Veteran GOP Lawyer Rips Trump Over ‘Certainly Not Constitutional’ and Unconservative Election Takeover Push

Veteran Republican election lawyer and scholar Benjamin Ginsberg joined CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday to discuss President Donald Trump’s highly controversial call for the GOP to “nationalize” elections.

Tapper began the exchange by noting, “As a legal matter, you told me that you see President Trump’s push to nationalize elections, or whatever he’s talking about, through the lens of things that Trump has already said or pushed—specifically his March 25th executive order titled ‘Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections’ and this Truth Social post in August where Trump wrote, quote, ‘Voter ID must be part of every single vote. No exceptions. I will be doing an executive order to that end. Also, no mail-in voting except for those that are very ill and the away military,’ where he also talked about how the states are vessels for the federal government. So tell me about his thinking and whether you think any of it is constitutional or legal?”

Ginsberg replied, “It’s certainly not constitutional or legal. The Constitution does give the power to run elections to the states. Congress can put rules in for Senate and Congressional elections. The president has zero authority under the Constitution to do what he’s suggesting. So, as a legal matter, it’s wrong. Now, can the president, as the president… do things that we’re not anticipating now? Well, he’s got a track record of doing that. And his rhetoric has been pretty plain about this. He said he wished he had seized ballots, seized voting machines after the 2020 election.”

Tapper added, “Yeah, you said that to The New York Times a few days ago, yeah.”

Ginsberg continued, “And I mean, that is consistent with the executive order you mentioned, saying how the states were a vessel for the federal government. That puts federalism principles and even the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which provides powers to the states, on its head. What’s most surprising about it, Jake, is that for years and years it has been an article of faith of conservatives and Republicans that power should come from the bottom up to the federal government. Many of the members of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House right now advocated for that for all their careers. And all of a sudden that’s being turned upside down.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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