President Donald Trump suggested that Republicans may have to “nationalize the voting” in a Monday interview, predicting that “interesting” details would come out of the FBI’s probe of a Fulton County, Georgia, election office last week.
Trump told conservative podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino that Republicans “should take over the voting in at least 15 places,” citing his belief that it’s the only way to secure elections.
“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,” Trump told Bongino.
“We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn’t win,” he said. “Now, you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get the ballots with the court order. You will see some interesting things come out. But like the 2020 election. I won that election by so much. Everybody knows it.”
Last Wednesday, the FBI raided a Georgia election office and took 700 boxes of election materials. The raid was reportedly related to a federal probe into allegations of interference in the 2020 election, which Trump lost to former President Joe Biden. Trump has argued that the 2020 election results from Georgia were rigged against him. Trump lost to Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia in 2020.
Fulton County officials are questioning the legality of the FBI’s search and said the county would sue and attempt to “force the government to return the ballots taken.”
When asked about Trump’s comments to Bongino, a White House official told The Daily Wire on Tuesday morning that Trump doesn’t believe states taking election security seriously. The official highlighted more than a dozen states, including California, New York, and Illinois, that do not require photo ID to vote, and accused many states of refusing to comply with federal law on sharing voter-roll information.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Wire: “President Trump cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections – that’s why he’s urged Congress to pass the 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.”
The SAVE Act, which passed the House last year, would require voters to provide ID and proof of citizenship before casting their ballots in an attempt to prevent illegal immigrants and noncitizens from voting. It has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Trump also told Bongino that Republicans must deport the millions of illegal immigrants who were allowed to flood the country under Biden, or the party “will never win another election.”
“It’s crazy how you can get these [illegal immigrants] to vote,” he added. “And if we don’t get them out, Republicans will never win another election. Think of it, I won in a landslide. I won every swing state. I won the popular vote by millions. I won everything.”
“But you’re never going to have that again if you don’t get these people out. These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally,” he continued. “And it’s amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it.”
Trump has also recently claimed that he won Minnesota in each of the past three elections as his administration focuses on the state’s fraud and immigration issues. Trump’s Democratic opponent carried the state in the past three presidential races.
“They’re crooked officials,” he said of Minnesota leaders. “I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times … and I didn’t get credit for it.”
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