Senate GOP Leader John Thune says he disagrees with Trump that Congress should ‘nationalize’ elections
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he was “not in favor” of federalizing elections a day after President Donald Trump said on a podcast that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting.”
“I’m not in favor of federalizing elections,” Thune told a reporter who asked him about Trump’s remarks. “That’s a constitutional issue,” he added.
Elections for members of Congress are run by the states, in accordance with the Constitution’s Article 1, which also allows for Congress to pass federal regulations. States run voter registration, counting ballots and fraud prevention, among other election responsibilities.
Thune, the top Republican in the Senate, emphasized that he is “a big believer in decentralized and distributed power.”
“It’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,” he added. “So it, in my view, at least, that’s always a system that’s worked pretty well.”
Reached for comment on Thune’s remarks, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson reiterated a statement from Monday, saying Trump “cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections.” She pointed to his support for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and “other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting.”
Asked separately about Trump’s stance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that “it’s always been the responsibility of the states to administer elections and it’s a system that works well, so long as the states make it a priority to ensure the integrity of our elections. And we have real concerns about some of the blue states, frankly, that have not been doing that well.”
He said that Trump was “expressing that frustration” and added, “We’re looking for solutions.”
Johnson then touted the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require that states obtain proof of citizenship during voter registration. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote. Election experts and advocates have said that voter ID laws can make it harder for citizens to cast ballots because not everyone has the required documents equally accessible.
Trump said in a Monday interview on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino’s podcast that his party should push to nationalize elections. Trump’s comments came in the middle of an extended rant about election fraud. Trump has for years falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, though there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places,'” Trump said during the interview. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Trump then repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election in Georgia, referencing the FBI search at a Fulton County election office last month.
“We have states that are so crooked, and they’re counting votes — we have states that I won that show I didn’t win. Now you’re going see something in Georgia where they were able to get with a court order, the ballots, you’re going to see some interesting things,” he said.
The FBI told NBC News last month that it was “conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center. The county said that the FBI was looking for records related to the 2020 election. Georgia and Fulton County specifically have been a focus of Trump’s since his 2020 loss.
Democrats denounced Trump’s comments as “autocratic” and “authoritarian.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump’s remarks as “dangerous autocratic poison.”
“What does Donald Trump think he ran for? A dictatorship?” he asked in a Senate floor speech on Tuesday. “President for life in a single-party state where one party runs the elections, like in every other tin-pot dictatorship. This president clearly doesn’t believe in democracy at all.”
Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., the only House member in a swing district in Georgia, also criticized Trump’s recent comments and the FBI search.
“I think it’s just a blatant attempt to intimidate and to try to take over the electoral system in the country,” Bishop told NBC News on Tuesday. “It’s clear that the administration, and the president has said openly, that he wants to nationalize — he wants Republicans to nationalize on our elections. And of course, our elections are not Republican or Democrat. They’re American elections. And I think that this is another indication of authoritarian trends that this administration is taking.”
The NAACP said in a statement Tuesday that the organization “condemns in the strongest possible terms” Trump’s remarks.
“This is a desperate attempt to continue to weaken and ultimately destroy the very foundations of our democracy,” the statement said, going on to call it “a blatant assault on the Constitution.”
