Former Obama administration adviser David Axelrod has warned that election denier Donald Trump‘s expected actions on voting mean courts may outweigh ballots in the coming months.
Axelrod appeared on CNN Tuesday, as reporting on Trump’s Thursday night address by MS NOW suggests that the 80-year-old president will discuss voting machine security and foreign attempts at election interference. Additionally, Trump, who has long sought but so far failed to prove that he won the 2020 election, may release declassified intelligence on each topic.
Axelrod, 71, was asked by CNN anchor John King about Trump’s motivations.
“The question is why?” King wondered. “Is this to pressure the Senate to pass the SAVE Act? The votes aren‘t there. Or is this to lay some predicate for come November, if the Democrats take the House and maybe even the Senate, to say, ‘No, not legitimate?’”
Axelrod, who was also chief strategist for Obama’s two presidential campaigns, seemed concerned.
“I hope I‘m wrong, but I think that is the explanation,” he said. “I do think the president does like revisiting 2020. That‘s part of his repertoire. I do think he wants to pressure the Senate. I don‘t think the Senate‘s going to cooperate. I hope that what we see on Thursday night is not the beginning of laying the foundation for claiming some sort of emergency and trying to arrogate to himself authorities that he doesn‘t have. But I have a very strong feeling that the most important battles of the midterm elections may take place not in the precincts, but in the courts.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
According to MS NOW, acting director of national intelligence Bill Pulte and special government employee John Solomon, an election fraud proponent, have led the effort to declassify documents.
Whether Trump will try to claim that there is new “evidence” showing the 2020 election was fraudulent is unclear. One administration official was skeptical of any such claims, adding that access to the president has “loosened,” opening him up to those eager to push false narratives.
“It’s that network [of people] that is the real f--king problem,” this official told the outlet. “They try to put bits and pieces together and then make these conclusions. Everything I have seen, is not what’s there.”
This person added: “I’ve never seen any intelligence that an adversary hacked or changed or flipped votes.”
Senior administration officials told MS NOW that a White House task force has been looking through thousands of election security-related documents.
While countries like Russia, China and Iran sought to influence public opinion, there has been no evidence of any bad actor manipulating votes or compromising voting machines.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement to MS NOW about Trump’s speech: “As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what President Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening.”
She added: “The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in.”
Axelrod’s warning came as CNN’s Jake Tapper said earlier on Tuesday that Trump is still “not man enough” to accept his loss six years ago.
