WATCH: Rep. Joe Morelle, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias on Trump’s Final Push to Rig the Midterms

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Try And Stop Us convened a press call with Congressman Joe Morelle, Democracy Defenders Action Co-Founder Norm Eisen, Elias Law Group Founder Marc Elias, Ohio State Representative Karen Brownlee, Virginia State Delegate R. Kirk McPike, and North Carolina State Senator Jonah Garson on Trump and Republicans’ attacks on voters two weeks before Election Day.

“We’re now fifteen days away from one of the most consequential midterm elections of all time, and Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine the American people’s right to vote,” said Ranking Member Joe Morelle, House Administration Committee. “I’m leading the fight among House Democrats to protect our elections against these threats, and we are winning. We are 26 and 0. Elections belong to the American people, not Donald Trump, not congressional Republicans, and certainly not anyone trying to manipulate the outcome.”

“Trump knows he’s staring down a huge loss, so he’s resorting to intimidation and lies to deny the results and save face,” said Democracy Defenders Action Co-Founder Norm Eisen. “But in our country, voters pick their leaders. Leaders don’t get to pick their voters. Americans are turning out in huge numbers for early vote. We will be in court working to defend voters, to defend the right to cast a ballot, and to vote out those who stand by while Donald Trump engages in these outrageous acts of voter intimidation.”

“I’ve been litigating voting and election cases going back to the 1990s, and there has never been more efforts to try to make it harder for people to vote and easier for Republicans to cheat than we are seeing in these midterm elections,” said Elias Law Group Founder Marc Elias. “The Department of Justice is trying to force the state of California to set aside 20,000 ballots. There is no chance that there are 20,000 illegal voters in the state of California. I’d be surprised if there are 20.”

“Despite voters in 2015 and 2018 wanting to take the redistricting out of the hands of politicians, the supermajority redistricted how they wanted to, and they have a 65-person supermajority at the Statehouse, despite the fact that Ohio is really a 55-45 state,” said Ohio State Representative Karen Brownlee. “We have a Secretary of State right now who is willingly giving voter information over to the federal government, and we are dealing with an attempt by the supermajority to reduce access to voting.”

“Whenever Donald Trump has thought an election wasn’t going to go his way, he starts calling it rigged well in advance,” said Virginia State Delegate R. Kirk McPike. “Donald Trump is afraid that, in a few weeks, he’s going to see an America that looks a lot like what happened in Virginia last year, where House Democrats went from fifty-one seats to sixty-four because voters responded to Donald Trump’s failed policies, which have been raising their prices at the pump and at the grocery store.”

“North Carolina has been a canary in the coal mine for the worst of the worst of voter suppressive tactics. It has remained so,” said North Carolina State Senator Jonah Garson. “What we’re seeing right right now in North Carolina is early voting up by 60% over 2022. Our Sunday early voting went from twenty-one places to seven places. And yet, it’s up 20% for our first Sunday of early voting in North Carolina.”

A recording of the press call is available here.