By Yasin Gungor
ISTANBUL (AA) - US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused on Sunday President Donald Trump of attempting to "steal" elections through efforts to nationalize voting processes, vowing Democrats will prevent such actions.
"What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalize the election. Translation: Steal it. And we're not going to let it happen," Jeffries told CNN.
The Democratic leader said his party has already blocked Republican gerrymandering efforts aimed at redrawing congressional maps in red states to "rig the midterms," as well as Trump's attempts to federalize the National Guard.
Jeffries said he believes the National Guard plan "was probably part of some toxic attempt to unleash troops on American cities all across the nation and intimidate people from voting."
"We're going to stop him from nationalizing the election," he added, emphasizing "this is going to be a free and fair election."
The minority leader affirmed that "states are the ones who are empowered to conduct elections, and every state should be allowed to decide the best way to proceed."
Jeffries accused Republicans of engaging in "clear and blatant voter suppression," saying: "They know that if there's a free and fair election in November, they're going to lose."
His remarks came after Trump called for Republicans to "nationalize" and "take over" voting processes in at least 15 unspecified US locations in an interview.
The White House sought to walk back on Trump's appeal and said he "was referring to is the SAVE Act, which is a huge common sense piece of legislation that Republicans have supported."
"President Trump is committed to signing into law during his term, and he spoke with the speaker directly about that yesterday, about the need to get that bill on the floor for a vote," spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said.