California Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff warned during an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Trump intends to “subvert” the midterm elections, perhaps by forcing through a bill mandating voter ID. “He’s basically telling us he intends to interfere in this upcoming election,” Schiff said. “We cannot ignore what they’re telling us they’re going to do because time and time again we have seen that they’re willing to go to extraordinary and lawless lengths. The last, best hope for our democracy is not going to be the Congress or the court, it’s going to be the American people.” “Republicans have created distrust in the elections by making claims of non-existent fraud in the elections,” Schiff said. ABC’s Jon Karl asked: “But in one recent Pew poll, 83 percent of adults support requiring photo I.D. to vote. 71 percent of Democrats favor requiring photo ID Is that something that you can support? And if not, why not?” “It’s still going to be something that disenfranchises people,” Schiff said. “People who don’t have the proper Real ID, driver’s license, don’t have the ID necessary to vote, even though they are citizens. This is another way to simply try to suppress the vote.” “The last thing I think we want to do is discourage more people, more citizens from voting while they are attacking those same elections, while they’re trying to do away with absentee ballot voting, while they’re trying to do away with being able to register to vote through the DMV or by the mail. So it’s part of the broader disenfranchisement effort. And no, I don’t think that’s the right direction.”

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CALIFORNIA: I think he’ll — intends to try to subvert the elections. He will do everything he can to suppress the vote. And if he loses the vote, and I think the Republicans now expect they’ll get a real drubbing in the midterms, he’s prepared to try to take some kind of action to overturn the result. And we really shouldn’t question that. We saw him try to the point of insurrection to overturn the 2020 election. We see him now taking these extraordinary steps with an election now years ago. He’s basically telling us he intends to interfere in this upcoming election. He hasn’t brought prices down. There’s chaos and killing in American streets by ICE agents. The public has turned against him. In every election we’ve had since his election, the voters have swung wildly against him. And as you know, he said at that prayer breakfast, his ego cannot stand another loss. So, we have to prepare for the worst. We have to prepare in every way we can. And frankly, the best preparation we have is not the Congress because Republican senators for the most part are not going to stand up to him. The courts are useful at the lower levels, but at the Supreme Court, they have left him unrestrained. The best protection we have is to mobilize the largest voter turnout in U.S. history to so overwhelm the vote and get the kind of margins we saw in Texas in the special election so that there’s no way they can cheat. KARL: But on this idea of, quote, nationalizing the elections, obviously the Constitution says the states control the elections. Congress has — could have a role. Congress can change those regulations, the Constitution tells us, but Thune, the Senate leader, Republican Senate leader, and Johnson, the speaker of the House, Republican speaker of the House, have both said they oppose this. So, given that set of facts, there’s nothing that Trump can do legally, is there, to, quote, nationalize the elections? SCHIFF: Well, this depends on a couple things. It depends on whether the Republican leads you just quoted really hold fast to that. And, time after time, we have seen them initially make statements of willingness to stand up to the president and his lawlessness, in this case is a willful defiance of the Constitution. But we’ve seen that melt away. But also, this is a president more than willing to act lawlessly. More than willing, I think, as we see in Georgia, to deploy the Director of National Intelligence, who has no role in election whatsoever. Her job is to oversee the work of the intelligence agencies outward focusing on foreign threats, not to create a threat to our domestic tranquility by interfering in elections. But that’s what they’re doing. So, you know, we cannot ignore what they’re telling us they’re going to do because time and time again we have seen that they’re willing to go to extraordinary and lawless lengths. The last, best hope for our democracy is not going to be the Congress or the court, it’s going to be the American people. And the American people are speaking out and they are protesting and they’re going to turn out, I hope, in the most massive numbers in November. KARL: You — you’re a — been involved in intelligence. You were the chair of the Intelligence Committee in the House. Can you explain why is it concerning that the Director of National Intelligence would not only be present for an FBI raid of this — you know, to get the ballots in Georgia, but also there at a meeting with FBI agents and putting the president of the United States on the phone during that meeting? Explain why this is of concern. SCHIFF: Well, this is alarming at every level. First of all, why is the FBI conducting a raid five years after the fact when there were three recounts in Georgia? Why are they even there? And, remember, this is the site of the election in which the president called Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, the Republican secretary of state, and demanded he find 11,780 votes that don’t exist. So, what are they doing there now? Are they going to manufacture some claim, having seized ballot boxes, that there were, in fact, 11,780 votes? And why is the director of intelligence, who has no role in domestic law enforcement there, what is the president personally doing on the phone with FBI agents during a raid? All of this is unprecedented. I think all of this is intended to send a message, and the message is, we will not tolerate or accept an election that we lose. And we need to pay attention to this. It’s why I think in these budget discussions we need to make sure to insist among other things that we don’t have ICE agents at polling places. We’re going to make sure that those elections take place and that they’re free and that they’re fair, because this is what’s going to stop this country from sliding into some kind of dictatorship. KARL: I want to play something that your Republican colleague, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, said this week on “Fox Business.” SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): President Trump wants same day voting, mail ballots, get rid of these voting machines. There’s a half a dozen people, whether it’s the House or Senate, Larry, that are up here as we speak that did not get elected. It was all bogus because we’ve seen the evidence. And if we don’t straighten that out, you’re going to see alto more of it this fall. KARL: Now, President Trump actually took that clip and posted it on his social media feed. What — how do you respond to those extraordinary and unfounded allegations from Senator Tuberville? SCHIFF: Well, this is just the latest iteration of the big lie. He is laying the foundation to challenge the results of November if they go against the president and his party. And it’s not just Tommy Tuberville. You cited a moment ago Speaker Mike Johnson as somehow defending our Constitution. Well, Mike Johnson was also saying something very similar to Tommy Tuberville. He said that three House — or three Republicans in California were ahead on election day and lost when the absentee ballots came in in California, and therefore there must be fraud. And he couldn’t prove it but he was sure that it took place. Well, that’s the same kind of big lie that you’re hearing from Tommy Tuberville, that you heard from Donald Trump, and continue to hear from Donald Trump. This is part of laying the foundation to challenge the result when they lose in the midterms. And we need to call it out. We need to spell it out. Even as they are saying, people don’t trust the elections, they are the reason why people don’t trust the elections because they keep telling the American people that somehow American elections are untrustworthy. It is the same thing you see of tin pot dictators anywhere. KARL: So Republicans are making a push for the so-called SAVE Act, at least some Republicans are. It would require a proof of citizenship to be able to vote. I understand you and other Democrats oppose that. Roughly 20 some — or some million voting age Americans who don’t actually have the — the papers that would be required to show, readily available. But given there’s — the Republicans have undermined confidence in elections and the integrity of elections, what about the — what about the idea of voter I.D., a photo I.D. being required to vote? Are you in favor that? Can there be a compromise where Democrats and Republicans put forward photo I.D. as a requirement for voting? SCHIFF: So, you know, Jonathan, what you’ve just asked is essentially Republicans have created distrust in the elections by making claims of non-existent fraud in the elections. And shouldn’t we use the distrust they’ve created in order to enact a voter suppression law, which is the SAVE Act, which would require people to have a birth certificate or passport, documents that millions of Americans don’t have, almost half the country doesn’t have a passport? And I don’t know where many would even find a birth certificate. So, no, we’re not — KARL: I was — no, no, no. But I asked you — SCHIFF: — only fraud claims. Yes. KARL: But I was asking you a different question. Photo I.D. because, as you know, let’s show — there was a recent poll. There’s been a lot of polls on this. But in one recent Pew poll, 83 percent of adults support requiring photo I.D. to vote. 71 percent of Democrats favor requiring photo I.D. Is that something that you can support? And if not, why not? SCHIFF: It’s still going to be something that disenfranchises people, that don’t have the proper real I.D., driver’s license I.D., that don’t have the I.D. necessary to vote, even though they are citizens. This is another way to simply try to suppress the vote. And the last thing I think we want to do is discourage more people, more citizens from voting while they are attacking those same elections, while they’re trying to do away with absentee ballot voting, while they’re trying to do away with being able to register to vote through the DMV or by the mail. So it’s part of the broader disenfranchisement effort. And no, I don’t think that’s the right direction.

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