Acting Homeland Security chief says department does not have authority to send agents to polling locations
The Department of Homeland Security's acting secretary on Sunday cast doubt on the department's authority to send its agents to polling locations after President Donald Trump said he would deploy law enforcement in November to protect against voter fraud.
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"We don't have any authority to do that at the department," acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
Asked by Tapper if Trump had asked him to send law enforcement officers to polling centers, Wolf replied: "No, absolutely, he has not. Again, that's not what we do at the Department of Homeland Security."
"We have law enforcement authorities and law enforcement officers at the department, we have express authorities given to us by Congress and this is not one of them," he said, adding, "This is not a mission for the Department of Homeland Security."
Trump, who has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that voter fraud will undermine November's election results, told Fox News last week that the administration would send law enforcement officers to polling centers.
"We're going to have sheriffs, and we're going to have law enforcement, and we're going to have, hopefully, US attorneys, and we're going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic)," Trump said.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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