ABC News Washington bureau chief Jonathan Karl on “Washington Week” said President Donald Trump is afraid of another blue wave in 2026 and is “laying the groundwork to challenge the election results.”

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, ‘ATLANTIC’ EDITOR, ‘WASHINGTON WEEK’ HOST: Silly and disingenuous. I think we would agree that that’s a pretty good question. What was your reaction to that to that answer? It didn’t make it sound like ICE is not going to be deployed. LIZ LANDERS, PBS NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think that that’s the takeaway there. Look, it’s not legal to have federal law enforcement agents outside of poll locations. We have laws and states have individual laws about this as well, how far you can be from a polling and voting location. But we’ve seen that this administration over and over has tested the bounds of the law, on immigration, on a number of issues. So, I asked for this because Steve Bannon is an ally of the president, a former adviser to him. He has a very large microphone. And for him to be talking about this and sort of putting this into the ether, I thought it was important to sort of get it on the record with the White House, whether or not they’re talking about this. GOLDBERG: Can I — yes, go ahead. JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: But, look, there’s a context here, which is the Republicans fear major losses coming in the midterm elections. They’ve had a series of setbacks. You had the November losses in New Jersey and in Virginia. You had the loss in Miami. You also had just over the weekend a loss in a state race, state house race, in Texas, where a district that had gone overwhelmingly for Trump was suddenly won by Democrats. The fear is that we’re looking at a real blue wave for these midterm elections. That’s the context here. I think that part of this is trying to intimidate Democratic voters. And part of it is laying the groundwork to challenge the election results from midterm.

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