ICYMI Video: Blumenthal Sounds Alarm on Voter Suppression As Trump's Attacks on the Right to Vote Mount

[WASHINGTON, DC] – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) spoke on the Senate Floor yesterday slamming the Trump Administration’s continued efforts to suppress voters and attack the right to vote itself—including rigging election maps, intimidating election officials, and undermining the Voting Rights Act. Blumenthal’s remarks come as voters head to the polls on November 4^th.

“What has always separated America from other nations around the world is the right to vote. But as we stand here, this cherished right is coming under attack, because in 2026, we can expect a continuation of what is happening in these last nine months—that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to undermine the confidence in elections and sow distrust in the election process,” said Blumenthal. “It’s like a spider weaving a web. The Trump Administration has crafted multiple strands when combined together, attack and change the voting landscape in a way that America will not recognize. Trump is attempting to strip power from the states, consolidate it for himself, and subvert the will of the people. It is systematic. It’s strategic. And it is deeply and urgently serious.”

Blumenthal called out the Trump Administration’s use of poll monitors and redistricting efforts, saying, “These are the actions of desperate politicians. Desperate because they know how deeply unpopular their policies are with voters, policies of stripping people of their health care, cutting taxes for the rich, and sending the military into American streets. Instead of changing those policies to win over voters, the Trump Administration is seeking to disenfranchise the voters, suppress votes, and rig these elections by shamelessly moving voters to new districts. The ones who suffer are the voters. Their voices are ignored and often silenced by frightened partisan politicians.”

Blumenthal called upon his colleagues and the American public to decidedly stand against President Trump’s attack on voters and to promote fair and free elections, saying “Now, each of these individual actions of anti-election assault is serious and significant, but each action needs to be seen together as something deeper and broader. It is the sum and substance of totalitarianism. Not at some distant point in the future, not a vague storm cloud on the horizon, but the destruction of democracy here and now. As we approach our democracy's 250th anniversary, we can't afford the luxury of defeatism or despair or complacency.”

A transcript of Blumenthal’s full remarks can be found below, and a video can be found here.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): Mr. President, what has always separated America from other nations around the world is the right to vote. It's a right that everybody in this body cherishes, as do the American people. Every person who approaches the ballot box generally has confidence that their votes are going to be counted and their voice will be heard.

But as we stand here, this cherished right is coming under attack, because in 2026, we can expect a continuation of what is happening in these last nine months, that the Trump Administration is doing everything it can to undermine the confidence in elections and sow distrust in the election process. It's like a spider weaving a web. The Trump Administration has crafted multiple strands when combined together, attack and change the voting landscape in a way that America will not recognize.

Trump is attempting to strip power from the states, consolidate it for himself, and subvert the will of the people. It is systematic. It's strategic. And it is deeply and urgently serious.

Today, I am beginning an extended effort to elevate this issue and sound the alarm, because voters will go to the polls this Tuesday, and my fear is that it could be the last free and fair election, unless we rise up and we act. And this fear is not mine alone. I've heard it all around Connecticut and from my colleagues all around the country, and it is well founded.

President Trump's crusade of voter suppression and election subversion started on day one of the Administration when he pardoned the individuals who participated in the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6. That January 6 attack was not a protest, or even just a riot. It was an assault on the very heart of our democracy. In attempting to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 Election, the January 6 insurrectionists sought to nullify the votes and shatter the peaceful transfer of power that has characterized our democracy for nearly 250 years.

President Trump provided a blanket pardon to the January 6 attackers, and thereby endorsed and placed the Presidential seal of approval on their actions and their direction and goal of seeking to overturn the will of the people. So, it was no accident that these pardons were one of President Trump's very first acts in office. It was an unmistakable signal that his Administration would be obsessed with suppressing votes and undermining free and fair elections.

And since that very first day in office, President Trump and his Administration have been praising and hiring into leadership positions the very people who attempted to subvert our democracy. In fact, just this past month, the White House reportedly hired Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who attempted to overturn the 2020 Election results, and he's working officially as a Special Government Employee tasked with looking into the 2020 Election and current voting machines.

But rewriting the history of January 6 was only the beginning of a relentless, purposeful campaign to stoke fear among voters and sow seeds of distrust in American elections. They've employed federal agencies to help do some of the dirty work. In fact, President Trump has weaponized several federal agencies against you, the voters. He's using these agencies as instruments to suppress your vote. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have both taken alarming actions in recent months, targeting the vote. At DHS a senior department leader, Heather Honey, an election denier and conspiracy theorist in her own right, reportedly told state and local election officials that the Administration could declare a national emergency based on the claim that the 2020 Election was stolen to obtain, “additional powers that don't exist right now,” and act without Congress to, “mandate that states” adopt her preferred radical election rules.

In addition, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, a critical agency within DHS that works with state and local officials to protect the security of our elections, has been gutted. CISA has been instrumental in protecting our elections from cyber-attacks and threats by foreign and domestic actors. These attacks are growing, not diminishing. I don't have to reveal any classified information for the American people to know that attacks by our adversaries on our election system are an increasing threat, but instead of bolstering CISA, President Trump has placed on administrative leave or reassigned nearly all of its election experts. In their place, President Trump has installed inexperienced political activists who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 Election.

Marci McCarthy, named director of public affairs at CISA, was responsible for spreading false claims about faulty voting machines in Georgia. This past July, Sean Plankey, the nominee to head CISA, refused to answer me when I asked him in a hearing if he believed that the 2020 Election was stolen.

President Trump has chosen to attack CISA officials. In April, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Justice and DHS to investigate Chris Krebs, former head of CISA, calling him a, “bad-faith actor” who, “weaponized and abused his authority.” All because Krebs refused to lie and say Trump's 2020 Election was rigged. And because Krebs said there was no evidence in 2020 that, “any voting system, deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” He was attacked. That executive order asked DHS to target him.

At the same time, President Trump has dismantled CISA's election security programs, including by terminating initiatives that monitor foreign disinformation and cutting the funding of systems that detect, deter, and alert states and localities about cyber and physical attacks on election infrastructure.

This dismantling of CISA is fundamental and deeply alarming, but at the Department of Justice, things are no better. President Trump took an axe to the Department of Justice's voting section within the civil rights division. That historic section established and served to protect and uplift the vote. First, he decimated the voting section staff. In January, it was estimated that the section had 30 attorneys on staff to enforce voting rights laws. Today, it's three. Then he decimated its mission, transforming the section from a bulwark against voting suppression into its opposite, a mechanism to suppress voters and stoke fears of voter fraud. So, instead of lifting up the work of voting rights and serving as a staunch defender of voters in the courts, the section has withdrawn its engagement in seven active voting cases. Where it does remain involved in redistricting cases such as Louisiana vs. Callais, it has taken a sudden and staunch anti-voter stance.

The Department of Justice has decided to make a mockery of poll monitoring as well. The Trump DOJ will now use poll monitoring, which began as an effort to secure minorities' vote, when they were denied it, following passage of the Voting Rights Act, to potentially intimidate and surveil voters and officials alike at polling sites in California and New Jersey. He's doing it at the request of the Republican party officials in those states, ahead of the November 4 election.

Those anti-voter campaigns are coupled with efforts to distort the electoral maps. Since President Trump took office, he has pressured Republican state legislators to ignore the will of their voters and effectively elect representatives through extreme and unabashedly partisan gerrymandering.

This flagrantly abusive restrictive redistricting occurred in states like Texas, representing a top-down campaign, directed by President Trump to eradicate as many congressional districts as possible that could conceivably elect a Democrat. For example, the new Texas redistricting seeks to gift Republicans 80% of its House seats in a state where Democrats routinely receive between 40% and 50% of the vote in congressional districts. It's plainly a move designed to target minority voters.

The same playbook follows in Missouri and North Carolina. These are the actions of desperate politicians. Desperate because they know how deeply unpopular their policies are with voters, policies of stripping people of their health care, cutting taxes for the rich, and sending the military into American streets. Instead of changing those policies to win over voters, the Trump Administration is seeking to disenfranchise the voters, suppress votes, and rig these elections by shamelessly moving voters to new districts.

President Trump and Republicans have started a tit-for-tat redistricting arms race, where Democrats are forced to fight fire with fire and play catch-up to undo Republicans' damage and restore balanced representation. The ones who suffer are the voters. Their voices are ignored and often silenced by frightened partisan politicians.

But it isn't just the voters who are undermined. It's our states as well. Under the constitution, it is the states who have the power to oversee the time, place, and manner of their election, subject only to legislation enacted by Congress. The President has given no role, zero, in that process. States are not agents for the federal government, hamstrung to Presidential orders when it comes to elections. In this space of election, they have their own independent, sovereign authority. Yet President Trump believes he can dictate the rules over our elections and seize power from the states for himself, and he sought to do it in a number of important ways that ought to concern this body especially because we represent our states.

Foremost among his tactics, he wants to supplant states in determining the means, methods and mechanisms for placing our votes. Those mechanisms vary. For example, some states use more mail-in voting than others, and states don't always have the same approach to early voting. Rather than the states making those calls, he wants to be big brother himself watching how elections must run, dictating how it's done.

The DOJ has already unsuccessfully sought access to voting machines in Missouri, sending a request to, “access physically, inspect and perhaps take physical custody of election equipment used in the 2020 November General Election.” In March 2025, President Trump issued another executive order that attempted to mandate that the independent bipartisan Election Assistance Commission rescind all previous certifications of voting equipment and recertify systems under amended guideline. That order is currently being challenged in court. It is plainly unlawful. It's reckless, and it is unfair to the states. And it is a false solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist.

President Trump has called voting machines, “highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial.” There's zero evidence—zero—to support these claims. It's all just a pretext to insert federal control over states' rights. States do have rights, and President Trump is trying to override them roughshod.

His tactics are similar with mail-in ballots. In the 2024 Election, nearly one-third of Americans voted by mail. Mail-in voting is instrumental in helping our troops and making sure that every voice is heard even when they are overseas. President Trump has stated that he wants to, “lead a movement to get rid of mail-in voting,” and he posted this past week on social media, “no mail-in or early voting.” He's assigned lawyers to craft another executive order to stop it.

The irony is not lost on anyone that President Trump himself voted by mail in the 2020 Election when he cast his ballot in Florida. In some states, such as Oregon and Washington, mail-in ballots are the primary mechanism used by voters, attempting to illegally strip states of this right will decimate the way our citizens are heard and the foundational principle of states' rights. By law, by tradition, by history and sound public policy, states make this call, not the President. And attempting to strip states of these rights is flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional.

President Trump's lackeys have attempted to bully states into handing over personal and sensitive information contained within state voter rolls. DOJ has requested information or meetings about election information from stays and has demanded 40 states provide their full voter registration list. In a private meeting, Michael Gates, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division disclosed that all 50 states will eventually receive these requests. The eight states that so far have refused to turn over that data are now being sued by the Department of Justice.

Trump is attempting to compile the largest list of voter roll data ever in our history in order to bolster unsubstantiated and false claim of illegal voting by noncitizens, despite the fact that noncitizen voting is essentially nonexistent. This type of national voter roll collection is totally unprecedented in our history. Nothing like it has ever been before, nothing like this invasion of privacy and promises to voters would have been imaginable before January of this year.

The information he's requesting includes your driver's license, your social security numbers, your names, your addresses, your political party, your voting history. He wants to know who you are and potentially use that information however he pleases. And he wants to use that information against states as well, more broadly to be the judge and jury of whether states are effectively running their own election—dissipate the fact that states, and I apologize for repeating it, states are tasked with administering elections under the constitution.

In case Trump's DOJ can't dismantle elections using all of these maligned tactics, the Administration is also targeting election officials who seek to run efficient, fair, honest election and to calculate and certify election results in a nonpartisan way. They are at work in every election. Everybody in this body knows what they do and knows how important they are to free and fair election.

President Trump's DOJ has a new weaponization working group. With a focus on targeting election officials as a result of supposedly widespread voter fraud. It's the product of fevered imagination. The Department of Justice is also exploring whether they can bring criminal charges against state and local officials if they believe those officials have not adequately safeguarded their computer system from harms, despite gutting CISA, the very agency assisting them in safeguarding their computers and software. To instill fear in election workers, the Administration is doing everything it can to signal it will punish anyone who doesn't bow to them.

Since 2020, Trump has been posting on social media and publicly calling for prosecution against election officials he accuses of working against him. Prosecuting election officials won't make elections any safer or fairer. It's simply about creating fear and anxiety. It will lead to an exodus of individuals, it has already begun, that we need to rely on to run our elections.

The fearmongering seems to be having its effect. Ever since Trump began espousing false claims of stolen elections in 2020 and putting this kind of pressure on the dedicated men and women who show up for election to help run them, election officials have reported harassment, threats, and abuse locally. Election officials with institutional knowledge of how local systems run and who are imperative to registering voters and maintaining voting processes are leaving their roles at an alarming rate. The turnover was especially pronounced in large jurisdictions where the Trump Campaign focused its misinformation campaign around 2020 Election.

Now, each of these individual actions of anti-election assault is serious and significant, but each action needs to be seen together as something deeper and broader. It is the sum and substance of totalitarianism. Not at some distant point in the future, not a vague storm cloud on the horizon, but the destruction of democracy here and now. As we approach our democracy's 250th anniversary, we can't afford the luxury of defeatism or despair or complacency. We need to join together, sound the alarm across differences of political party, geography, financial interests, personal background, and all the rest.

Join in this body, come together, because we have a common interest in making sure that elections are free and fair. And more than words, we need action, your action as voters, registering to vote and enabling others to do so, volunteering to work at the polls and supporting election officials and administrators, contributing to organizations that defend voting rights in court. Demanding that public officials unite against the sabotage of our democracy, uniting at rallies, town halls and every other form available to make your voice known.

I'll be reaching out to colleagues on both sides of the aisle coming to the Floor and reaching out to the American people just as we threw off the yoke of monarchy two and a half centuries ago, the American people still have the power to determine their own future. They still have the courage to make good trouble, as John Lewis, the historic voting champion, said. And most of all, the American people have the will and fortitude to stand up to this assault.

Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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