Trump's Trials - Ahead of midterms, experts worry about DHS chief's record of election denial

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin's history of false election fraud claims has heightened concerns that voting officials have had for more than a year: that DHS will not be a partner helping to secure elections, but rather a threat seeking to undermine results that Trump dislikes. NPR's Miles Parks reports.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detrow, and this is Trump's terms from NPR. Every episode, we bring you one story from NPR's coverage of the Trump administration with the focus on actions and policies that take the presidency into uncharted territory. Here's the latest from NPR. The new Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen, has, for years amplified President Trump's false claims of the stolen 2020 election. And his history of pushing election misinformation matters, this. midterm year. And peer voting correspondent Miles Parks explains.

One of the things that we learned is there's 14 different technical ways that you can steal an election. That's Gary Bernson, a former CIA operative who is convinced to the falsehood that Venezuela stole the 2020 election. The only problem is, as he explained in this interview with conservative podcaster Laura Logan, he couldn't get anyone to listen to him. Ahead of the 2024 race, he went to the FBI, then the media. No one gave him the time of day until one politician in America was not afraid. Who is that? Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma. Yes. He's a real man. He's a real man. Allies of Bernson say Mullen, then a senator from Oklahoma, got Burnson and his partner in front of President Trump's team at Mar-a-Lago to push conspiracy

theories that are still floating around on the far right two years later, which gets to a larger truth about the Secretary of Homeland Security. He is all in on election denial. What undermines the election is letting fraud and deception steal the election from the real American people that voted legally. That's Mullen speaking to a local TV station shortly after voting ended in 2020. Even on January 6, 2021, after a mob overran the U.S. Capitol during the certification, Mullen was one of 147 congressional Republicans who voted not to certify the results. And he still seems to feel the election was rigged. At his confirmation hearing in March, Mullen declined to say who won when he was asked directly.

by Senator Alyssa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan. Who won the 2020 election? Ma'am, we know that President Joe Biden was sworn into office. That's the president for the last four years. That's sort of hedging where he's voting officials and experts as they look ahead to the midterms. It's not something to joke about, but there is a dark irony to it. Kathy Bookfar was Pennsylvania's top voting official in 2020. The irony she's talking about is Mullen now heading an agency that declared a

2020 that that election was the most secure in American history. States and local governments run their own elections with little input from the federal government. But there are still ways that a federal law enforcement agency can sow chaos or delegitimize results if so desired. One thing many voting officials are worried about is immigration enforcement, which falls under DHS. In an interview last month on the Charlie Kirk show, Borders'R Tom Homan seemed to open to the possibility of ICE officers at polling places. And he noted DHS's role in election security. I mean, bottom line is what are they afraid of? And they say aliens don't vote. But look, part of DHS's job is secure elections. And I'm not going to say, you know,

what our plan is going forward. But if only U.S. citizens can vote, I don't see the issue. At his confirmation hearing, Mullen said DHS agents would only be president at polling places if there was a specific threat they were protecting against. And in a statement to NPR about this story, DHS said Secretary Mullen is, quote, committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders. Mullen is also far from the only person who denies the 2020 election results, who's in a position of power in the Trump administration. But voting officials from both parties say the elevation of people in DHS specifically

undoes a decade of election security work. After Russia interfered in the 2016 race, the federal government spent years, including during the First Trump administration, working to improve threat monitoring and coordination among the nation's 10,000 or so local election jurisdictions. Officials now say that work has completely stopped. It breaks my heart. That's Matt Crane, a Republican former county clerk who now runs the professional organization for local voting officials in Colorado. He says he's now actively discouraging local governments from sharing voter data or any other information with DHS this midterm year. I don't trust how the administration is using that data.

I don't trust that they're going to keep it confidential. And so I can't in good conscience advocate that any of my counties do any work with them right now. Bookfar, the former voting official in Pennsylvania, said trust between the federal government and local voting officials has been, quote, eradicated. Miles Parks, NPR News, Washington. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage. of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon.

And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.