Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego If Donald Trump tries to sabotage the midterm elections, Americans have proposed responding with a general strike to “shut down the country.”
The US president made the call earlier this week Republicans are “taking over” and “nationalizing” voting In at least 15 unspecified seats, he repeated his false claims of widespread electoral fraud.
On Thursday, Gallego, an Arizona senator and Iraq war veteran, warned against Trump’s interference in November’s deliberations that will determine control of Congress and urged citizens to fight fire with fire.
“We have to prepare for the worst case scenario, they try to grab the ballot box as the ballots are being counted, they try to stop the counting, they try to surround the polling places, whatever it is,” he said. Court of History Podcast With political historians Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz.
“If they do this, if they try to subvert our democracy, we have to make sure that there is a final response to what I believe is a true national strike in the sense that if you’re allied with democracy, don’t go to work, if you’re a pilot, don’t show up, if you drive a train, don’t show up, you don’t show up for the country.
Gallego, who Trump defeated loyalist Kari Lake In 2024, he gained a reputation as a blunt speaker who sometimes used foul language to bring a fight to Republicans. He continued: “We are not going to give up on democracy and continue to work and grow the world’s greatest economy.
“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we have to accept that and, most importantly, the richest and most powerful people in the world and in this country understand that that is a real possibility. There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we take away economic stability.”
Trump’s push to expand federal control over elections comes as his administration has increased pressure on several Democratic-led states to turn over voter data, with the Justice Department suing nearly two dozen states over their voter rolls. Last week the F.B.I The election office was searched For 2020 election records in Fulton County, Georgia.
Trump brought the idea to the fore on Monday Nationalization of elections In a podcast interview with former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and told reporters a day later: “The state is an agent of the federal government in elections. I don’t know why the federal government doesn’t do them.”
His comments were echoed by former Trump adviser and influential right-wing commentator Steve Bannon, who repeated false claims that people living in the US illegally were voting in large numbers in his war room. Tuesday Podcast: “We’re going to round up ICE because the election is coming up in November.”
Federal law prohibits the president from deploying military forces to any location where a general or special election is held, and many states make it a crime to carry firearms at or near polling places. Immigration enforcement may cause US citizens and legal residents to stay at home for fear of detention or racial profiling.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt was asked about Bannon’s comments on Thursday. told reporters: “I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be near a polling place in November — but what I can tell you is that I haven’t heard the president discuss any formal plans to keep ICE outside of polling locations.”
Democrats, who have long criticized Trump for failing to rise to the challenge of the threat to democracy, condemned the president’s latest comments. But no one has gone as far as Gallego as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
He told the Court of History: “We have to show that this is not acceptable. You can’t go to the point where we attack other countries, basically, for such a totalitarian act, they can’t do that. It won’t stand. The American people won’t stand for it.
“They no longer stand the fact that you have ICE agents roaming our neighborhoods without warrants. Now, imagine what happens to the American people when you have a bunch of ICE agents trying to get to the various ballot boxes and stop the count. The reaction is very, very strong. “
