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In the Press

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Trump Using Census Bureau Report Full of ‘Junk Data Science’ to Sell False Claims of 2020 Voter Fraud (opens a new window)

  • August 20, 2026
  • Common Dreams

Amanda Carpenter, an editor at the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy, said the Census Bureau report was “nothing but junk data science” and that Lutnick “is abusing the Census Bureau data to generate sensational headlines that Trump wants.”

“He has been searching for these massive pots of fraudulent votes for years,” Carpenter said. “It is like they are looking for the Loch Ness Monster. It does not exist, but they keep searching, and hoping, and lying and pointing to something shadowy that you kind of have to squint real hard at to pretend is there, but it isn’t.”

Nashville Sues Trump Administration Over Attempt to Withhold First-Responder Grants to Force Election Changes (opens a new window)

  • August 17, 2026
  • Nashville Banner

“FEMA has no authority to impose those conditions — not under its governing statute and not under the Constitution,” the suit argues. “Congress authorized FEMA to help jurisdictions protect critical infrastructure from terrorist and cyberattacks. It did not authorize FEMA to decide who may vote, how ballots must be counted, or how states maintain their voter rolls. Never before has FEMA purported to regulate how states and counties run elections. Such a transformative assertion of federal authority in an area of traditional state control requires clear congressional authorization that FEMA does not have. The power to administer elections belongs to the states, subject only to conditions imposed by Congress — not the President, not the Secretary of Homeland Security, and not FEMA.”

DHS accused of withholding anti-terrorism funds unless cities, counties change election rules (opens a new window)

  • August 17, 2026
  • Border Report

A group of cities and counties alleges the Trump administration is threatening to withhold anti-terrorism funding unless they adopt strict election rules.

The Texas counties of El Paso and Harris, as well as the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and the City of Columbus, are suing the Department of Homeland Security, according to a news release from the Brennan Center for Justice, one of the organizations representing the group.

The Bulwark Logo 2

Amanda Carpenter: Audit the White House (opens a new window)

  • August 11, 2026
  • The Bulwark

Trump may have the pardon power, but all those people making bank off of shady contracts from the administration or doing pay-to-play can lose all that money through forfeiture and seizure laws already on the books. Taxpayers are going to want their money back. And why are Chinese nationals continuing to bribe the president of the United States—and does his soft-on-China policies have anything to do with it? Plus: Trump used a catering cart to sneak out of Turkey, the Dems need to do a better job highlighting the fact that the White House is doing socialist-style company takeovers, and the National Guard will now be in DC until 2029.

Amanda Carpenter joins Tim Miller.