Mullin slams Hillary Clinton for poll intimidation warning

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday dismissed a warning from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers could try to intimidate voters at the polls.

“I don’t understand why Hillary is still relevant,” Mullin told Fox News host Will Cain ahead of election night.

On the Monday show of ABC’s “The View,” Clinton referenced the Trump administration’s recent legal fights with states over their election processes and suggested the DHS could send federal agents to the polls.

“What I do think they’re trying to do in some places is intimidation,” she said. “You know, having ICE or others show up and just be standing there, staring at people, looking threatening to voters coming in to vote. But I do think, you know, people are tougher than that.”

Clinton said she spoke Sunday with Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), who is leading the Democratic Party’s election integrity response efforts. The former secretary of State said any attempts by the Trump administration to intimidate voters “won’t go unanswered.”

Mullin brushed off Clinton’s warning about ICE officers at the polls, noting Democrats have been “pushing this narrative” for several months.

“Even in my confirmation hearing, this was brought up, and I made it very clear that ICE agents aren’t going to be around polling places unless there’s a threat,” the secretary said.

“The only reason you’d see the Department of Homeland Security is if there’s a threat that we have to be responding to, not to try to intimidate or be around a polling place,” he continued. “That’s not their job. We’re enforcing immigration.”

Morelle responded to Clinton’s comments in a social media post on Election Day.

“Secretary @HillaryClinton is right: We won’t let threats to our elections go unanswered,” he wrote in the post. “Americans should have every confidence as they cast their votes today.”

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it had deployed Election Day monitors to all 50 U.S. states in its “largest monitoring effort in history.”

Local Democratic leaders decried the move, with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) calling it a “baseless and dangerous attack” on state election processes.

President Trump and his administration have repeatedly warned about vulnerabilities in the election system, as Republicans fight to retain their control of Congress in the midterm elections.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered the DOJ not to threaten or intimidate election officials ahead of the midterm elections, after the department sent letters to election officials in California and Washington, requesting they separate out any ballots identified by the federal government as potential noncitizens.

Additionally, a federal judge on Sunday dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit in Alaska that sought to block the certification of the state’s Senate race if Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) loses his reelection bid.

The administration had argued the Democratic challenger’s campaign’s reported efforts to recruit a spoiler candidate with the same name as the incumbent senator were an attempt to mislead voters who would vote for the senator. Despite the ruling, Republicans are already organizing a “recount refund” for the race, according to a Tuesday filing with the Federal Election Commission.