Michigan senator warns Trump's election remarks could draw supporters to Detroit-area voting centers

Michigan leaders are reacting to comments that President Trump gave during a speech Thursday, in which he alleged the U.S. election system falls "catastrophically short" and called out a previous investigation in Michigan. 

In the speech, Mr. Trump spoke on a topic that has drawn his attention for years — including claims that election experts have heavily disputed. 

As CBS News reported, the White House declassified files about an FBI investigation into a 2020 Michigan voter registration drive in Muskegon County that state and federal law enforcement agents believed included fraudulent registrations. The probe was closed, drawing pushback from investigators. 

Mr. Trump called the target of the probe a "Democrat get-out-the-vote organization," and argued the "Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it."

State officials have said the questionable registrations were caught before any fraudulent votes could be cast.

Michigan Democrats defend the state's election system

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Michigan's voting systems have been "rigorously tested, certified, and subject to strict standards" for decades and said the results of the 2020 election "have been repeatedly reviewed and consistently upheld as accurate."

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the president chose to "rehash long debunked and baseless conspiracy theories about an election he lost almost six years ago" instead of addressing rising health care costs, adding that more than 1,600 bipartisan election administrators and thousands of poll workers oversee the process each election.

Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, accused Trump of "weaponizing the power of the federal government to intimidate election officials." 

Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office would continue to "fight back against this administration's attempt to strip states of their constitutional right to administer our elections."

State Sen. Dayna Polehanki pointed to a law she helped pass making it a crime to intimidate election workers, and said she was concerned Trump's remarks could draw supporters to Detroit-area voting centers in November.

Michigan House Democrats Stephen Wooden, Mai Xiong and Matt Koleszar issued a joint statement calling the speech "a blatant attempt to sow seeds of doubt in the validity of our election process," noting that hundreds of court cases and bipartisan audits upheld the 2020 results. 

State Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel and the Michigan House Democratic Fund similarly dismissed the claims as recycled conspiracy theories and said Republicans should instead focus on costs and health care.

ACLU Michigan said the state's "trusted local clerks," not Washington or Lansing, are responsible for administering elections.

Michigan Republicans praise the president's remarks

John James, the Republican candidate for governor, said Trump had exposed "MASSIVE fraud and HORRIBLE incompetence," noting that Benson served as secretary of state in 2020 and remains in the role for 2026.

Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, thanked the president for his "commitment to transparency" and said confidence in elections is essential, adding, "If our nation does not have security and confidence of our elections, then we do not have much of a nation at all."

The above video originally aired on July 16, 2026.