Can Trump get rid of mail-in voting himself?

It's time that the Republicans get tough and stop it, because the Democrats want it. It's the only way they can get elected.

Here with me now, White House Correspondent for Bloomberg, Kate Sullivan and Eleanor Mueller, who is a congressional reporter for Semafor. So, Kate, I want to start with you. I mean, how feasible is this? Well, so the president does not have the authority to unilaterally change voting laws. And so, anything-- there's no doubt that anything he does here will be very quickly challenged in court. I think it's important to remember, Trump has been attacking mail-in voting for what seems like forever, even though he himself has voted by mail in past elections. He said it's corrupt, that there is widespread fraud. There's, of course, no evidence for this. I think you can't have this conversation without talking about how central this was to his argument that the 2020 election was, as he claims-- as he falsely claims, was stolen. He kept pointing back to mail-in ballots. But the bigger picture-- --think he would even bring this up, though? Because we certainly have seen a surge in Republicans voting by mail. I mean, it seems to be something that has helped his side, if you will, and helped him. So why even bring this up? It's a great question. And on the campaign trail, we saw this a lot. As the RNC was doing this big targeted push to get people to vote early, vote by mail, you'd see Trump sort of seemingly, reluctantly participate in these videos with the RNC, and say, urge people to do that, urge people to vote by mail, and then go the next day and say at his campaign rally, it's corrupt. There's widespread fraud. So it's a great question. I mean, clearly, he has an eye on the midterms here. Clearly, this is a big move, an anticipated move ahead of the midterms. But you know, I think, we've seen in a lot of different ways that the White House and Republicans are trying to get an advantage here. But it's unclear exactly how this would help them.

I mean, Eleanor, do you think there would be any appetite in Congress for this? I think we both know the answer, but. I think there would be appetite from Republicans. I think we'd see a few conservative lawmakers who would express concerns about what could happen when a Democratic president down the line wanted to maybe change the voting laws to suit his or her preferences in the same ways. But any bill that they would pass to be able to change this would have to be subject to the filibuster. And so Democrats in the Senate would have to consent, and I certainly don't see that happening. And speaking of 2026, we obviously saw at the beginning of this week, Sherrod Brown, former Ohio Senator, launched another bid for US Senate after narrowly losing back in 2024. His campaign announced that he raised some $3.6 million over the last 24 hours. So does his entry into this race make Ohio more competitive? Democrats certainly think so. They lobbied really hard for him to get in. We saw Senate Majority Chuck Schumer taking trips to Ohio to talk to him. He was torn between running for governor, running for Senate. I talked to him maybe two months ago, and he was still very clear that both options were in the air for him. I do think, he's a pretty formidable fundraiser. He's already raised $3.6 million in the 24 hours since he announced his campaign said today. And so the left certainly is feeling good. I think on the other side, the right is equally confident that Senator Houston is the Senator to represent Ohio in the Senate. JD Vance's seat, the state that Trump won, and so it'll be an interesting race, that's for sure.

Is there anything you think he'll do differently this time around?

It's a fantastic question. I think the bigger question is maybe what outside groups will do differently this time around? We saw a Fairshake, the crypto super PAC, spent $40 million to support his opponent, Bernie Moreno. That's part of the reason why he was eventually had to leave office. We saw Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott openly say so today on stage. He was like, thank you, crypto, for making sure-- showing Sherrod Brown the exit. Now that Sherrod Brown may or may not be the Senate Banking chair when he comes back, I think, it will be really interesting to see whether or not they decide to go so hard for him. And, I know you mentioned in terms of Democrats, they feel pretty bullish about Sherrod Brown's chances a second time around. But there are also a couple of states and races where we still have seen some incumbent Republicans not yet announce-- whether that's Iowa and Joni Ernst, even though we've seen a flood of Democrats get into that race. But same thing in Maine. Today, we had a Graham Platner announce his candidacy, this political novice, oysterman. What does that say in terms of specifically, Ernst and Collins? Do you think we will see them make a decision? Why do you think they're holding out? It's a great question. I know that Democrats are lobbying Janet Mills to get in, in Maine. The same way they were lobbying Sherrod Brown, they're also trying-- they were trying to get Roy Cooper to get into North Carolina. And so they've chosen the folks that they think have a chance here. But we've also, at the same time, seen a record high number of retirements in the House and Senate, lawmakers of both parties who have said, I'm not really interested in this anymore. And so, where the cards fall, I think, remains to be seen. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think regardless of who-- it's definitely-- it was very interesting to see, an oyster farmer, US military veteran getting in as the Democrats are really trying to get the governor to run. But whoever gets in, I mean, I think it will be an uphill battle. Susan Collins has won reelection four times. She won by eight points in the last election. And so, it's definitely a top target for Democrats to unseat her. But I guess, we'll keep watching. I mean, aside from the methods of voting, how involved do you think the president will get in the midterms this year? Oh, incredibly involved. I think it's going to be the first nationwide referendum on him, on his policies. I think the White House, as we've seen, is already taking a lot of moves in the administration and Republicans in general, just to get any type of advantage that they can. I think Trump has a lot of a-- like a personal stake in this. I think he will be, of course, very involved in all the strategy. All right. Well, Kate Sullivan and Eleanor Mueller, we thank you all for being here at TheTakeout, at the family table as Major Garrett likes to say.