting systems.
“The Republicans should say, we want to take over, we should take over the voting, the voting in at least many — 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” the president told the podcaster-turned-top FBI official-turned-podcaster in an interview that aired Monday, after pushing the false idea that Democrats bring non-citizens into the United States specifically so they will vote for them.
“We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes,” Trump continued. “We have states that I won, that show I didn’t win. Now you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots. You’re going to see some interesting things come out. The 2020 election, I won that election by so much. Everybody knows it.”
There is no evidence that significant fraud occurred during the 2020 election, despite the conspiracy theories Trump has been pushing relentlessly for half a decade. Trump has repeatedly claimed he and his allies have already proved the election was rigged, while simultaneously claiming proof of wrongdoing will soon “come out,” as he did again on Monday.
The latest fishing expedition is in Georgia, with federal agents descending on Fulton County last week to seize 2020 election records. Trump directed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to oversee the operation on the ground, an unusual role for a top intelligence official like Gabbard. The New York Times reported that at one point Gabbard called Trump, and put the president on speakerphone so he could talk directly with FBI agents — another unusual move, to say the least. Gabbard denied Trump asked any questions or issued any directives on the call, according to a letter she sent to lawmakers.
Fulton County has already said it plans to sue over the administration’s raid of its election materials.
Trump has been posting a slew of election conspiracies on Truth Social as the situation in Fulton County develops, while continuing to claim publicly that he won the 2020 election. His new idea to “take over” elections from states is — as is the case with many of Trump’s ideas since he retook office — unconstitutional. He’s also not even just saying that the federal government should oversee elections; he’s saying specifically that the Republican Party should “take over.”
Trump didn’t mention which “15 places” he feels have issues, but we’re going to take a wild guess and say he lost all 15 of them in 2020.
