Trump makes Karoline Leavitt look foolish with 'nonsensical' election comment: analysis

An attempt by Karoline Leavitt to explain away an outlandish Donald Trump comment has backfired and made her look foolish, a political commentator has suggested.

The White House Press Secretary had been asked to explain what the president meant when he called for the Republican Party to "nationalize the voting" in 15 states. The specific states were not mentioned by Trump, who made the comment in a speech broadcast on the former United States Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Dan Bongino's podcast.

Trump's claim that the Republican Party should "nationalize" the elections had been walked back by Leavitt, who suggested it is the president's way of referring to Congress passing the SAVE Act. This was then rebuked by Trump, who confirmed he had been talking about voting in specific states, rather than across the country.

CNN analyst Aaron Blake wrote, "She [Leavitt] claimed Trump was instead referring to Congress passing the SAVE Act, a bill that aims to combat noncitizen voting in federal elections – something that is already illegal and that experts say rarely happens.

"That was nonsensical, of course. The SAVE Act would add federal requirements to register to vote, sure, but Trump was talking about taking over the voting in a specific number of places (15) – not passing a law that would apply to the whole country.

"And sure enough, Trump on Tuesday made clear that he meant what he said. Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins what he meant by nationalize the election, he made no mention of the SAVE Act and doubled down on the idea of the federal government asserting a more expansive form of control."

Trump would pass comment again on the 15 states, saying that if a state cannot run an election it should be up to "the people behind me" to do something about it, referring to the Republicans standing behind him in the Oval Office at the time.

Blake added, "It’s the kind of contradiction that would be a scandal in any other administration. Trump’s top spokesperson said he meant one thing, and that turned out not to be true. If nothing else, it’s a huge mark against a spokesperson’s credibility. After all, their job is to quite literally speak for the president."