‘He’s not screwing around’: Gavin Newsom warns Trump is trying to rig midterms

With the federal government attempting to keep tens of thousands of people in his state from having their votes counted, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused President Donald Trump of trying to rig the upcoming midterm elections. 

“Trump is not screwing around,” Newsom cautioned Saturday while speaking in New Hampshire. “We know what he’s doing right now. He’s doing it all across the country.”

The governor pointed to Thursday’s Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit against California and Los Angeles, which, he noted, it filed “in the middle of voting.”

The department is seeking a court order barring the state and county from counting around 20,000 potential ballots from people the federal government alleges, without evidence, are likely noncitizens. 

So far, Trump and prominent DOJ officials have used the suit to threaten state and county officials, including potentially Newsom, with criminal penalties.

“He called for the criminal prosecution of me and others this morning on Truth Social,” Newsom said, referring to a post in which Trump wrote that California officials “will all go to jail for a long period of time.”

As a universal mail voting state that gives voters ample time to vote early, California has long occupied a special place on Trump’s list of election grievances. But Newsom highlighted several other of Trump’s attacks on free and fair elections around the country over the past year and a half.

“He’s going after the voting rolls, trying to purge those rolls,” he said. “He’s going after truth and trust on vote by mail.”

“We saw what happened January 6th, when he tried to light democracy on fire. Tried to wreck this country. Called for twelve thousand votes down there in Fulton County and tried to figure out a way to steal the election down in Georgia,” Newsom said.

While issuing his stark warning, the governor urged Democrats to become more assertive.

“We’ve got to be more aggressive,” he said. “We do. I want to go high when they go low. I do. But you know what? We’ll lose this country.”

“We’re trying to win arguments; they’re consolidating power.”

*The Elias Law Group (ELG) is representing pro-voting groups who have asked the court to be added as intervenor-defendants to DOJ’s lawsuit against California. ELG firm chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.