Durbin: The President’s aims are clear. He wants to make the case for the ‘Big Lie’ that the 2020 election was stolen from him so he can assuage his fragile ego and justify directly interfering in the 2026 and 2028 elections.
WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sounded the alarm on the Trump Administration’s threats to election integrity. Durbin began his remarks by commenting on the Administration’s outrageous attempt to convince a grand jury to indict Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and U.S. Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO-06), Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH-02), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-06).
Durbin said, “What happened yesterday in the courts of the District of Columbia was one side of the equation frightening and on the other side encouraging. [It is] frightening that any Administration would think they can squash free speech of Members of Congress… There’s never been a president who used the Department of Justice to quiet Congress in this way… The fact that the grand jury of residents of the District of Columbia stood up and rejected this indictment of two Senators and several members of the House is proof positive that people still understand the basic values of our Constitution, and one of them is our freedom of expression. Freedom to speak. Freedom to express our point of view.”
Durbin continued, “Why did it reach this point that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia tried to quiet Members of Congress because of the objection of what Members of Congress were saying? This was a test. I hope it is the last test… It is up to us, Democrats and Republicans, for the good of this Constitution, and the value and the good of the Congress and the value of the Constitution to stand behind those members who are exercising their rights.”
Durbin then condemned what happened in Fulton County, Georgia, two weeks ago—when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized hundreds of thousands of ballots from the 2020 presidential election. Reports indicate President Trump personally ordered Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, a prominent 2020 election denier, to go to Georgia for the raid. The President then spoke directly to the FBI agents who conducted the raid.
“To state the obvious, it is completely inappropriate for the President and the Director of National Intelligence to be personally involved in a domestic criminal investigation. But Attorney General Pam Bondi has allowed the President to weaponize her department and federal law enforcement to pursue his personal and political goals. Why target Fulton County? Because this jurisdiction has been at the center of President Trump’s false and baseless claims concerning so-called ‘fraud’ in the 2020 election—an election he still refuses to acknowledge and concede,” Durbin said.
In early 2021, President Trump pressured the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” the 11,780 votes needed to swing the election his way. Following that, on January 6, 2021, a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“He failed. But now, his endgame for 2026 has become clear: he’s working to rewrite the rules of the game and rig the system to ensure he maintains his grip on power,” said Durbin.
Durbin then spoke about efforts to redistrict Texas. President Trump demanded Republicans in the Texas legislature conjure up five additional red seats in a redistricting scheme—and hold onto the House after the midterm elections.
“In the meantime, the Administration has deployed thousands of immigration enforcement agents to cities like Minneapolis and Chicago that didn’t vote for the President. I never thought I’d witness an America where masked federal agents in military tactical gear violently arrest innocent Americans because of the color of their skin. An America where citizens like Chicagoan Marimar Martinez can be shot five times by federal agents with impunity [and] be branded falsely as a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Thankfully, unlike Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Ms. Martinez survived. And DHS has directed immigration agents to crash down the doors of our private homes to arrest people without any judicial warrant, in blatant disregard of the Fourth Amendment,” said Durbin.
In the wake of this immigration enforcement surge and the ensuing chaos, Attorney General Bondi sent a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and offered an off ramp that the Administration will pull back immigration enforcement agents in return for Minnesota’s voter rolls.
Durbin said, “If you’re Donald Trump, you want those voter rolls to push unwarranted purges and disenfranchise voters—especially voters who aren’t likely to support you in the next election. In fact, the Justice Department has now sued dozens of states for their voter rolls. All of this is textbook authoritarianism… And I fear the President of the United States is working to rig the system to ensure that Republicans never lose another election.”
Top Trump ally Steve Bannon said last week, “We’re gonna have ICE surround the polls…. We’ll never again allow an election to be stolen.” Last week, President Trump doubled down by saying, “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least…15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
Durbin continued, “Article I of the Constitution—and decades of Supreme Court precedent—make it clear that the President cannot take over the administration of elections from the states. I’m old enough to remember when Republicans cared about the Constitution… Just imagine for a moment that Barack Obama or Joe Biden had called for nationalizing elections and told federal agents they could raid private homes without judicial warrants and approval?”
Durbin concluded, “The President’s aims are clear. He wants to make the case for the ‘Big Lie’ that the 2020 election was stolen from him so he can assuage his fragile ego and justify directly interfering in the 2026 and 2028 elections. Republican Senators won’t speak up, but the American people will at the polls, [they will] in the streets of Minneapolis and Chicago, and in the halls of the U.S. Capitol, we hear their voices. We will do everything in our power to save our democracy from a President who has such distain for our Constitution and democracy.”
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
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