Donald Trump said he will only accept the GOP losing control of Congress in this November’s midterms if he considers the elections to have been “honest.”
Speaking to NBC’s Tom Llamas, the 79-year-old president was pressed on whether he would trust the midterm results after his suggestion that Republicans should “nationalize” election races across the country.
“I will, if the elections are honest,” Trump said. “I’m the last one that wants to complain. I just had a great election. They say one of the greatest elections—you will agree—ever. Won all seven swing states, won 84 percent of the counties in America, that’s why the map is all red.
“We just had a great election. I believe there was cheating.”
Historically, the ruling party in the White House has almost always suffered significant losses in midterm elections. With the GOP holding a razor-thin majority in the House, Republicans already face an uphill battle to retain control of the lower chamber in November. Intense backlash to Trump’s erratic second term also means the Senate could be in play for Democrats.
Trump has made a number of concerning statements amid expectations that the GOP will suffer an electoral wipeout in November, including floating the idea of canceling the elections altogether.
The president received bipartisan condemnation this week after he told the former deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, on his relaunched podcast that Republicans should “take over” the midterms under the guise of ensuring there is no widespread voter fraud.
“We should take over the voting, the voting in at least many—15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump said.
Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives the states sole authority to conduct elections. It is also unclear which of the 15 states Trump was hoping the GOP would “take over,” prompting further concerns that the president is laying the groundwork to interfere in the midterms.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president’s remarks, telling reporters Tuesday that Trump was referring to the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
“The president believes in the United States Constitution; however, he believes there has obviously been a lot of fraud and irregularities that have taken place in American elections,” Leavitt said. “And again, voter ID is a highly popular and commonsense policy that the president wants to pursue.”
Trump denied that he used the word “nationalize”—even though that was exactly what he said—while also pushing for voter ID to be implemented during the traditional pre–Super Bowl interview with NBC Nightly News.
“I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt. They have very corrupt elections. Take a look at Detroit. Take a look at Philadelphia. Take a look at Atlanta. There are some areas that are unbelievably corrupt,” Trump said.
“I say that we cannot have corrupt elections if we have to, if they don’t straighten out. As an example, voter ID, why don’t the Democrats want voter ID? You know who does want voter ID? Democrat voters want it, but Democrat politicians don’t. Why don’t they want it? Because they want to cheat on elections.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
