Overview
- Bannon made the call on his War Room podcast and also suggested using the Insurrection Act to deploy military units to secure polling locations.
- A DHS official told Newsweek that ICE is not planning operations targeting polling places but could arrest a specific suspect posing an immediate threat nearby.
- Voting-rights experts note that federal law prohibits voter intimidation and that statutes sharply limit deploying troops or armed federal agents at polling sites.
- Bannon’s remarks followed President Trump’s push to “nationalize” election enforcement, alongside repeated claims of widespread voter fraud that studies have found to be unfounded.
- Scrutiny of ICE has intensified after two fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis, as Democrats weigh conditioning DHS funding on new ICE and CBP safeguards.