WATCH: Padilla Questions Panelists on Fighting Back Against Trump’s Attempts to “Take Over” Federal Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and California's former Secretary of State, questioned elected officials and leading election experts during a Rules Committee Democrats spotlight forum he convened titled "Protecting the Future of American Democracy: Stopping the Trump Administration's Attempted 'Takeover' of Elections." Padilla heard from the panelists on efforts to expose and bring accountability for the Trump Administration's anti-voter executive order, Fulton County election office raid, and potential to declare a national emergency to enable the President's attempted election takeover.

The panelists at the forum included Mo Ivory, a Fulton County, Georgia Commissioner; Rob Bonta, California's Attorney General; Norm Eisen, Founder of Democracy Defenders and Former U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic; and Stephen Richer, Former Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder, Fellow at the CATO Institute, and CEO of Republic Affairs.

Padilla questioned Attorney General Bonta on Democratic state attorney generals' collaborative efforts to successfully oppose Trump's anti-voter actions, including his unconstitutional "election integrity" executive order last March.

• PADILLA: Mr. Bonta, the lawsuit on the executive order from last March was referenced. I think that was the first, or among the first cases that you chose to take the lead on amongst your attorney general colleagues across the country. Through that case or others, can you speak to the value of the coordination and collaboration amongst attorney generals in this fight, and are there any sort of lessons that you would want other attorney generals to share, Democrat or Republican, that may not be part of this teamwork y'all seem to have going on?

• BONTA: Thank you. The coalition, the collaboration, the partnership around, among the Democratic attorneys general, I think, has been incredibly powerful. We are all sort of sovereigns, a group of coequals, voluntarily coming together to team up to be a greater whole than the sum of our parts and to accomplish important results and deliver outcomes for the people when it comes to defending the rule of law, protecting our democracy, defending the Constitution, protecting rights and freedoms. And we started planning before Trump was elected, in case he was elected, and then we planned more between … his election and his inauguration. And we speak regularly, communicate regularly, every week, and it's led to at least for California's final number as of today, 59 lawsuits in less than that many weeks, and 80% victory rate, protecting $200 billion, protecting critical rights and freedoms like birthright citizenship and voting rights.

Padilla also asked Commissioner Ivory and Mr. Richer about the unlawful seizure of 2020 election ballots by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Fulton County, Georgia. The Senator recently demanded an Intelligence Community briefing following Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's presence at the raid. He heard from Commissioner Ivory on how Fulton County election officials are still doing their jobs ahead of the midterm elections. Mr. Richer also discussed his analysis of key White House lawyer and notorious election denier Kurt Olsen's involvement as part of the basis for the warrant for the Fulton County FBI raid.

• PADILLA: Aside from the legality, constitutionality of what's happened and how that's being addressed, what implication does that seizure have for folks preparing to administer the midterm elections on the election administration side, and for the public and voters' perspective in whether or not or how they'll participate in the primaries and the general.

• IVORY: Thank you for that question. I will say that Fulton County election workers are steadfast in their devotion to administering the 2026 elections, as they have done with all elections. I immediately, when I heard about the raid, I immediately went down there because I felt that I wanted them to know that they were supported in their work, and to make sure that they knew that this should not deter them for their continued processing of what we need to do, beginning on April 27 when early voting begins in Fulton County. As far as voters go, I have assured and continue to send messages out to voters that you are the keeper of your vote, you are the one protecting your vote, and that you can make sure, if you have to go every day or every week to check your voter registration, that you should do that, because in Fulton County, elections are secure, they are fair, they are transparent, and there has never been a finding of any fraud in a Fulton County election. So voters need to know that we are doing all of the things that we have always done for them to make sure that they will have the opportunity to feel safe and to go vote in an election that is, has always been secure.

• PADILLA: Mr. Richer, now you wrote an analysis of the warrant behind the Fulton County FBI raid. What concerns has it raised that Kurt Olsen, at the White House, an election denier, was named as part of the basis of this warrant?

• RICHER: My concerns with the affidavit that was unsealed that was the basis for the probable cause finding for the warrant in Fulton County, my concerns were threefold. First, that it omitted important material from previous investigations into some of the allegations that are now being re-aired. Secondly, that it did no analysis of the credibility of the witnesses. And third, that it omitted a number of key witnesses who had been present during the elections and had served as third-party observers. To the second point, the credibility of some of the witnesses that were cited in the affidavit, according to the affidavit, the investigation into Fulton County was encouraged by Mr. Olsen, working for the Department of Justice. And Mr. Olsen, Kurt Olsen is somebody that we got to know in Arizona because he was heavily involved in the prelude and the aftermath of Kari Lake's 2022 gubernatorial bid in Arizona. As a result of his legal advice, he was sanctioned by both the federal district court for Arizona and by the Arizona Supreme Court for putting false statements in his filings. And I thought that information such as that spoke to his credibility as a witness, and I thought it should have been disclosed in the affidavit for the search warrant in Fulton County.

Additionally, Padilla questioned Ambassador Eisen on the risk that the Trump Administration may declare a national emergency to implement sweeping anti-democratic changes to federal elections, including jeopardizing vote-by-mail. Ambassador Eisen made clear there is no basis for the declaration of a national emergency, and that the voter identification provisions President Trump is trying to push are unconstitutional.

• PADILLA: Ambassador Eisen, we've talked a lot about some of the proposed changes for either how elections would be administered or how people can participate, vote-by-mail, no vote-by-mail, changes to voter registration requirements, et cetera. But underlying that is this discussion, debate about authority to make changes: the authorities of the President, the role of Congress, the administration authorities by the states. One of the more recent threats to justify sought after changes by the president is a potential Declaration of National Emergency. Can you elaborate just for a minute or two on what a Declaration of National Emergency would or wouldn't do in terms of authority to impose changes?

• EISEN: There is no national emergency with respect to our elections, Senator, as of course, you know. There's been a pattern with this Administration using very various words in declaring national emergencies, and as has happened in hundreds of other occasions, the courts have been extraordinarily hostile to that, as they should be. … There is no elections emergency, nor if there were some type of an emergency, would the voter ID and other ideas that the President is unconstitutionally, unlawfully, and needlessly trying to force on us be appropriate.

A video of Padilla's opening remarks is available here.

His full line of questioning is available to watch here.

His closing remarks are available to watch here.

The Rules Committee Democrats' spotlight forum series continues to underscore the dangers of the Trump Administration's unprecedented attacks on election security, integrity, and funding required to smoothly administer elections and protect American democracy. The first spotlight forum last May focused on Congressional Republicans' Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and Trump's illegal anti-voter executive order, both of which threaten to disenfranchise millions of eligible American citizens. The second forum last July focused on the Trump Administration's disturbing voter suppression tactics and pressure campaign for racial gerrymandering in Texas and other Republican-led states.

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