Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

“This is an Administration who can’t keep a simple text message chain straightforward…and now they’re going to dictate voter registration and elections in states across the country? I don’t think so.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During an interview today with MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California’s former Secretary of State, blasted President Trump for his illegal executive order attempting to disenfranchise millions of American voters. Padilla also reiterated his calls for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign after he demonstrated a staggering incompetence and lack of judgment by mishandling sensitive and classified information.

In a statement earlier this week, Senator Padilla condemned Trump’s unlawful attempt at a Presidential power grab over his anti-voter executive order.

Key Excerpts:

On President Trump’s reckless anti-voter executive order:

• “I previously served as California’s Secretary of State, and during the first Donald Trump Administration, there were efforts on behalf of Donald Trump to try to go after personal voter information for voters all across the country under the premise of trying to root out voter fraud. The fact of the matter is, it is already unlawful for noncitizens to vote in our elections. The fact of the matter is, a voter fraud of this type is extremely, extremely rare. So the current safeguards, the current laws, are already working.”

• “Any time Democrats have proposed strengthening our democracy by strengthening voting rights, Republicans become unglued saying, ‘no, no, no, the Constitution is clear, states run elections.’ They don’t want the federalization or the federal government dictating how states run elections. But now they’re silent, when all of a sudden it’s Donald Trump trying to impose how he wants voter registration to happen in states and how people can vote in states.”

• “We all learned in high school that our democracy works best when as many eligible people participate. … In some ways, this is a ‘show me your papers’ law to be able to register to vote, and we know who is disproportionately impacted by that.”

• “Our more than sneaking suspicion here is that Donald Trump and his cronies want to make it harder for maybe younger people, maybe the elderly, maybe communities of color or lower-income communities, to either be able to register to vote to begin with, or to actually cast ballots in the election. It’s a form of voter suppression that’s unnecessary.”

On Secretary Hegseth mishandling sensitive national security information:

• “Accountability should be [Secretary Hegseth] resigning. He’s clearly in over his head. That’s why I was a ‘no’ vote on his confirmation. We knew he wasn’t qualified. We knew he wasn’t prepared. God help us. Who knows what other Keystone Cop mistakes that they’re making with our national security.”
• “So again, to tie the two issues together, José, this is an Administration who can’t keep a simple text message chain straightforward and secure, and now they’re going to dictate voter registration and elections in states across the country? I don’t think so.”

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