Trump’s extraordinary move to paralyze the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) wipes out the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration months before the US midterm elections, The Guardian reported.
Critics, including senior Democrats, vowed to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to increase the federal government’s involvement in elections. Trump continues to push the Save America Act, a rightwing makeover of elections that would impose new restrictions on voting.
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP civil rights organization, said, “Donald Trump knows that in November voters will reject everything he stands for. The economy is devastating, he’s starting endless wars resulting in Americans dying, and his paramilitary ICE police force is terrorizing our communities. Trump is terrified of the sacred power we all hold as voters, and that’s why he wants to rig this election.”
“Mr. President, your plan will fail miserably. If you think the American people will allow fascism, you are gravely mistaken. The NAACP will do everything in our power to send people to the polls and make their voices heard.”
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic US Senate minority leader, said the move followed Trump’s own suggestion that Republicans should “take over the voting” and called the dismissals a “brazen attempt” to grab control of elections “before a single ballot is cast”.
MNA