WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump and his administration turned their focus to “election security” in recent months, alumni of the Select Jan. 6, 2021 Committee have been left scratching their heads, wondering if anyone around the president has even a cursory understanding of the American Constitution.
"It's really not a security push. It's a voter suppression effort, and I think it's going to fail," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — a lawyer by trade — told Raw Story. “All of the Constitution puts the running of elections in the states.”
Lofgren was one of the seven Democratic members of the Jan. 6 Committee, which was chaired by House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
In exclusive interviews with Raw Story, Thompson, Lofgren and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) laid out their fears and game plan to stop the Trump administration from interfering with this year’s heated midterm elections.
“His comment was over the top”
Thompson isn’t surprised by much these days, but he was shocked last month when Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin threatened to withhold federal funds from states that don’t give the feds their voter rolls — not to mention him threatening local poll workers with jail time.
In July 2026, Mullin said the DHS had preliminarily determined there were more than 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, and demanded states run their voter rolls through a federal database to check for noncitizens. States that refuse would lose access to federal grants, he said.
“His comment was over the top,” Thompson told Raw Story. “I don't know what authority the Secretary of Homeland Security would have to go after any election officials. You know, that's another branch of government.”
While he sees it as an assault on the constitutional balance meant to restrain the federal government, Thompson says Mullin’s just trying to appease and please Trump.
“It's just a dog whistle for the president to try to convince the president that, ‘I'll do anything you want me to do, just leave me as secretary, including telling things that are not true,’” Thompson said.
“Here we have ICE out of control, here we have disasters occurring, and you're talking about an election that’s some 100 days away?”
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Raskin, is a former constitutional law professor. He says the Trump administration needs a refresher course.
“Look, the president of the United States and his Cabinet have nothing to do with the administration of elections,” Raskin told Raw Story on the Capitol steps. “They should go and actually do their jobs, which means taking care that the laws passed by Congress are faithfully executed. And we haven't passed any laws telling them to get involved in elections. The states are doing a fine job.”
“Weaponizing the powers of the government against the citizens”
While Trump and his Cabinet have recently dusted off age-old allegations of Chinese cyber intrusions into American elections, Thompson says this White House has failed to make its case.
“The real challenge is, is this a problem? You've not defined what the problem is,” Thompson said. “And so here you are looking for a solution to a problem that's not defined.”
“Are you worried, with Mullin involved, that they might be beating the drum and preparing to put ICE agents at the polls?” Raw Story asked.
“I have no doubt, unless states and localities push back, what that attempt would be, but that attempt would only be in Democratic performing districts,” Thompson said. “So you are weaponizing the powers of the government against the citizens to express an opinion in support of the candidate of their choice.”
“If people go to the polls and see people in uniform and all that kind of thing, it's a deterrent,” Thompson said. “And, as the greatest democracy in the world, we should be encouraging people to come, not somehow intimidating them, and I think that's part of their message.”
To Raskin, the groundswell of energy from the party’s grassroots is the biggest deterrent Democrats have to heavy-handed election meddling from Washington officials.
“So the people who are really involved in it, who are administering elections, know things are in good shape and everything else is just political posturing and intimidation against the election workers,” Raskin said. “And we saw what they did back in 2020, but we're not going to allow them to try to steal this election.”
"Spending a lot more of our time out on the road campaigning”
If Democrats do recapture one or both chambers in November, Raskin will be elevated to chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and after two historic Trump impeachments in his first administration, that committee’s expected to be ground zero for some of the fiercest fights in the new year.
Still, Raskin says it’s premature to be laying out an agenda for the committee should Democrats win back the House.
“Oh, geez, my favorite question. The reason I can't tell you that — I can tell you 100 things, but I can't tell you [that because] I haven't vetted that with my committee,” Raskin said. “And, you know, we operate together. And of course, what we do, then we also act in conjunction with the rest of the caucus and with the leadership.”
Raskin’s braced, if eager, to investigate any election interference from the Trump administration.
While he says elected Democrats are internally discussing which direction to focus their oversight efforts on should they win this fall, with Congress out until September, Raskin has a busy August ahead as he traverses the nation stumping for Democrats coast to coast.
“We are, you know, actively discussing all of those things, although we're spending a lot more of our time out on the road campaigning,” Raskin said as the House started its extended summer break. “And I'm headed to Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Colorado and New Mexico, and we're going to go fight for Democratic victory everywhere.”