Democrats will prevent Donald Trump from attempting to interfere with this year’s US midterm elections, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said on Sunday.
His comments follow growing concern after Trump suggested that Republicans should “take over the voting”, remarks that critics say risk undermining confidence in the electoral process. Under the US constitution, election rules are set by individual states, with Congress able to legislate for federal elections. The president has no authority over how elections are run.
“What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalise the election, translation: steal it,” Jeffries said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “And we’re not going to let it happen.”
Jeffries said Democrats had already blocked attempts by Trump to federalise control of the national guard and had countered Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional district boundaries in ways that would favour their party.
“This is going to be a free and fair election,” he said. “It will be conducted like every other election, where states and localities administer the law.”
The Trump administration has for months questioned the integrity of the midterms, filing lawsuits against several states over their management of voter rolls. Last month, the FBI carried out an unprecedented raid on the election office in Fulton county, Georgia, seizing ballots and voter data linked to the 2020 election.
Claims of fraud in Fulton county have repeatedly been debunked, yet Trump has continued to promote false allegations.
Later in the interview, Jeffries criticised Trump for failing to apologise over a racist post shared on his Truth Social account that depicted former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes. The White House removed the post on Friday following public backlash, blaming a staff member for uploading it.
“He definitively needs to apologise,” Jeffries said. “It was a disgusting video and the president was rightly and forcefully denounced across the country.”
He added that some Republicans had shown “backbone” by condemning what he described as Trump’s “malignant” behaviour.
The California senator Adam Schiff also accused Trump of attempting to interfere in the elections. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Schiff questioned why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present during the Fulton county raid.
“He fully intends to try to subvert the elections,” Schiff said. “He will do everything he can to suppress the vote, and if he loses, he’s prepared to take action to overturn the result.”
The Virginia senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, also raised concerns over Gabbard’s involvement. Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, he said the intelligence chief’s role should focus on foreign threats, not domestic election matters.
“We have not been informed of any foreign nexus,” Warner said. “My fear is that as Trump sees the political winds turning against him, he will try to interfere in the 2026 election.”
