Democrats are preparing for President Donald Trump to try to halt voting on Election Day, frighten Americans into not going to the polls or seize voting machines and ballots, the top two Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees told MS NOW.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Trump continues to make false claims of voter fraud and threaten to seize control of vote counting from state and local officials. They said they do not know of specific plans by Trump but argued they had to prepare for worst-case scenarios.
“I remain gravely concerned that the president or his allies may try to interfere in the election,” Warner said. “Whether it’s about Republicans federalizing the elections or his unwillingness to commit that he won’t send ICE or troops to the polls.”
Himes predicted Trump would use similar tactics to the ones he deployed in the wake of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. “Trump has never accepted the results of elections that he loses,” Himes said. “So he will do all in his power to paint his imminent losses as corrupt or rigged.”
If Republicans lose control of the House, Himes warned that Trump could pressure Republicans in Congress — especially House Speaker Mike Johnson — to question the results and potentially decline to swear in the newly elected Congress on Jan. 3 as the Constitution mandates.
“Expect the greatest hits of the 2020 election, from frivolous lawsuits to fomenting violence and urging Mike Johnson to ‘do the right thing,’” Himes said. “It’s who he is.”
Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said Trump was strengthening U.S. election systems.
“President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections,” she said. “Every American should be asking why the radical Left continues to fight against commonsense election integrity measures, like Voter ID and citizenship verification to make sure only Americans decide our elections.”
Trump told reporters earlier this month that he would accept the results of the midterms but added a caveat. “Of course I will, but we don’t want cheating,” Trump said. “We don’t want cheating in the midterms.”
Days later, Trump falsely claimed at a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, that a “rigged election” caused the Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake, to lose her race there in 2022. He said Democrats had somehow broken election machines in the Republican stronghold where he spoke.
Lake “won that election,” Trump said. “The damn machines were broken in Republican areas. They were broken purposely, and you couldn’t vote.” When Lake tried to prove that she had won in court, judges dismissed her claims and ruled she had lost.
Worst-case Trump scenarios
Warner, Himes and other Democrats said they are concerned that Trump could try to use an intelligence claim to take federal control of elections or have Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents patrol near polling places to depress turnout.
The Constitution mandates that state and local governments and Congress administer elections, not the president. As a result, some 10,000 election jurisdictions exist across the country and they use different types of voting and tabulation machines.
Warner said certain Election Day worst-case scenarios alarm him. Trump could exaggerate an unconfirmed piece of intelligence — or fabricate one — such as China hacking into voting machines and use it as a pretext to halt voting in Democratic areas.
“What I’m most concerned about is a raw piece of intelligence that has not been validated, that is invented, be used as an excuse,” Warner said. “A prerequisite to deploy troops or grabbing voting machines.”
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David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.
