Rudy Giuliani called Ken Cuccinelli, second-in-command in the Department of Homeland Security, Thursday night and asked if DHS could confiscate voting machines, a source familiar with the call that was confirmed to Axios.
The state of affairs: Cuccinelli replied that DHS does not have that authority, the source said.
Why it matters: The call, first reported by The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman is another manifestation of President Trump’s increasingly extreme efforts to contest an election called six weeks ago for President-elect Joe Biden.
As first reported by The New York Times, Trump on Friday night discussed commanding voting machines and appointing conspiracy-minded election attorney Sidney Powell as special counsel to inspect the machines.
- Axios reported Saturday afternoon that senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed about what Trump could do to unleash the government’s power to try to reverse the clear election result.
The backstory: Giuliani is part of an ever-diminishing remnant of Trump loyalists trying to follow up on his ongoing anti-election protests. Saturday he tweeted again that Biden “didn’t win.”
- Giuliani, who was briefly hospitalized earlier this month for COVID-19, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.