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It was clear from the beginning that Donald Trump’s administration This would include high-ranking government officials who either supported his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, or refused to publicly acknowledge that he lost.
The President continues to hammer baseless story that the election was rigged against him, he publicly vowed that it would “never happen again” as he deployed officials prepare for midterm elections The balance of power in Congress – and its agenda – is at stake.
Before she was identified as Trump’s “election integrity” official at the Department of Homeland Security, Heather Haney reportedly told a group of right-wing activists in March that the president could declare a “national emergency” to effectively take control of local election administration.
He said the move would be taken after a “genuine investigation” of the 2020 election if it revealed “manipulation” of the results. the new York TimesIn which there was a recording of the call.
“We have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” he said. ,[W]“We can take these other steps without Congress and we can order that states do things and so on.”
He said he didn’t know whether such federal control over elections would be “feasible” or whether people around the president would “let him test that theory.”
But in the months since, the president has launched an aggressive effort to fundamentally reshape elections, ranging from redrawing congressional maps to promising an executive order that he says would End mail-in voting entirely.
“We’re going to start with an executive order, which is being written right now by the best lawyers in the country, to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt,” Trump said in August.
Trump also supported A solution from Republicans in Congress It would overturn how states register people to vote through online or automated or same-day registration, an effort inspired by false claims that non-citizens are voting fraudulently in federal elections.
“We don’t want this to happen again,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. We cannot let what happened in the 2020 election happen again.
He suggested that FBI Director Kash Patel and Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard be investigating the results.
He said, “I know Kaash is working on it. Everyone is working on it. And certainly Tulsi is working on it. We cannot let this happen again in our country.”
Heather Haney also alarmed state elections officials over a call last month, where she reportedly discussed voting security measures with rhetoric that echoed right-wing conspiracy theories.
On a Sept. 11 call with the National Association of Secretaries of State Election Committee, he discussed his current role and Homeland Security’s election security work, among other issues, a spokesperson for the group said. Independent.
Haney, a disciple of prominent election conspiracy theorist Cleta Mitchell, was selected earlier this year to serve as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, overseeing the nation’s election infrastructure.
But he complained that agency staff tasked with dealing with election misinformation had “fallen short of their mission”. the new York Times.
He also referred to a report routinely promoted by conspiracy theorists to support false claims that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats, many times The report cited people familiar with the call.
Top administration officials have repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, including Attorney General Pam Bondi Repeatedly avoided giving positive answers that Joe Biden won During his Senate confirmation hearing under oath.
But officials who apparently accepted Trump’s election lies remain in positions in the government that critics fear could be weaponized against the election administration.
Kurt Olsen, a former Trump campaign lawyer who worked on “Stop the Steal” efforts to overturn the election results, is working as a “special government employee” for the administration. Wall Street Journal.
He is reportedly “seeking information about the 2020 election from intelligence agencies,” including voting machines WSJ Informed.
Ed Martin, another “Stop the Steal” lawyer and defense attorney for the January 6 rioters, was appointed to lead a “weaponization working group” at the Justice Department to review what he considered “political” prosecutions against the President.
Marci McCarthy, who spread false claims about voting machines in Georgia while chairwoman of the DeKalb County Republican Party, was also appointed director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, at Homeland Security.
Earlier this year, almost all of CISA’s election experts were fired from the agency.
After hearing about the administration’s cuts to the agency, state officials left last month’s call with Haney “confused and concerned” because he “made unspecified claims of censorship at the agency,” according to Many times.
He also reportedly mentioned a report that right-wing activists have used voting machines to undermine and suggested that the state would plan to use “fusion centers” – law enforcement collaborations that are typically used for large-scale events like the Super Bowl – for election security issues.
According to David Baker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, the CISA cuts have destroyed “almost all” of Homeland Security’s ability to protect election infrastructure.
“The appointment of an election conspiracy theorist with no election knowledge or expertise is the culmination of this reversal,” Baker said. told ProPublica earlier this year“DHS is now poised to become the primary enabler of false election conspiracies perpetrated by our enemies.”
Independent DHS has been requested to comment.
“Anyone who cares about voting rights needs a clear look at what’s at stake right now,” Joanna Lydgate, CEO of the States United Democracy Center, said in a statement. Independent. “We know who these people are, the lies they have told about the election, and the actions they have taken to undermine our systems. It is more important than ever to pay attention to what they are saying and doing because they have the support of the federal government.”