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By Peter Aitken
Politics Weekend Editor
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, hit out at President Donald Trump over his recent comments about this year's midterm elections, saying the president is trying "steal it."
"What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalize the election. Translation: steal it. And we're not going to let it happen," Jeffries said during a Sunday appearance on CNN's State of the Union.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek in response to a request for comment on Sunday: “The President has also urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting to ensure the safety and security of our elections. The media should not uncritically amplify these Blue Anon conspiracies."
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Why It Matters
Trump has said, without providing evidence, the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, and has continued to revive these claims throughout his post‑presidency and return to office. Last month, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard oversaw an FBI raid of the Georgia election offices, seizing election records from the 2020 election and 700 boxes of ballots.
Then, Trump suggested Republicans should “take over” or "nationalize" elections in certain jurisdictions, once again justifying the idea with baseless claims of noncitizen voting and fraudulent ballots. His comments come ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, in which polls have indicated Democrats have an advantage to retake control of the House and show them with a path to regain control the Senate, despite a challenging map.
The Republicans have instead put forth a plan to reform voting procedures through the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require anyone registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or other qualifying records. The act would also require states to verify citizenship status on an ongoing basis, among other measures.
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What To Know
Jeffries called out the president over his comments to nationalize elections, saying Trump's true aim is to "steal" the midterms and avoid a defeat that could see Democrats retake control of Congress—an outcome which Trump and his allies have feared as public polling has continued to turn against him and his policies throughout the first year of his second administration.
Historically, the party of the White House loses seats in the midterms. Legal experts have said the president does not have authority to nationalize elections, but Trump has said if Republicans lose the midterm elections, the Democrats will "find a reason to impeach me."
Jeffries stressed states have and should retain the independent right to conduct their elections and should "be allowed to decide the best way to proceed to ensure a free and fair election."
"What Republicans are trying to do is engage in blatant voter suppression," Jeffries told CNN host Dana Bash. "They know that if there's a free and fair election in November, they're going to lose."
"In fact, Republicans have been losing every single election since Donald Trump was sworn in in January of last year, including, most recently, decisively, in Texas, and of course, losing all across the country up and down the ballot in the November off-year elections in place like New Jersey or Virginia," the House minority leader added.
However, Bash insisted upon an answer to Trump and Republican concerns about voter identification, but Jeffries tied both these election reforms—proposed as part of the SAVE Act—and the various efforts to gerrymander election maps in various states as attempts to "steal" the upcoming election.
"They failed. We've stopped Donald Trump from being able to federalize the National Guard, which we believe was probably part of some toxic attempt to unleash troops on American cities all across the nation and intimidate people from voting, and we're going to stop him from nationalizing the election," Jeffries said. "This is going to be a free and fair election."
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump on Truth Social last week, in part: "America’s Elections are Rigged, Stolen, and a Laughingstock all over the World. We are either going to fix them, or we won’t have a Country any longer."
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, wrote on X on Saturday: "Kamala Harris accidentally makes a compelling case for the SAVE America Act: 'Of course people have to prove who they are, but not in a way that makes it almost impossible for them to prove who they are.' The SAVE America Act satisfies that test, offering flexible alternatives for proving citizenship—including options for those who have changed their names or lost their birth certificates."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote on X last week: "Let’s call it like it is [Senator Tom Cotton]: The SAVE Act would disenfranchise over 21 MILLION Americans."
Representative Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, wrote on X last week: "Do you have a passport? Do you know where your birth certificate is? If the answer to both is no, then you cannot vote under the SAVE Act. The SAVE Act is NOT a voter ID bill. It’s a voter suppression bill."
Lawyer Bradley P. Moss previously told Newsweek: "There is no legal basis for the President to nationalize elections. The Constitution specifically delegates that authority to the states. Congress can pass laws to modify how states administer elections, and they have done that several times in our history with things such as the Voting Rights Act and the NVRA, but the states still actually run the elections."
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