“Let’s put you on notice again. ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections”
STEVE BANNON (HOST): Democrats are saying this is the greatest voter suppression movement in history. Here’s the reason, Minnesota shows you this, New York City shows you this, if they don’t have illegal aliens voting, if they don’t have these phony migrants that are here on these phony programs that are at the polls — and you’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.
We’re not gonna sit here and allow you to steal the country again. And you can whine and cry and throw your toys out of the pram all you want, but we will never again allow an election to be stolen. And that’s why I’m so proud of what President Trump is doing and people are doing. Caroline Wren, your thoughts on that before I go to Brad?
CAROLINE WREN (GUEST): I think what you said about ICE is very much related to this, because in fact, Senator Mark [Warner] said in an interview, he said, we don’t want ICE agents showing up at the polling stations. That’s what this is all about. That’s why they’re trying to defund ICE, that’s why they’re trying to, you know, go after and target ICE and shut it down.
Why would you care if ICE shows up to polling stations because illegal aliens are not allowed to vote in this country. Except for the problem is they do, and they do in these, they’re not blue states, I was gonna say blue states. Minnesota is a deeply red state that is held hostage by illegals voting and it is — the minorities have taken over there, and by minorities I mean the minority party, the Democratic Party there, and that is due to allowing illegals to vote. And so that is what this outrage by the left is against ICE.
They’re desperately trying to shut down the DHS funding bill. They don’t want ICE funded because they don’t want ICE at the polling stations to stop illegals from voting.
BANNON: The ask here on the Save Act, and Make Elections Great Again Act are pretty basic. A legitimate ID to show who you are to vote. It is to clean up the voter rolls. We’ve had Tom Fitton on here, there are millions, there are tens of millions, particularly in places like Georgia, but all over the nation there are tens of millions of people on voter rolls that should not be, they have to be cleaned up, and the blue states are the ones that are fighting the Justice Department.
And then the last is, you’ve got to go back to the basic law. If you’re gonna have mail-in ballots, you have to have signature verification, you have to have the double envelopes, you have to have everything so we can’t have a 2020 and the Democrats don’t want to play with that because they know how to steal elections.
Let’s just, let’s put you on notice again. ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections because we are never again going to allow your business model because — I think Jesse Kelly is right, 20% of the country probably votes for Democrats, you know, the credentialed class and of course the abject poor that they keep on these social welfare programs and never let them off it. That’s the Democratic Party base with a handful of oligarchs, the super wealthy, that’s who controls the Democratic Party.
The way that they continue to win elections is they cheat. If they don’t cheat, they can’t win. And now they’re sitting there saying President Trump is a fascist. These are very basic things, and they’re not — we’re going to find out today, Chip Roy is going to come on. As hard as Anna Paulina Luna and people have been working I’m not so sure the Save Act even comes to a vote.
Steve Bannon: ‘You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.’Photograph: Tierney L Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist and rightwing podcast host, said he wants to see immigration agents at the polls in November, a proposal that election officials have feared.
Bannon has no formal power, but is an influential figure on the far right and is closely tied with the Trump administration.
Donald Trump this week again suggested that the federal government “should take over the voting” and federalize elections, which are run by local and state jurisdictions, as part of his ongoing false claims that Democrats have stolen elections. He also reiterated lies that undocumented people are brought to the US to vote and their participation led to Democratic electoral victories.
Repeating false claims that undocumented people vote in large numbers in US elections, Bannon said on his War Room show on Tuesday: “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”
The comments come as elections officials nationwide grow more concerned about potential interference from the Trump administration in this year’s midterms. One of those fears is that immigration agents will be near polling places or have a heavy footprint in Democratic areas on election day.
Law enforcement presence at the polls is generally seen as a negative among election officials, and in some places subject to legal parameters, because it can intimidate voters from casting their ballots. Immigration agents, in particular, have caused people – including US citizens and otherwise legal residents – to stay home for fear of detention or racial profiling.
Trump has attempted to take over aspects of elections via an executive order that, among other provisions, would have required proof of citizenship to vote. Courts have blocked much of the order from going into effect, recognizing the states’ roles in managing elections. Congress also has considered bills that would require proof of citizenship, though those efforts appear stalled.
In Minnesota, where thousands of agents have surged in the last month, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued a set of demands to the state to get the government to draw down its agents. Among those demands: the state turning over its voter rolls to the federal government. The Department of Justice has requested and is suing to get access to the voter rolls in several states, and elections officials have fought back against the requests over privacy and security concerns.
“Let’s put you on notice again: ICE is going to be around the polls in the 2026 midterm elections,” Bannon said, adding that the Democrats were mostly “the credentialed class” who keep “the abject poor … on these social welfare programs and never let them off it”.
