We get an update on elections and voting rights in the United States from Mother Jones's national voting rights correspondent, Ari Berman, who warns of President Donald Trump's escalating attempts to “try to claim dictatorial power” and commit an “unprecedented intervention” into the 2026 midterm elections. Whether it takes the form of claims of foreign interference, canceling mail-in voting or requiring proof of citizenship, “[t]he bottom line here is they keep lying about the 2020 election so that they can justify massive interference in the 2026 election,” says Berman. “That’s something that we all need to be very vigilant about.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
President Trump’s Department of Justice continues to investigate the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Georgia, a state President Trump repeatedly falsely claims he won in 2020. Now CBS News is reporting the FBI fired two of its officials after they voiced concerns over the probe, claiming it was politically motivated. Their firings come months after the FBI raided an election office in Georgia’s Fulton County, seizing computers and ballots related to the 2020 election. Last week, a federal judge in Atlanta quashed a DOJ subpoena seeking the names and personal information of Fulton County’s 2020 election workers.
Meanwhile, President Trump has forced out the last remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan, independent agency tasked with certifying voting systems and helping local election officials. The White House fired the Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland. And a third commissioner, Republican Christy McCormick, was given the chance to resign, which she did. The committee’s remaining member, Republican Donald Palmer, stepped down in April to join the Heritage Foundation. Trump’s dismantling of the Election Assistance Commission comes less than four months before midterm elections, following last month’s Supreme Court ruling granting the president more power to fire members of independent agencies.
For more on all of this, or as much as we can do in the next few minutes, we’re joined by Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones.
Thanks so much for being with us, Ari. Start off by talking about the judge quashing the request for information of Fulton County election workers, and then going on to the primetime address President Trump is expected to give on Thursday night.
ARI BERMAN: Hi, Amy. Well, thank you for having me back on the show.
So, what happened in Fulton County, Georgia, was the Justice Department was trying to get access to the personal information of thousands of election workers from the 2020 election, and the judge said, “You can’t have that personal information. And also, you can’t bring charges against them, because it’s too late.” It’s been now six years since that election.
But the disturbing thing here is that Georgia is just a microcosm of what they’re planning to do to interfere in the midterms. The raid on Fulton County, Georgia, the taking of 700 boxes of ballots, that is a preview of the type of suppression and intimidation the Trump administration wants to do everywhere in 2026. And we’re seeing this with the primetime address the president is planning to give. He’s going to lie and say there was rampant fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election, so that he can then say we have to seize voting machines, we have to stop mail voting, we have to do all the things that he tried to do in 2020 but was unsuccessful.
And the bottom line here is they keep lying about the 2020 election so that they can justify massive interference in the 2026 election. It really is that simple. You put all the different moves of the administration together, that is the underlying goal, to build a narrative that will justify some kind of unprecedented intervention in the midterms to challenge how people vote, how votes are counted and how elections are certified.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Now, Ari, you’ve been covering election news for years now. You’re one of the top experts in the country on it. Have we ever seen any attempt by a federal government to actually squash free and fair elections like we’re seeing now? And to what degree do you fear that Trump could be successful?
ARI BERMAN: No, Juan, I think it’s completely unprecedented, what the Trump administration is trying to do. We’ve never seen the full weight of the federal government mobilized in such a way to try and interfere in free and fair elections and to try to undermine elections in so many different ways, from how people vote to how elections are administered to how elections are ultimately certified here.
Now, I do think the problem that the president has is that the Constitution is very clear that states, with oversight from Congress, run their elections, and the president has very little role in doing that. And so, time and time again, what Trump wants to do is blocked in court. His executive orders have been blocked in court. So much of what the Justice Department has tried to do has been blocked in court. So, that’s the silver lining of this, is that, yes, the president is becoming more authoritarian, more desperate, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be any more successful in trying to do this. He can say the 2020 election is rigged. He can say that he wants to seize voting machines or stop mail voting, but, ultimately, states have the power to run their elections. And that’s the saving grace of our constitutional system right now to stand up to what Trump is doing.
AMY GOODMAN: What he’s going to say on Thursday night, what you understand?
ARI BERMAN: Well, what I understand is he’s going to allege foreign interference in the 2020 election, which has been extensively studied. There was no evidence of interference in that election. If there was any interference, it was Russia trying to help Trump. But there was no evidence that Iran or Venezuela or China or the other countries that Trump is going to name interfered in that election.
But he’s going to say they interfered, so that he can create the predicate for then interfering in the midterms to say, “I can now have the power to seize voting machines. I have the power to shut down mail voting. I can try to put in place proof of citizenship to register to vote.” He can’t unilaterally do any of those things, but he’s going to try to claim dictatorial power for himself, through the propaganda that his administration is generating, to try to lay the predicate for some kind of dramatic intervention of the midterms. And that’s something that we all need to be very vigilant about.
AMY GOODMAN: And threatening to arrest election officials if any noncitizens vote? We have 20 seconds.
ARI BERMAN: Well, it’s just an example of further weaponization of the Justice Department, from trying to uphold the laws to trying to intimidate election workers into following Trump’s agenda. And I think election workers are going to stand up to it. But, again, it sets a very chilling precedent.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you, Ari Berman, for joining us, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones.
