Politics
Commentary: From ‘election integrity’ to voter suppression: America’s long, slow slide
Today we’re taking a tour through the mythical Land of Election Fraud, where President Trump has built a palace of lies, imprisoning both truth and democracy.
I put it in fairy tale terms because the idea that American elections are corrupt should hold about as much credence as a magical beanstalk growing into the sky. Countless lawsuits and investigations have found no proof of these false claims.
But here we are — not only do many Americans erroneously believe that Trump won the 2020 election, but the chief water-carriers of that lie are now in powerful government positions.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it will send monitors to Los Angeles and other locations in California and New Jersey for next week’s balloting. Those who study voting and democracies warn that this could be a test run for how far Trump could go in attempting to impose his will on the 2026 midterms and perhaps the 2028 presidential election.
If you think that it is harmless coincidence that he’s stacked election deniers in key posts, or that once again California is the center of his attack on democratic norms, I have beans you may be interested in buying.
“The sending of the observers to the special election could very well be, and probably likely is, a precursor or practice run for 2026,” Mindy Romero told me. She’s an assistant professor and the founder of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.
Like others I spoke with, Romero sees a larger context to the poll monitors that has the potential to end with voter suppression.
“The Trump administration is laying a foundation, and they’re being very open about it, very clear about it,” Romero said. “They are saying that they are anticipating there to be fraud and for the election to be rigged.”
Trump put it even more clearly in a social media post on Sunday.
“I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much ‘gusto’ as befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history!,” he wrote. “If not, it will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms. … Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is!”
To understand where all this may be headed involves digging back into Golden State history. The conspiracy underpinning election fraud claims has deep roots in California’s Proposition 187 — the anti-immigrant measure that was passed by voters in 1994 but squashed by the courts.
The far right never got over the defeat. Anti-immigrant sentiment morphed into conspiracy theory, specifically that undocumented folks were voting in huge numbers, at the behest of Democrats.
This absolutely loony bit of racist paranoia spawned an “election integrity” movement that cloaked itself as patriotism and fairness, but at heart remained doused in fear-of-brown.
Calfornia Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Monday he sees that Proposition 187 “playbook” at work today with “a targeting, unfortunately, of immigrants … because it creates fear in the eyes of some, in the minds of some, and it helps the Republican Party, MAGA and the Trump administration achieve their goals.”
Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are just the flip side of the coin to his election fraud claims — both at heart a part of the white Christian nationalism that his administration is now openly embracing.
Let me just say here that all Americans want fair elections and many average folks involved in election integrity efforts simply want to ensure our one-person, one-vote system stays honest — regardless of race or anything else. No hate on them at all. It’s the funders and organizers of many voter witch-hunt efforts that draw my ire, because they exploit that reasonable wish for fairness for their own dark agenda.
And that agenda increasingly appears to be the end of free and fair elections, while maintaining the appearance of them — the classic authoritarian way of ruling with the seeming consent of the people. Remember, Russia still holds elections.
“To have real control, you want to rule with a velvet glove,” Romero said. “That velvet glove can come off, and the people know it can come off,” but mostly, you want them to comply because it feels like “just what has to be.”
So how exactly would we get from poll monitors, a reasonable and established norm, to something as dire as an election that is rigged, or that is so chaotic the average person doesn’t know the truth?
It starts with introducing doubt into the system, which Trump has done. To be fair, with Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, Democrats now fear rigged elections, too.
But Gowri Ramachandran, the director of elections and security in the Brennan Center for Justice’s Elections and Government Program, told me her “biggest fear” is that those election deniers whom Trump elevated to official roles “now have the platform of the federal government.”
For that reason, “information about elections [that] comes out of the federal government right now, I think everyone’s going to have to take it with a really big grain of salt,” she said.
So we come out of the California 2025 special election unable to trust the federal government’s take on it, with one year until the midterm elections that will determine whether or not Trump’s power remains unfettered.
Maybe everything turns out fine, but there’s a string of other maybes where it doesn’t.
Let’s say Trump tries to declare an end to mail-in ballots and early voting, both of which increase turnout for lower-income folks who don’t have time to line up. Trump tried that earlier this year, though courts blocked it.
What does the 2026 election look like if you have to line up in person to vote if you want to be sure it counts, with ICE potentially around the block rounding up citizens and noncitizens alike? And the government requiring that you have multiple forms of identification, all with matching names (take that, married women), and even military “guarding” the polls?
Kind of intimidating, huh?
But let’s say the election happens anyway. And let’s say Republicans lose enough congressional seats to put Democrats in control of the House. But let’s say the federal government claims there is so much fraud, it has to be investigated before any results can be considered official.
Private groups sue on both sides. Half the country believes Trump, half the country believes the secretaries of state, like California’s Shirley Weber, charged with managing the results.
In that chaos, the newly elected Democratic representatives head to Washington, D.C., to get to work, only to have House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refuse to swear them in — no differently than he is currently doing with elected Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who has promised to vote to release the Epstein files if Johnson ever does his job.
Romero calls that scenario “not even … that big of a stretch.”
Congress comes to a halt, not enough members sworn in to function, which is just fine by Trump.
And voila! The vote is suppressed by confusion, chaos and the velvet glove, because of course it’s reasonable to want to know the truth before we move forward.
So monitor away. Watch the polls and watch the watchers, and protect the vote.
But don’t buy the beans.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
FIRST ON FOX: Following several high-profile, deadly auto accidents involving illegal alien truck drivers, a commercial trucking industry leader is blowing the whistle on the devastating “shockwave” illegal drivers carrying sanctuary state licenses have had on the industry.
Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking, which is based in Illinois, told Fox News Digital that in addition to endangering American roads, illegal alien commercial drivers have been “killing the trucking business.”
He said that though the problem has only recently been brought to the forefront of the public consciousness in recent months, drivers and trucking businesses have been feeling the impacts for years.
“We knew there was an issue right after COVID because the rates dropped down, and we just thought, ‘Okay, look, it’s just inflation … the wars, etcetera, all these aspects causing the volumes to be down. We’re thinking, ‘Okay. In the long run, these volumes will go back up to what they were pre-COVID conditions or just go back to regular volumes, and we’ll be back in business.’ But what happened? The complete opposite happened,” he said. “They went down and stayed down, and we never knew, as truckers, what was the problem.”
WHITE HOUSE SAYS CALIFORNIA GRANTED LICENSE TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER CHARGED IN FATAL DUI CRASH
Five mugshots of alleged illegal immigrants accused of deadly car crashes from around the US. From left, the mughots of Noelia Sarah Martinez-Avila, Juan Alfredo Chavarria-Lezama, Lionel Francisco, Mukendi Mbiya and Harjinder Singh, inset over a photo showing the scene of a deadly accident in which Singh has been charged. (ICE, Dane County Sheriff’s Office, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office)
Now, with recent revelations from the Trump Department of Transportation and Secretary Sean Duffy about rampant illegal alien truckers on American roads, Kucharski said the truth is finally out.
Duffy issued a bombshell report on Thursday accusing California of violating federal law by issuing a commercial driver’s license to a foreign asylum seeker whose semi-truck crash killed three people last week.
The report alleges that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ignored a federal order to halt noncompliant licenses and revoke improperly issued credentials, a failure that, according to Duffy, cost “three innocent souls.”
Federal regulators uncovered flaws in how California licenses were obtained by certain commercial truck drivers. The 2025 Annual Program Review and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) concluded that the state’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) system suffered from “systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors” when it came to handling non-domiciled licenses.
In an audit letter dated Sept. 26, 2025, investigators also discovered that California had issued CDLs to non-domiciled drivers that were valid even after their federal work authorization expired.
BLUE STATE INVESTIGATES HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKER GOT LICENSE BEFORE DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH
A split image showing a fiery truck crash and the suspected driver, Jashanpreet Singh, 21. Singh is accused of being high on drugs at the time of the crash. (Obtained by Fox News, ICE)
Kucharski explained further that, though a heavily regulated industry, illegal alien truck drivers can exploit a “loophole” in the system by obtaining non-domiciled commercial drivers’ licenses from states such as California and New York. They are then able to outcompete legitimate trucking businesses by charging lower prices, leading to the demise of many American small businesses in the industry.
“As a business owner, I was thinking, ‘Well, who is taking all these loads?’ Now I could figure it out that this is another shockwave that’s hitting the truck industry after COVID and violent volatility, these [non-domiciled] drivers are coming in and doing it for cheaper because they don’t care, and … they don’t have social security numbers, and I assume they’re probably not filing for taxes. So, if you’re not going to pay all your bills, of course, you can do it cheaper and keep on trucking.”
“All our truckers are fighting for the same load, and it goes to the lowest bidder,” he went on. “If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck … They’re saying, ‘Okay, look, all the market’s doing for $2,000, we’ll do it for $1,700.’ So, it’s putting small trucking businesses out of business every day.”
“We’re over-regulated, honestly, in the trucking industry. And if you’re overregulated, you think, ‘Well, there’s no way that this could happen, and it is happening, right now as we speak,” he said. “It’s eye-opening, disturbing and jaw-dropping.”
Kucharski called on Duffy as well as other industry leaders to take action.
Along with the report last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency interim final rule that tightened standards for non-domiciled CDLs nationwide. In the rule, stipulations changed and limited eligibility to applicants holding certain employment-based visas. It requires every state to verify their legal status through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database.
Under the new rule, any non-domiciled commercial learner’s permit or CDL must expire no later than the end date on the driver’s federal immigration record or after one year, whichever comes first. It also maintains that states must keep proof of their lawful presence on file for at least two years.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCK DRIVER IN FATAL CALIFORNIA CRASH SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD LICENSE: DOT REPORT
Sean Duffy, US secretary of transportation, speaks during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In response to Kucharski’s criticisms, a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News Digital that “California continues to follow federal rules regarding CDLs.”
“Lost in the immigrant-bashing is the fact that drivers holding a California-issued CDL are involved in fatal crashes at a rate far lower than the national average. If the focus were on safety, California should be a poster child, not a scapegoat,” the spokesperson said.
“Consistent with federal law, California issued commercial driver’s licenses only to drivers if the federal government confirmed their legal presence,” the spokesperson went on, adding, “The Trump administration didn’t like these federal rules and just recently changed them to restrict refugees, DACA holders, and others from being able to apply for a CDL.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“This is a very serious crisis issue,” Kucharski said. “The trucking industry depends on trust. That means ensuring every driver on the road is properly licensed, well-trained, and mentally and physically fit to operate heavy equipment.”
“All I can say is strategies like this remind us that reform isn’t just about policies, [its] about human lives. And it’s on all of us, from the regulators to the fleet owners, to the driver trainers, to ensure the system works the way it should.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to Hochul’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Christina Shaw contributed to this report.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Several New York City voters, who spoke to Fox News Digital at a Sunday rally, said New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are the future of the Democratic Party.
Thousands of voters gathered at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on Sunday for the “New York is Not for Sale” rally in support of Mamdani, the 34-year-old self-identified democratic socialist and frontrunner in the race for Gracie Mansion. Flanked by Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the trio of democratic socialists rallied the large crowd on the first weekend of early voting in the city.
“There’s going to be no party unless they are the future,” Nuala O’Doherty-Naranjo, an immigration lawyer who lives in Ocasio-Cortez’s district in Jackson Heights, Queens, told Fox News Digital.
When asked if she identifies as a democratic socialist, like Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, O’Doherty-Naranjo said, “DSA all the way.”
PROGRESSIVE POWER PLAYERS RALLY VOTERS FOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI AS EARLY VOTING KICKS OFF IN NYC MAYORAL RACE
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., react on stage during a “New York is Not for Sale” rally at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City on Oct. 26, 2025. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
Mamdani is a member of New York City’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA has endorsed his candidacy and some of its members delivered remarks during the star-studded rally on Sunday.
BERNIE SANDERS, ZOHRAN MAMDANI TEAM UP TO ‘FIGHT OLIGARCHY’ IN NYC
Hallie, who lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, said she supports Mamdani for the “obvious reasons,” including representing “every New Yorker” with his commitment to affordability and safety.
She said that Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez are “absolutely” the future of the Democratic Party and that his candidacy gives her hope.
“I feel like that’s very clear with the turnout for this election, for the primaries, and just like seeing the people that are here filling a stadium just to support him, I think that’s a big indication of the future,” Hallie said.
More than 10,000 supporters packed into Forest Hills Stadium on Sunday, according to the Mamdani campaign.
New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani, center, celebrates with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., right, during an election rally on Oct. 26, 2025, at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City. (Andres Kudacki/Getty Images)
“To me, socialism just means that there’s more advocacy and more attention being paid to the working class, the people who are actually uplifting society and working to make it what it is,” Hallie said, explaining that, to her, socialism is about everyone paying their fair share.
“I speak the language of democratic socialism only because he spoke it first,” Mamdani said of Sanders as the crowd joined him in declaring, “New York is not for sale” on Sunday.
The trio has invigorated the Democratic Party’s progressive base at a time when Democrats are still grappling with devastating losses in 2024 as growing discontent with President Donald Trump’s sweeping, second-term agenda.
A slew of state and local leaders also joined the rally, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., who endorsed Mamdani last month and has since campaigned for him.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks on stage during a campaign rally for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City on Oct. 26, 2025. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Hochul was heckled by attendees several times during her remarks, who chanted, “Tax the rich!”
Mamdani’s plan to raise taxes on corporations and the top 1% of New Yorkers to pay for his campaign promises, like free childcare, free buses and city-run grocery stores, would require Hochul’s approval, and the governor has ruled out raising taxes.
“I hear ya,” Hochul responded as the stadium erupted with pleas to “tax the rich!”
“I love everything Zoran is bringing to the table as far as giving a new sort of energy and enthusiasm to New York City politics, actually caring about the citizens of New York City, finding life to be affordable and enjoyable and healthy for all of us. I don’t see how anybody couldn’t get behind that,” Matt Ransdell, who lives in Manhattan’s Washington Heights, told Fox News Digital.
Ransdell said Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez “could be” the future of the Democratic Party, adding that the democratic socialist movement of Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani is “so fresh and encouraging.”
“There’s something incredibly communal about it,” Ransdell said. “The way I feel actually bonded, even here at this rally, it’s insane. The energy is infectious,” he said.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a campaign rally at Forest Hills Stadium in the Queens borough of New York City on Oct. 26, 2025. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“The voice of the younger generation is speaking as loud as it can, and if the older generation isn’t willing to listen, we’re going to have a problem,” Randsell added.
Lane, another New Yorker who attended Sunday’s rally, said he hopes they are the future.
“Look, not everyone’s going to support him,” Lane said. “He’s got maybe a brand that’s a little bit further ahead of what some people’s tastes are, but I certainly support him. I certainly hope that that’s the direction that the party goes in.”
Lane said he “absolutely” identifies as a democratic socialist, “maybe even further if that’s possible.”
Jessica, who lives in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and works for Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led progressive political action group, said Mamdani’s campaign has “energized a lot of young people,” inspiring them to get out and vote.
She said Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez “both understand the affordability crisis that young people face right now and are both actually proposing policies to fight that and make young adults’ lives better.”
“Young people are the future of the Democratic Party,” Jessica said. “I think it’s young voters who are canvassing, getting out there, making their voices heard, that’s who’s shaping it,” she said.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The latest Fox News survey, conducted Oct. 10-14, ahead of the first general election debate last week, revealed that Mamdani has a substantial lead in the race.
According to the poll, Mamdani has a 21-point lead among New York City registered voters with 49% of voters backing Mamdani, while 28% go for Cuomo and 13% favor Sliwa.
Mamdani also rose above the 50% threshold among likely voters, garnering 52% support, while Cuomo picked up 28%, and Sliwa received just 14%.
MSNBC has set a date for its new name.
Starting Nov. 15, the progressive-leaning cable news channel will be called MS NOW — an acronym for My Source, News, Opinion and World. The famous NBC peacock will no longer be part of the channel’s logo.
Viewers started seeing spots promoting the new moniker on Monday, with the tagline “Same mission, New name.” A larger marketing push will happen in the coming weeks according to a memo from MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler that was obtained by The Times.
The rebranding coincides with parent company Comcast’s spinoff of its NBCUniversal cable channels into Versant, a new company. CNBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, Oxygen, SyFy and E! are also part of the entity.
Comcast is unloading the channels because it believes the mature outlets face a bleak future due to pay TV cord-cutting and are an albatross weighing down its stock price. Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts will own 33% of the shares in Versant, which will trade as a public company under the symbol VSNT on the NASDAQ.
MSNBC will soon be called MS NOW.
(AP)
While the spinoff has been in the works for months, MSNBC viewers have heard little about it on the air until now. The network held a fan festival at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York earlier this month and all of the signage used the MSNBC logo. The name change was referred to several times by the personalities who appeared on stage.
The change required MSNBC to unwind its news operation from NBC News, which supplied correspondents to the channel. A number of NBC News correspondents, including Jacob Soboroff and Ken Dilanian, chose to work for Versant.
The current line-up of MSNBC opinion hosts — including Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Lawrence O’Donnell — will all make the transition to MS NOW.
Although MSNBC employees were initially told the network’s name would be retained, NBCUniversal decided it did not want its brand attached to a network it did not control.
NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reporting on the wildfire that destroyed his boyhood home.
(NBC News)
Versant Chief Executive Mark Lazarus encouraged his staff to embrace the change in spite of the challenges of marketing a new brand in a highly fragmented media landscape.
“This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin,” Lazarus wrote in an August memo.
MSNBC has its own Washington bureau, which has already broken a number of stories in recent weeks, including the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and former national security advisor John Bolton.
MSNBC also has a multiyear agreement with U.K.-based Sky News to provide international coverage.
In a Looming Nuclear Arms Race, Aging Los Alamos Faces a Major Test
Approaches Women Used to Triumph Over Weight Struggles
New this week: Zadie Smith essays, a Cameron Crowe memoir and a ‘Sandwich’ sequel
The government shutdown is delaying new gadgets
Hamas hands over remains of hostage whose body was recovered nearly 2 years ago
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
In a Looming Nuclear Arms Race, Aging Los Alamos Faces a Major Test
Whistleblower warns Illegal immigrants are sending ‘shockwave’ through crucial industry
Suspect pleads guilty to murdering former Japanese PM Abe
With food stamps set to dry up Nov. 1, SNAP recipients say they fear what’s next
How and Where the National Guard Has Deployed to U.S. Cities
-
New York5 days agoVideo: How Mamdani Has Evolved in the Mayoral Race
-
World1 week agoIsrael continues deadly Gaza truce breaches as US seeks to strengthen deal
-
News7 days agoVideo: Federal Agents Detain Man During New York City Raid
-
News7 days agoBooks about race and gender to be returned to school libraries on some military bases
-
Technology1 week agoAI girlfriend apps leak millions of private chats
-
Politics1 week agoTrump admin on pace to shatter deportation record by end of first year: ‘Just the beginning’
-
Business1 week agoUnionized baristas want Olympics to drop Starbucks as its ‘official coffee partner’
-
News1 week agoTrump news at a glance: president can send national guard to Portland, for now