President
“That is exactly what dictators do to consolidate power, and this is far and away the most dangerous part of it,” Goldman said at an exclusive round table event with Bloomberg Government on Wednesday. “And there’s another layer, which is, this is all seemingly part of a master plan to rig the upcoming election.”
Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who led the first impeachment effort against Trump, cited a Jan. 24 letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) suggesting he could help “bring an end to the chaos” in Minnesota, in part by allowing the Justice Department to obtain state voter information.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, joined an FBI raid Jan. 28 that seized 2020 election ballots and voting records in Fulton County, Georgia, a populous Democratic-leaning jurisdiction in a state that contributed to Joe Biden’s lawful victory over Trump in that year’s presidential contest.
“If it’s really about 2020, that’s a law enforcement investigation, and the DNI should have absolutely nothing to do with it,” Goldman said. “But if it is more about trying to undermine the upcoming election, then that’s why you would see the DNI.”
Gabbard and the White House have defended her role, saying she’s working with other agencies to protect the security and integrity of US elections.
Trump said Feb. 2 that Republicans “ought to nationalize the voting,” though his powers are limited in a decentralized US election system. The US Constitution’s Elections Clause directs and authorizes states to determine the “Times, Places, and Manner” of congressional elections, subject to regulation by Congress.
“It is very clear this is all geared towards this election because the efforts to gerrymander — the mid-decade partisan gerrymandering — have not worked out for the Republicans,” Goldman said. “They are desperate. They cannot win on the merits, the substance, their policy. So they are doing everything they can to rig the election, and we have to put our foot down right now and make sure that we’re doing everything we can to combat that.”
The White House has said Trump supports Republican “election integrity” measures, including the SAVE Act, which would tighten voter ID rules and require proof of citizenship to vote.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Feb. 3.
With a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security ending Feb. 13, Goldman said the agency shouldn’t be funded “until there are significant, significant reforms.” He called for the firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and adopting his amendment to prohibit DHS from seizing election records, including ballots and voting machines.
“There is no basis for the federal government to be doing that, especially in advance of an election,” he said.
Goldman, a member of the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, introduced legislation (H.R. 4176) last year that would require insignia and identification for DHS officers and agents engaged in border security or immigration enforcement. Last week, he introduced a measure (H.R. 7284) that would limit the circumstances in which immunity may apply for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents.
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