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.”
“That’s a constitutional issue,” Thune told a reporter who asked him about Trump's remarks.
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, ballot-counting 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 said. "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: "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 Trump was "expressing that frustration" and added, "We're looking for solutions."
Later Tuesday, Johnson alleged that voter fraud appeared to have occurred in recent congressional elections, though he acknowledged he could not prove it.
“We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on Election Day in the last election cycle, and every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost,” Johnson said. “It looks, on its face, to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream. But we need more confidence in the American people in the election system, and it’s essential. And everybody, no matter what party you’re in, should agree with that."
Johnson touted the SAVE Act, which would require states to obtain proof of citizenship during voter registration. It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote. Election experts and advocates have said voter ID laws can make it harder for citizens to cast ballots because not everyone has the equal access to the required documents.
Trump said Monday in an interview on former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino's podcast that Republicans should push to nationalize elections. His 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 in the interview. "The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting."
Trump then repeated his false claim that he won the 2020 election in Georgia, referring to 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 the FBI was looking for records related to the 2020 election. Georgia and Fulton County specifically have been focuses of Trump's since his 2020 loss.
Trump on Tuesday afternoon reiterated his push to take control of elections away from states, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he doesn’t “know why the federal government doesn’t do them anyway.”
“If a state can’t run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it. Because, you know, if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump said in the Oval Office, where he was joined by several Republican members of Congress, including Johnson, Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Katie Britt of Alabama and Reps. Steve Womack of Arkansas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
“Look at some of the places that horrible corruption on elections, and the federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved,” he added. “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 it.”
Trump was not asked about Thune’s comments.
Democrats denounced Trump's Monday comments as "autocratic" and "authoritarian."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called Trump’s remarks “dangerous autocratic poison.”
“What does Donald Trump think he ran for? A dictatorship?” he asked in a Senate floor speech on Tuesday morning. “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 it “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.”
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican candidate for secretary of state in Georgia, posted text from Article 1 of the Constitution on Tuesday afternoon, saying he will fight any efforts to nationalize elections.
"As your Secretary of State, I will always fight for Georgia. There should never be a Federal takeover of our elections. I will never allow this, regardless of the party of the Administration in power," he wrote on X.
