President Trump is not backing off his assertions that the Republican Party should take control of the vote in at least 15 states.
He repeated the comments in a Wednesday interview. But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that's not exactly what he meant.
"The president is suggesting — and I just spoke to him about this — is that Republicans and Democrats in Congress should pass the Save America Act. This piece of legislation is going to ensure that states are abiding by federal election law by removing noncitizens from their voter rolls. In addition, the Save America Act will require voter ID to vote and it will require proof of citizenship to register to vote."
It is at least the second time this week that the press secretary has had to contradict the president's words.
Democratic governors on Thursday released a joint statement saying Americans have the right to vote without interference from the federal government.
They said "while Trump whines about losing a free and fair election, he's now openly talking about breaking the next one."
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Meanwhile, Leavitt said, the Trump administration does not intend to send ICE agents to polling places.
Adrian Fontes, the Secretary of State of Arizona, said voter intimidation is nonetheless a concern as the midterms approach.
"I'm worried about the fact that what Steve Bannon is trying to do is scare people," Fontes said. "It's clearly a scare tactic, because here's the thing some immigrants can vote after they become citizens. And we check to make sure. In fact, Arizona has had a documented proof of citizenship law on its books for 20 years. We have the most robust citizenship check in the United States of America."
"I would challenge Steve Bennett to show some actual numbers of the folks who he believes — that he has actual proof right now — that have voted without authorization," Fontes said. "You notice they never actually come up with any of those numbers. They make wild claims and wild accusations about millions of voters. But there's no real proof."
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According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, since Aprils of 2025, 59 million voters have been checked for eligibility to vote. The search has found 18,000 potential noncitizens who are registered, or 0.03% of the total. It is not clear how many of those individuals may have ultimately voted.
