Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Tuesday laughed off President Trump’s call for Republicans to nationalize U.S. elections in over a dozen states ahead of the November midterm elections.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Sanders why he was laughing after a clip played of her exchange with the president where he was asked about his remarks.
“Because I was thinking this guy, on the phone, after the 2020 election, talking to the secretary of state in Georgia, and saying to him, ‘All I need — get me 11,000, whatever it is — votes that I can win Georgia,” Sanders told Collins.
“This is Mr. Honesty and Mr. Integrity, who provoked an insurrection on Jan. 6, so that the election would be overturned,” he continued. “The idea that anyone would trust, for one minute, this guy running an honest election would be beyond comprehension. Not to mention that obviously he has not read the Constitution of the United States, which has states running elections, not the federal government.”
Collins noted that the 15 states Trump listed were states that he lost to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“What a shock,” Sanders said. “And no doubt that every state he won was perfectly honest, no problem. Just the states that he lost. Look, you’ve got a guy who is a demagogue, who is an authoritarian and is moving this country into a very, very dangerous direction.”
Trump made the remarks regarding nationalizing federal elections during an interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Monday. Trump said, “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 doubled down on his comments the next day, telling reporters in the Oval Office that “if a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it.” He referenced cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit — cities run by Democratic officials — as places where “horrible corruption on elections” is occurring.
The Constitution allows states to have the authority to hold and oversee elections, and that Congress “may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill pushed against Trump’s remarks, especially after National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard was seen during an FBI search of a Fulton County, Ga., elections office.
“That’s not what the Constitution says about elections,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) told MS NOW’s Stephanie Ruhle, later saying he was not in favor of nationalizing elections.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said he was also against nationalizing elections, noting that he is “supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places. I think that makes sense. … But I’m not in favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue.”
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who last week questioned why Gabbard was at the FBI search in Fulton County, said the combination of the search and Trump’s remarks are more than just about the outcome of the 2020 election.
“That statement alone makes clear that this threat to our election security, the basic premise of our democracy is forward-looking to 2026 and 2028 and, candidly, to the institutions that safeguard our democracy,” Warner said. “If it doesn’t scare the heck out of you, it should.”
