Homeland Security Secretary Mullin threatens federal funding and broadcast licences in election security push
Markwayne Mullin reiterates Donald Trump’s demands for voter list scrubbing and machine security, citing unsubstantiated claims of non-citizen voting and threatening legal action against networks that refused to air the president’s recent address.
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has pledged to implement a “maximum pressure” campaign to enforce President Donald Trump’s election security directives, threatening to withhold federal funds from states that fail to comply with new security mandates. Speaking on Friday, Mullin largely mirrored the president’s address from the previous night, targeting California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada for non-compliance with demands to scrub voter registration lists and secure electronic voting machines.
Mullin cited figures claiming 250,000 non-citizens are on the voting rolls in the targeted states and nearly 278,000 foreign nationals are registered to vote nationally. He offered no basis for these statistics, and experts have widely dismissed such claims, noting that instances of non-citizen voting are exceedingly rare. An analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that non-citizen voting accounted for just 0.0001 percent of ballots in the 2016 elections.
The administration has proposed using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to consolidate voter information. However, the tool has faced criticism for erroneously flagging foreign-born citizens as non-citizens. Despite these concerns, Mullin stated that security enhancements would be mandatory for states seeking federal grants or reimbursements for election operations.
In a separate development, the Trump administration has threatened to revoke broadcast licences from major television networks, including ABC, NBC, and CNN, for declining to air Trump’s recent primetime speech live. Mullin echoed the president’s criticism of the networks, describing their decision as shameful and implying a broader cover-up. The administration has also sent letters to election officials across the country, threatening prosecution if non-citizen voters are identified.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Anna Gomez, the sole Democratic commissioner, publicly rejected the threat to revoke broadcast licences, calling it a “naked attempt to bully broadcasters.” Gomez stated that the FCC has no authority to punish a station for refusing to air a political speech and noted that the remarks were available online. Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to resist the administration’s measures, stating the state would “fight” for its election integrity.
