The November midterm elections are coming closer, and President Donald Trump has signaled his intent to interfere with them as much as possible as he fears a wipeout for the GOP. But MS NOW's Chris Hayes has one big fear about a scenario that could happen.
Hayes elaborated on his fear in discussion with UCLA Law professor Rick Hasen on Friday's edition of "All In."
"I was really underwhelmed by not just the delivery, which was kind of a low-energy delivery, but the substance," said Hasen. For one thing, he said, Trump was just rehashing a lot of information that was already known about foreign election interference, and "didn't even make his usual claims that the elections were stolen or rigged." Meanwhile, his demands to pass the SAVE America Act don't really change anything, as the votes still don't exist in the Senate.
The bottom line, he said, is that "I'm hopeful, so long as we don't have a really close election, that we're going to be able to squeak by through this 2026 midterm without Trump being able to significantly interfere."
But that, Hayes explained, is precisely his fear.
"You raise one thing which is important, which is the margins will matter a lot for the outcome. I mean, I really do — although again, my nightmare scenario is that James Talarico beats Ken Paxton by 5,000 votes in Texas, and I really think you will see them pull out every possible stop," said Hayes. He noted that longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon is aggressively pushing to nationalize elections, as are many advisers in Trump's orbit like conspiracy theorist Cleta Mitchell. "How does that scan to you?"
The key thing to remember, Hasen replied, is that "the president has no power over elections. Our system is decentralized. It's states and localities."
There will be a deluge of lawsuits and court actions if Trump tries anything, Hasen said, but the risk still exists he could try a number of things. For instance, "we have to think about situations like: what if Trump sends the DOJ to collect ballots before they've been tabulated? What if they attempt to try to interfere with how election administrators are doing their jobs? But so far it's been all talk and no action, and I'm hoping that trend continues."
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