Trump administration to honor SCOTUS pause on mail ballot rules

Attorney General Todd Blanche clarified on Tuesday that the Trump administration planned to follow the Supreme Court’s block of its new rules on mail-in voting. The top court on Monday rejected an appeal from the White House that sought to implement the rules for the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The Supreme Court’s ruling will be honored as always, but the government will continue to ensure that elections remain free and fair, Blanche told reporters on Tuesday.

The Monday ruling drew a strong public reaction from Trump, who said that the justices were afraid of crossing Democrats. These are not the same people he interviewed to serve on the high court, and are mere shells of themselves, Trump said. The president also criticized the Supreme Court’s rulings against his administration’s tariffs and his push to remove birthright citizenship. He claimed that the court's recent decisions set America back by at least a century.

What’s the administration’s next move regarding voting? The SCOTUS ruling won’t impact the Justice Department’s ongoing investigations into illegal voting, he said.

Blanche also defended Trump’s reaction to the ruling, affirming that the president had every right to share his opinions and criticisms of the court. America’s democracy includes three branches of government, and each branch is allowed to be critical of the others; that's how democracy works, he said. The federal government has always been involved in elections, and the Trump administration planned to take the same role in elections as the Biden administration, Blanche added.

The attorney general defended the administration’s push for new absentee ballot rules during an NBC interview released on Tuesday, stating that voting auditors in every state uncovered evidence of possible election fraud. It's common sense that the risk of mail-in voting fraud is greater than voting in person with an ID, he said.