Department of Homeland Security head Markwayne Mullin said he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to fight the nonexistent scourge of voter fraud in the upcoming midterm elections.
The Republican senator from Oklahoma told CNN‘s Dana Bash that he’s ready to “throw out the Constitution” to make sure “only citizens of the United States are voting.”
“What we want to make sure is that every vote actually counts, that we’re not having games like you might see in sanctuary cities. I’m not saying they are,” he said. “Democrats always want to throw out the Constitution all the time. Well, great, let’s throw out the Constitution.”
When Bash gave Mullin a questioning look, he immediately backpedaled.
“I mean, not throw it out. Throw it out as an argument,” he said. “I’m glad you had that look on your face.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: "We want to make sure that every vote actually counts, that we're not having games like you might see in sanctuary cities. Democrats always want to throw out the Constitution. Well great, let's throw out the Constitution." pic.twitter.com/rJmtJ6te8w
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 14, 2026
When Bash countered that Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, only found 25 instances of non-citizens being prosecuted for voter fraud.
“Has this ever actually affected an American election?” she asked.
Mullin countered that any vote cast by a non-citizen is “one too many” and used his appearance on Sunday to stump for the Donald Trump-backed SAVE America Act. That law would require Americans to register to vote in person using a birth certificate or a passport, a major hurdle to election participation that would, in theory, weed out the statistically insignificant instances of non-citizens taking part in the U.S. elections.
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A study by the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement found that the act would effectively disenfranchise 21.3 million voting-age Americans who don’t have documentary proof of citizenship. That’s more than seven percent of Americans over the age of 18. Trump has urged Republicans in Congress to pass the act through reconciliation as a workaround of a Democratic Party filibuster in the Senate. GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins both said that idea was a non-starter last week.
