Leavitt Clarifies Trump’s Call to ‘Nationalize’ Elections: He ‘Believes’ in the ‘Constitution, However…’

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took questions outside the White House on Tuesday and was asked about President Donald Trump’s call to “nationalize” elections, which sparked alarm and anger for many.

“Thank you so much, Karoline. What does President Trump mean when he says Republicans ought to nationalize voting? What does that look like in practice?” a reporter asked Leavitt.

“What the president was referring to is the SAVE Act, which is a huge common sense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported, that President Trump is committed to signing into law during his term,” Leavitt replied, adding:

And he spoke with the speaker directly about that yesterday about the need to get that bill on the floor for a vote, because it provides very common-sense measures for voting in our country, such as voter ID. 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, so that’s what he was referring to.

“But to be clear, he does believe the state should oversee elections?” the off-camera reporter pressed.

“The president believes in the United States Constitution; however, 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 replied.

Of course, Article I of the U.S. Constitution solely gives the states the power to run elections.

“Just to follow up on that, he said specifically that they should take over elections in 15 states. Can you tell us what he meant by that? What 15 states he’s referring to in terms of Republicans taking over elections?” asked another reporter.

“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. The president was referring to specific states in which we have seen a high degree of 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. 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. He wants to make it right, and the SAVE Act is a solution to doing it,” Leavitt insisted.

Trump’s call for the Republican Party to “take over” the voting was met with widespread concern on Monday, as critics warned the president was signalling his intention to interfere with the midterm elections.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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