Trump’s ‘election integrity’ chief claimed president has future powers to declare voting emergency
DHS official says Trump could declare ‘national emergency’ to control local elections
- Heather Honey, now a Department of Homeland Security official, reportedly told right-wing activists, before working at the DHS, that Trump could declare a “national emergency” to control local elections if 2020 results were deemed manipulated.
- The president is aggressively working to reshape elections, including proposing an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, based on his unsubstantiated claims of a rigged 2020 election.
- High-ranking government officials who supported the false narrative of a stolen 2020 election are now in key positions, with critics fearing their roles could be used against election administration.
- Honey reportedly criticized DHS staff responsible for combating election misinformation for deviating from their mission, coinciding with the purging of nearly all election experts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
- Experts express significant concern that these appointments and the weakening of CISA could lead to the weaponization of government against election processes and amplify false election conspiracies.