Leavitt scrambles to spin Trump's call to 'nationalize' elections

President Donald Trump is drawing widespread attention and backlash after urging Republicans on Monday to “nationalize” elections in at least fifteen jurisdictions he deemed “crooked,” particularly because the U.S. Constitution primarily assigns election authority to the states. Now, the White House is having to defend his remarks.

Saying there are “millions and millions” of undocumented immigrants and “we have to get them out,” Trump warned that “if Republicans don’t get them out, you will never win another election as a Republican.”

He claimed that undocumented immigrants are told, “Oh, well, you can vote, you can do whatever you want.”

“It’s crazy,” he added. “I mean, it’s crazy how you can get these people to vote, and if we don’t get them out, Republicans will never win another election.”

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting,’ the voting in at least many, 15 places,” Trump insisted. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

The New York Times called Trump’s remarks an “escalation,” saying it was “an aggressive rhetorical step that was likely to raise new worries about his administration’s efforts to involve itself in election matters,” and noting that it followed “a string of moves from his administration to try to exert more control over American elections.”

Prominent elections attorney Marc Elias said Trump’s call to nationalize elections is “one of his most explicit signals yet that he plans to interfere with the workings of democracy.”

But during a press gaggle on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Trump was referring to the SAVE Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Opponents argue many Americans do not have ready access to acceptable documents, such as a passport or birth certificate. The bill could also complicate voter registration for people who changed their names but don’t have updated citizenship documents.

Calling the SAVE Act “a huge common sense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported,” Leavitt added, “I don’t think any rational person who’s being honest with themselves would disagree with the idea of requiring citizens of this country to present an ID before casting a ballot in a federal election, or, frankly, in any election, and that’s something the president wants to see happen.”

Despite Trump’s call to “nationalize” elections and have the Republican Party oversee them, Leavitt told reporters that the president “does believe the states should oversee them. The President believes in the United States Constitution.”

“However,” she continued, “he believes there has obviously been a lot of fraud and irregularities that have taken place in American elections. And, again, voter ID is a highly popular and common sense policy that the president wants to pursue, and he wants to pass legislation to make that happen for all states across the country.”

Leavitt appeared to conflate a small number of California jurisdictions that allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, such as school board elections, with fraud.

“If you look at states like California, or if you look at New York City, for example, non-citizens are allowed to vote in elections in places like California and New York City,” she said. Non-citizens are not allowed to vote in elections in New York City at all.

“That just creates a system, an electoral system that is absolutely ripe with fraud, and you cannot deny the fact that, unfortunately, there are millions of people who have questions about that, as does the president,” she continued.

Noting that it’s a “constitutional issue,” Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune said he is “not in favor” of nationalizing elections, NBC News reported.

The Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, 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.”

There is little evidence of voter fraud across the country.

“Extensive research reveals that fraud is very rare,” the Brennan Center for Justice reported. “Yet repeated, false allegations of fraud can make it harder for millions of eligible Americans to participate in elections.”

Former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade noted of Trump’s remarks, “The Constitution delegates the power to conduct elections to the states. This would require an amendment. It would expose voter data to the risk of one hack instead of 50.”

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