Key Swing States Say DOJ’s “Election Monitors” Are Acting Out

For the first time in U.S. history, the White House is monitoring elections across the entire country—and they’ve already crossed the line.

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it had placed roughly 1,000 election monitors and observers in all 50 states. They will be assessing polling places for compliance with federal election statutes.

The declaration also specified more than 100 jurisdictions that the agency intends to monitor. Most of the inclusions are either Democratic strongholds or hotly contested districts in the midterm elections.

“Election integrity has been one of the top priorities for this Administration and this Division,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “I am very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner.”

Previous administrations have similarly tapped monitors to oversee election cycles, but never before at this level. In 2024, the DOJ monitored 86 jurisdictions across 27 states. It was the largest such effort by the DOJ since at least 2004. But some election officials have already flagged the 2026 rollout as a potential intimidation tactic that could scare voters away from actually participating at the ballot box.

Within hours of the DOJ announcement, New Mexico’s secretary of state told PBS NewsHour that some of the agency’s monitors had been asking “some unusual questions and doing things that are not allowed by law such as questioning voters” in Bernalillo County.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department subsequently told NewsHour that their “team had a productive call with the New Mexico Secretary of State just a few minutes ago,” and that they “believe the issue is resolved and will not affect our ongoing monitoring for the rest of the day.”

Similar complaints also emerged out of Michigan. There were at least two instances in Dearborn and Flint in which the DOJ’s election monitors overstepped their authority, a spokesperson for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office told the Detroit Free Press. The monitors reportedly asked election workers for copies of their training materials and the training they personally received.

DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told VoteBeat that the monitors “asked their typical questions about election official training.”

“These are standard questions on the forms we provided our monitors. They are the same questions asked by monitors in the past, including during the previous administration,” Pels said.

Since 2020, Donald Trump and his allies have relentlessly opined about alleged voter fraud, attempting to not only rewrite prior election results but also unravel the tools of future elections, such as mail-in voting. But his rhetoric has also had the auxiliary effect of damaging public trust in American democracy, disenfranchising voters—and their faith in their individual power—as a result.

Dhillon herself has been tied to prominent election deniers and conspiracy theorists, including the president, 2022 Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and former Trump fixer Rudy Giuliani.

Earlier this year, Dhillon oversaw a series of lawsuits against dozens of state election officials as the administration attempted to gain access to local voter rolls containing sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, as part of a nationwide investigation to uncover noncitizens who might vote in the November election.

One arm of that legal effort was torn to shreds by a judge last week, who argued that “never before in American history has the federal government, on the eve of an election, sought to coerce a state and local government to abandon their own Constitutional elections procedures and bend to the will of the Executive Branch.”

This story has been updated.

A man pardoned by President Donald Trump after making threats in Washington, D.C., after the January 6 Capitol riot was just charged for making threats against federal judges.

Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. made multiple social media posts over the past few years, including commentary related to January 6, supporting Trump, and expressing QAnon conspiracy theories. At least one of them caught the attention of federal agents, according to a recent court filing.

In an April post on Facebook, Meredith said, “ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be executed” with grinning and middle-finger emojis. In another post, Meredith threatened 10 federal judges by name, warning that “[Pete] Hegseth has plans 4U.”

Meredith’s posts have drawn attention from federal agents before, with the FBI interviewing him on November 12, 2024, and August 14, 2025. His April post, however, crossed the line, according to FBI Special Agent Richard Taylor, who said in a criminal complaint that due to Meredith’s history of “violent online rhetoric,” his post was either for “(i) the purpose of issuing a threat, (ii) with knowledge that his post would be viewed as a threat, or (iii) while consciously disregarding a substantial risk that his post would be viewed as a threat.”

This criminal complaint is very similar to the charges that Meredith faced in 2021. While he arrived in Washington too late to take part in the Capitol insurrection thanks to car trouble, he sent a text message from a hotel room to a relative the next day allegedly threatening to “put a bullet” in then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s head.

The FBI arrested Meredith, and after he consented to a search of his hotel room, they “found a 9 mm semi-automatic firearm, an assault-style rifle with a telescopic sight, approximately 2,500 rounds of ammunition, and multiple large-capacity ammunition feeding devices inside the trailer.” Meredith pleaded guilty to interstate communication of threats and was sentenced to 28 months in prison, though he later was included in Trump’s mass pardons and clemency for January 6 defendants.

Now Meredith is in trouble with the law again, not unlike other Capitol insurrectionists. As of June, at least 97 of them, or about one in 16, have been arrested for various crimes, including child molestation and reckless homicide, after they were pardoned.

Representative Haley Stevens does not seem to be handling her growing rift with the Democratic Party very well.

On Tuesday morning, the Michigan Democrat indicated she was unwilling to speak with the press before diving into a nonsensical diatribe as she marched into a polling place in Birmingham, Michigan, on her mother’s arm.

“Does it feel worth it to have endorsed Mike Rogers today? Any comment at all?” asked NewsNation’s Hannah Brandt.

“Look, I’m with my mom, this is our tradition here. You know what this is? It’s the people’s day,” Stevens said, with her enormous Vince Camuto straw Panama hat partially shielding her face. “And I—I told this to our Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries—it’s Majority Makers Day.”

“What do you mean by that?” Brandt pressed.

“And look, I released a big article, or set of thoughts, yesterday,” Stevens said, referring to an 890-word AI-assisted plea that she published on her X account.

“That’s right, I did read that. I want to know, does it feel worth it, ma’am?” Brandt asked.

“Absolutely, voting is always worth it,” Stevens concluded.

Stevens imploded her reputation and doomed her political prospects over the weekend. On Friday, Stevens demanded that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed—the man who bested her in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary—apologize for his prior criticism of Israel. Representative Debbie Dingell then waded into the mix, disinviting Stevens from a church event with El-Sayed and Representative James E. Clyburn, one of Stevens’s lower-chamber mentors.

That’s when Stevens went berserk. Rather than attempt to make peace or let bygones be bygones, she did a complete 180 and endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, aligning herself with the MAGA endorsee in an apparent effort to undermine El-Sayed’s odds. Notably, she did so without telling anyone, as her staff was reportedly at the El-Sayed event waiting for her arrival.

Since then, even Stevens’s aides have abandoned her in favor of El-Sayed. On Monday, nearly two dozen of her former Senate campaign staffers torched her recent behavior as “selfish,” “irrational,” and “shameful” in an open letter.

“For over a year, Rep. Stevens criticized Mike Rogers as a corrupt career politician who would blindly rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s chaos, regardless of the damage it inflicted on Michiganders. It’s infuriating to watch her become the very thing she once condemned,” they wrote.

“She told CNN there was too much ‘on the line’ to play games a few days ago,” the former staffers wrote. “Now, she’s doing just that. Her appalling behavior is an insult to anyone who wasted even a moment of their time supporting her campaign.”

Stevens’s MAGA endorsement could even cost her her job, as Democrats mull calls to banish her from the House, NBC News reported on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump told Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning that U.S. aid to Israel will cease at the end of the year.

“We were giving them $4 billion. We are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year,” Trump said. When host Brian Kilmeade asked why, the president replied, “Because they don’t need it,” saying Israeli officials told him as much.

“Why should we suffer the slings from lunatics like an [Abdul] El-Sayed when they don’t need it? It’s a bad talking point, because you say, why don’t we give everybody $4 billion? Israel’s our number one, we give them more than anybody else, and they no longer need it. We’ve been doing it for years, I’ve been doing it. But Israel is a very thriving country, they don’t need it,” Trump continued, saying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the issue with him and that they have come to an agreement.

“[Netanyahu] understands that this is one of their points of contention. Israel’s been a great ally, much more reliable than most,” Trump added, before going off on a tangent about Europe.

Trump didn’t specify whether he meant military or general aid was ending, even when Kilmeade asked him to clarify. The U.S. has sent $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since October 2023, and efforts to cut off aid to the country due to the genocide in Gaza have failed in Congress despite support from nearly half of House Democrats.

But Trump’s pledge, even if it’s true, likely does not mean an end to U.S. support for Israel. The House passed Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act earlier this year integrating U.S. and Israel defense technology, which could effectively be a backdoor to more taxpayer funding for Israel’s military. Plus, Trump could easily be making an empty promise in a last-ditch election ploy.

Republicans appear to be on the brink of losing power in Congress—and Donald Trump is not handling it well.

The president freaked out on Monday night in a series of Truth Social posts about the Alaska Senate race, where Republican Senator Dan Sullivan is not only up against Democratic challenger Mary Peltola but also an independent candidate and retired schoolteacher sharing his name: Daniel J. Sullivan.

“FAKE ALASKA CANDIDATE DANIAL J. SULLIVAN, JR., IS MISSING IN ACTION!” Trump wrote online at 1:12 a.m. “HE HAS TOTALLY DISAPPEARED, GONE! NOBODY HAS BEEN ABLE TO FIND HIM.”

CBS News reported on Saturday that the political independent had left his hometown and flown to Anchorage. A source that witnessed him board the plane told the network that he and his wife are locally known as “world travelers.”

Two days before that, The New York Times reported that Sullivan was recruited by individuals connected to Peltola’s campaign.

“MAYBE HE HAS BEEN ‘KIDNAPPED’ BY THE CORRUPT DUMOCRAT LAWYERS??? THEY ARE SCARED STIFF OF BEING PROSECUTED FOR ELECTION FRAUD!!!” Trump continued.

In another post, Trump urged the “GREAT PEOPLE OF ALASKA” to vote for the Republican incumbent, as well as Bernadette Wilson for governor and Nick Begich for the House.

“These Great Patriots have my Complete and Total Endorsement—They will never let you down!” Trump wrote.

In yet another post, Trump claimed that “no one has done more for Alaska than ‘TRUMP’” but that “Dan Sullivan has been with us all the way.”

“The Dumocrats are trying to steal this Race by putting a FAKE Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr. on the Ballot. People will not be able to figure it out, and many Votes will be lost,” Trump wrote.

Alaskans have already widely refuted the administration’s concerns, insisting that they’re capable of reading. One Anchorage resident told CNN last week that the controversy hasn’t shaken his vote at all, saying that you can “absolutely” tell who’s who on the ballot.

“And I don’t even have my glasses on,” he quipped. “It’s pretty clear. It’s in black and white.”