WASHINGTON, D.C. – As Donald Trump continues threatening to deploy the military to polling places and intimidate American voters from making their voices heard at the ballot box, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth today pushed senior military officials to do everything they can to protect citizens’ constitutional right to vote from being infringed by this—or any—President.
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During today’s U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing, Duckworth pressed the Commander of Unites States Northern Command, General Michael Guillot, to commit to establishing guardrails that would help ensure Americans don’t feel intimidated while they cast their vote at polling places. Duckworth’s full remarks can be found on the Senator’s YouTube.
“Let’s be clear: we know Trump is laying the groundwork and planning to send troops to polling places in order to intimidate Americans and interfere in our elections,” said Duckworth. “Worse yet, misusing troops around the election is just another way this Administration will be shifting the burden of legal liability onto servicemembers, allowing them to be imprisoned or disciplined while Trump gets off free. Not on my watch—we cannot let this wanna-be dictator misuse our troops and mess with our elections.”
During her line of questioning, Duckworth asked General Guillot: “If you're ordered to deploy troops to provide logistical support to federal agents around the election, would you see any reason for having troops in body armor, carrying their weapons and ammunition, if it's for logistical support?”
General Guillot replied: “No, I would not see any reason to use armed and uniformed members around a polling place for logistics.”
Duckworth also noted that American taxpayers had to pay $21 million for Donald Trump’s decision to federalize 500 Guardsmen in Illinois alone. These were troops who, despite his claims that they “reduced crime in Chicago,” actually never set foot in Chicago. For three months, these troops sat around training sites away from their families and civilian careers because the courts found the deployment illegal within the first 24 hours.
Duckworth has been a leading voice pushing back against Donald Trump’s domestic deployments into American cities to serve his own political agenda. Last month, Duckworth grilled top U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) leader, Mr. Mark Ditlevson, to assure the American people that the Trump Administration would not station troops near polling places in future elections, which is against the law and against our nation’s fundamental democratic values. Ditlevson could not. After Ditlevson acknowledged there could be circumstances in which he would advise deploying the National Guard to polling places, he declined to explain the scope of such deployments or how they would avoid intimidating voters.
Duckworth also criticized the Administration’s failure to coordinate with state leaders, noting that Trump gave Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker just two hours to respond before moving to federalize the Illinois National Guard.
Last year, Duckworth, in a hearing she successfully secured, pushed the Trump Administration’s DoD—including Ditlveson—on Trump’s unlawful and unconstitutional domestic deployments of American military troops to intimidate citizens in their own communities.
