Ex-White House lawyer: Trump ‘stacking every card in the deck’ ahead of midterms

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Former White House attorney Ty Cobb warned Friday that President Trump’s decision to fire the remaining Democratic members of an independent election administration commission this week is part of a “deliberate plan” to put his thumb on the scale of the upcoming midterm elections.

“You can’t look at the termination of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) as anything other than another effort by one side to try to take over part of the referee role for the elections,” Cobb said during an appearance on MS NOW.

Trump removed Democrats Benjamin Hovland and Thomas Hicks from the commission on Thursday, with the White House citing his authority to do so under the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the recent Slaughter case.

The justices ruled in a 6-3 decision that the president can fire the heads of most independent agencies at will, overturning a nearly century-old precedent that allowed Congress to insulate those bodies from political interference.

“The President, and head of the Executive Branch, reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted,” a White House official said in a statement. “The Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.”

A third commission member, Republican Christy McCormick, also resigned this week.

The EAC, established in 2002, is an independent board that provides funds, training and assistance to state election officials to help them prepare for federal elections and facilitate voter participation. It also certifies voting technology and handles nation voter registration forms, among other duties.

The president’s move was slammed by Democrats and voting rights groups, who view it is a thinly veiled attempt to interfere with future elections, even as experts say it is likely to have limited impact on this election cycle.

“All the signals are flashing red, the latest being @POTUS’s summary dismissal of the remaining Federal Election Assistance Commission members,” Democratic strategist David Axelrod wrote in a social media post on Friday.

Trump in recent months has called to “nationalize” elections using unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election to justify his administration’s push to restrict mail-in voting, obtain state voter rolls and require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote.

Those efforts have faced resistance in the courts, with district court judges dismissing nearly a dozen lawsuits against mostly Democrat-led states that sought to force compliance with its demands for voter data.

Cobb, who has become an outspoken Trump critic since leaving the White House in 2018, noted that while the federal courts have been “formidable in withstanding the assault on the rule of law,” Trump’s efforts to install loyalists in all parts of the federal government could not be ignored.

“Those forces are already on the field,” he warned. “I don’t think we can be sanguine about the elections because he is stacking every card in the deck that he can get his hands on.”

Tags

2026 midterm elections

Benjamin Hovland

Christy McCormick

David Axelrod

Donald Trump

Election Assistance Commission

Surpeme Court

Thomas Hicks

Trump administration

Trump election claims

Trump v. Slaughter

Ty Cobb

white house

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