Jamie Raskin Addresses Whether Trump Could Cancel Midterm Elections

Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin on Thursday rejected the idea that President Donald Trump could cancel or nationalize midterm elections.

Trump said he would accept the midterm results “if the elections are honest,” telling Tom Llamas in a pre-Super Bowl Oval Office interview that he was not calling to “nationalize” voting but was pointing to what he described as deeply corrupt elections in cities such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. Appearing on “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” Raskin referred to the U.S Constitution.

“The states are the primary regulators of federal elections for members of the House and the Senate, and Congress can decide to regulate over the states as we’ve done under Article I, Section 4, and under Section 5 of the 14th Amendment with the Voting Rights Act. But of course, Donald Trump and MAGA have been at war with the Voting Rights Act, which is an attempt to make sure that everybody gets the right to vote,” Raskin told Kasie Hunt.

Raskin’s claim that Trump and MAGA have been “at war with the Voting Rights Act” contrasts with administration actions focused on election integrity and enforcement rather than limiting lawful voting. These actions include the Justice Department suing states that refused to provide full voter rolls. The administration said the move was intended to improve list maintenance and prevent outdated or inaccurate registrations. A White House executive order required proof of citizenship on federal voter registration forms to ensure only eligible voters participate.

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Raskin said Trump’s rhetoric about nationalizing elections was part of a broader political fight over voting rules rather than a serious constitutional proposal.

“They want to create a magical new power that the president of the United States himself has to go around and to mop up voter data from the states to do God knows what with, either to go back and to try to revive his absolute fantasy that he won the 2020 election, or more likely to look ahead in order to deny people the right to vote,” Raskin added.

Raskin said Trump lacks any constitutional authority to cancel midterm elections.

“He’s got no power to do that. We had midterm congressional elections in the middle of the Civil War, in the middle of World War II. Why would we cancel them now? It makes no sense,” Raskin added. (RELATED: Just Four Dems Vote To Keep Non-Citizens From Voting In US Elections)

The White House said Trump was speaking facetiously when he commented about not holding elections, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters the comment was not a serious proposal to cancel the midterms.

“Were you in the room? Only someone like you would take that so seriously,” Leavitt said when a reporter asked about Trump’s remarks.

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