"The View" co-host Joy Behar argued Tuesday that President Donald Trump was sending National Guard troops to U.S. cities to stop future elections, suggesting Americans may not be allowed to vote.
"This is a pretext to stop the next election," Behar argued. "That's what I think."
The panel discussed Trump's orders to deploy troops to Portland and Chicago, criticizing the move. The president said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy federal troops after a federal judge blocked his administration from sending National Guard units to Portland.
"This is in order to make the case, because in all of their minds, they now believe they have carte blanche to do whatever they want to," co-host Whoopi Goldberg said.
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Behar said, "And if they stop us from voting, that's the one thing people have."
Goldberg replied, "It's the one thing that makes us very different from lots of other countries. Our votes - they do count. I do know that they count," as Behar wondered if Americans would still be allowed to vote.
"I think people will figure out how to vote," Goldberg continued. "One thing I believe I know about Americans is they don't want to be told what to do… They don't want a dictatorship."
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., and Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., have also suggested Trump could tamper with future elections.
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Newsom said he's "raising awareness around how Donald Trump is trying to rig the midterm elections," adding, "I fear that we will not have an election in 2028."
Pritzker said in late August that Trump was planning an "invasion" with U.S. troops so he could ultimately take control of the 2026 midterms.
"The other aims are that he would like to stop the elections in 2026, or, frankly, take control of those elections," Pritzker said. "He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election, and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control, if, in fact, he's allowed to do this."
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Liberal media figures have also floated that Trump would tamper with or cancel the midterm elections.
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Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
