President Donald Trump threw White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt under the bus after she attempted to defend his remarks about seizing federal control over U.S. elections.
On Tuesday, Trump, 79, doubled down on comments he made during a podcast interview with Dan Bongino, his former FBI deputy director, in which he argued that Republicans should “nationalize” elections by taking over the way ballots are cast and counted.
Without offering evidence, Trump claimed such a move was necessary to combat what he described as corrupt state-run election systems. U.S. elections are primarily governed by state law, with voting administered by local officials across the country.
The remarks marked yet another effort by Trump to amplify election misinformation and revive baseless allegations that U.S. elections are rigged, especially the presidential contest he lost to Joe Biden in 2020. They also came just hours after Leavitt sought to walk back his comments.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
“I want to see elections be honest,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office when pressed on what he meant by exerting federal control over elections.
“A state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do ’em anyway,” the president said.
Trump went on to accuse several Democratic-run cities of election corruption.
“Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Pennsylvania. Take a look at Philadelphia. You go take a look at Atlanta. Look at some of the places—that horrible corruption on elections—and the federal government should not allow that,” he said.
“The federal government should get involved,” Trump 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 over.”
The comments come after Trump himself raised doubts about his party’s prospects at the November midterm elections after a string of electoral successes for the Democrats. The president has begged Republicans to pull out the stops in the midterms to stop Democrats from attempting to impeach him if they take control of Congress.
Earlier on Tuesday, Leavitt, 28, attempted to walk back Trump’s declaration that, “We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many, 15 places.”
When pressed, Leavitt, herself a failed congressional candidate, insisted the president was referring to Congress passing the SAVE Act.
“What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act, which is a huge, commonsense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported that President Trump is committed to signing into law during his term,” Leavitt said.
Trump did not mention the SAVE Act during his interview with Bongino, and the proposed legislation does not authorize the federal government to take control of elections in specific states.
“Again, what I was just telling you is that with the passage of the SAVE Act, voter ID will be implemented across all 50 states,” Leavitt added. “The president was referring to specific states in which we have seen a high degree of fraud.”
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