Donald Trump Will Send ICE to Voting Centers — But The Senate Can Stop Him

think again. Inslee has been in the arena for decades, state legislator, congressman,

“three-term governor of Washington, former prosecutor, the guy who made climate change”

has political north star before it was trendy. He even ran for president in 2020, basically daring the country to take the climate crisis seriously. Love him or argue with him,

he's never exactly been subtle about where he stands. And now he's out with an op-ed that should

make people sit up straight. He's warning that Donald Trump could use ice, not just as an immigration tool, but as a political weapon. Specifically, that a highly visible ice activity in immigrant communities during in election season could function as voter intimidation. Not by changing laws, not by rewriting ballots, just by creating fear, by making people think twice before standing in line to vote. And let's be honest, we've already seen how law enforcement

optics can be used to send a message. Big raids, cameras, shock, and awe. Inslee's point is that you don't have to station an agent inside a polling place to chill turnout. You just have to make people wonder

who's watching. He's arguing that democracy isn't just about whether ballots exist,

it's about whether people feel safe casting them. So today we're talking to governor Jay Inslee about why he believes this moment requires vigilance, why he thinks the warning signs are already there, and what protecting the vote actually looks like when power is on the line, because whether you agree with him or not, the question he's raising is bigger than one state, one party, or one election. It's about whether fear gets a seat at the ballot box.

Welcome to the siren podcast former government governor of the state of Washington, Jay Inslee, welcome. Thanks for having me. This is really excited to be on the siren. That's a good megaphone. Do you have the siren? There's a lot to blow a siren about right now, actually. Boy, is there? It's really great to meet you. We were just talking about my bucket list of visiting Washington state is definitely on there. So you said give me something to look forward

to. And boy, boy, do we need something to look forward to? Because times are extraordinarily challenging and extraordinarily dark. And we have seen American citizens murdered in broad daylight with no accountability. We've seen ICE, just disappearing human beings, wreaking havoc on American cities. We've seen what they've done in places like Minneapolis and continue to do. And you've written an op-ed on Midas Touch on their sub-stack, which is titled Don't Let ICE Freeze Voting.

And I know that this is a grave concern, that Donald Trump's intentions to interfere with elections are a grave concern for a lot of Americans right now. And so let's talk about this. What do you think he could reasonably try to get away with when it comes to ICE impacting our polling places and voting in November and beyond? Well, the thing with Donald Trump is, you got to understand there's no bottom. There is no activity beyond the realm of any

imaginable ethical moral or legal standard that he would not violate if it makes him feel more

powerful and helps him get over his massive insecurity that is at the basis for his narcissism

“and social path of tendency. So the first thing you need to understand is there are no limits”

with him other than the ones that we can impose ourselves through the Democratic process. So that's number one. That's hard to do because you know we're usually taught to imagine the best of people. You got to assume the worst from Donald Trump. So you have to ask what could he do to disrupt the next election? Well, at the moment we should be very alert to his intentions as expressed through Steve Bannon to surround polling places with ICE officials in camouflage uniforms and armor

and AR-16's and helmets and masks to intimidate voters legal voters citizens so they feel intimidated and not going to the polls and he has the capability of doing that and just put these people in Democratic leaning precincts to depress the number of Democrats who vote and people don't like to feel intimidated by shows of force and you know there's a lot of voters that are

“kind of casual voters and that can tip them over deciding not to vote. He understands that. That's why”

Steve Bannon has said most recently that is their express intention and you know it's kind of funny because I wrote a bit of touch article about this. Cornean of this and some critics said well you know no one would ever do that. The next morning Steve Bannon came out and you said your damn right we're going to do it. That's exactly the plan. So I've been beat the drum on this.

funds for ICE that this is illegal and will not happen. Yeah I mean we saw them strip out the funding

for the Department of Homeland Security which I was talking to Senator Blumenthal recently who said that department is broken. It is absolutely an utterly broken and the Congress

“cannot fund what they are doing right now. And so I think it was a wise decision to manage”

to separate that from funding other parts of the government so that they couldn't be tethered to a public and saying oh look they shut down the whole entire government again because I actually think that most Americans do not want to continue to fund this. I think what people are seeing on their TV screens, on the news and on social media these images of people like Renee

Good and Alex Pretty being shot and killed of children, you know being abducted essentially

from their homes and sent to these detention centers. We have a public piece today about the kids in Dilly detention center in Texas writing letters about what they're experiencing and enduring and it sounds like torture. So the American people do not want to continue to fund this. So I think that that's wise. Do you think that the Republicans in the Senate in particular will make concessions? Do you think that Donald Trump, God forbid, will make any concessions when it

comes to what ICE is doing? Well if it's in law it will help us slow him down and we are hopeful that the judges will impose these legal requirements. Now there is already a statue that does address

this to some degree that prohibits armed personnel or troops being around polling places but

there's a little bit of loophole here because if he didn't actually arm them he could actually position these ICE agents around the polling places which would significantly suppress the number of people who are willing to vote legal voters citizens who are willing to go cast their vote. He knows

“that that's why he would intend to do it. So if we now have a golden opportunity in this appropriations”

bill to put an absolute binding limitations so none of the dollars can be used for that purpose. And it's a good opportunity because it would bind not only this appropriation but previous appropriations that have been made. So we now have a door open that will allow the Democrats to insist on a measure of democracy of identifying information so we know we're dealing with elimination of masks requirement of a Lawrence which is already constitution required to break somebody's door

down and the consequences of this are really profound. This is not not just a matter of inconvenient. You know I listened to Brandy Carlisle. She's a product of Washington state seeing America the beautiful. She was wonderful to listen to her. She's a friend from way back. And congratulations on the Super Bowl by the way. Thank you very much. We're trying to be humble. I didn't bring it up yet. We were trying to humble a little bit. But Brandy's song just I was just

thinking you know what a blessing in democracy is. We've had it for 250 years and to lose it and year 251 is not acceptable. So this is a fight to save democracy itself. This is the front lines. We cannot allow the intrusion of the federal government to break down these barriers against destruction of liberty. So this is a fight worth having and I'm glad that you're going to help the Congress to be aggressive on this. I'm all for that. I'm I'm I'm not one who necessarily likes

to bring you know a a butter knife to a blowtorch fight that's not really what I'm known for. It's interesting that you brought up well I you brought up sort of you brought up Brandy Carlisle which tangentially of course brings up the Super Bowl because one of the keys to your team success and again congratulations, so let's move on for a reading. Thank you.

“Is there a parallel there right between winning a Super Bowl and defending democracy?”

Because as much as we do need our Congress people to go on offense on this we also need to have a good defense in protecting our democracy from the attacks on it coming from Donald Trump which include you know stationing ice agents outside of polling places but also include some of the other things that they're up to. Pam Bondi trying to essentially extort the state of Minnesota into giving the department of justice their voter data. We've seen what happened in Fulton County

which is absolutely bizarre where they seized all of that voter information from the election center and the DNI was there which is extremely strange on usual and called the FBI so they could talk to Donald Trump in real time. I mean that's a state that he very much would like to be able to say oh we have evidence that I actually won there despite the fact that we have evidence that he tried to get the then Secretary of State to find 11,780 votes. There are so many attacks on voting on

of those defenses right now. One of the great bullworks that we have are our governors in blue states.

What we've seen from Tim Walls will be seen from Mikey Cheryl who I don't know if you saw this but today or yesterday announced that ice agents could be fined a thousand dollars for wearing masks. We need our governors to stand up in the breach right now and to protect democracy and to protect

“our right to vote in free and fairly. Well listen it is so important for every public official”

to stand up in democracy at every level of government. Certainly governors have the ability to enforce state law. They might have to go in front of the courts to insist on following state law. And they ought to be aggressive in doing that. I'm proud of democratic voters and democratic

governors. We're doing across the United States and doing everything they can to protect these

these long 250 year old democratic rights that we have enjoyed. We need Congress to do the same. We need Democrats in the Senate and House to do that. They're doing that. They're trying that in their proposal in this budget. They did it. They did the proposal restriction to not allow ice agents around sensitive places, church schools and polling places. So we hope that they can force that into the eventual budget deal. We hope that that'll happen. And we all have the ability

to be out there speaking ourselves. Look, the people of Minneapolis have showed us how it's done. Peaceful, peaceful resistance and calling out these abuses. We can all do what we can to express our voices. And let me just finish on this. We got to go elect Democrats next November to the U.S. Congress and elections up and down. Now that's happening. There have been huge democratic wins in the last month and a variety of special elections because people have had a belly full of this abuse

by this president. But we can all get involved in campaigns. Go find a member of the House representatives running and help them out in their campaign. Put up a yard sign. Do some emails. We can all participate in this. It's not just governors or Congress people. And when people are doing that, we're changing the course of this country. Okay. So 2026 is the year I stop pretending my

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“stand up in the face of all of this. I think the American people buy in large as well. They”

really don't have an appetite for this. I think we've seen in elections after the 24 election, both here in my state of New Jersey with Mikey Cheryl. We've seen it in the state of Virginia. We've seen 31 and 37 point swings in places like Texas and Louisiana. We have a mayor in Miami. Who's a Democrat now? I think that you know, by and large the American people are rejecting what they are seeing happening here plus everything is getting more expensive. We now know that Donald Trump's

tariffs have cost you average American family additional $1,000 in a single year. I mean, I think that the pendulum to use that expression swing is definitely coming back in the democracy's favor, but I will say it does seem like a race against the clock because the foxes in the henhouse, they call us coming from inside the house and a lot of people can feel very disheartened and powerless knowing that they control all the levers. He can send Tulsi Gabbard and the FBI into

Fulton County and then extract that information and then twist it to his liking etc. So I understand

But what would you tell the American people to a swage? They're worries. That, you know,

there's nothing we can do. That even if even if they do, you know, past these laws, this is a DHS that is lawless. This is an administration that infamously doesn't comply with court orders. We've seen that especially with the Department of Homeland Security time and time again. So I know people will say, okay, this is great, but what if they don't? What if they don't, you know, comply with these restrictions and what if they decide that these guardrails

“are irrelevant to them? Well, what I would say is the fact is we have agency here. We are not”

powerless. We have shown the ability to beat him in court and on the streets through peaceful resistance.

Let me point out that we had 60 judges that stood up when Donald Trump lost the election in 2020

and he was unable to succeed in his coup attempt. Okay, there's, there's a big win that we had. And we've now had multiple wins where we have had judicial decrees against him that by and large actually have been enforced. Now, he's been trying to wiggle out of a bunch of them, but by and large, we have been successful in getting the judicial system to stand up against this continuing coup. Now, let me pause it. Why I think we're going to be in good shape next November

in the election. First off, Americans have had a belly full about the abuses by ICE. That's number one. Number two, they've had a belly full of increased electrical prices that they've had to pay

“because Donald Trump is driving up their electrical bills by an average of 12% across the nation.”

In New Jersey, you elected a governor in Virginia and you elected a governor because they spoke against this effort by Trump to deny access of Americans from getting access to the cheapest

source of electricity, which is renewable energy. We'll keep took a billion dollars to try to help

the oil and gas industry to try to choke off competitors from coal as a result our electrical prices are going up. Number three, the third bait and switch and these are all bait and switches. He, you know, he argued he's going to reduce prices, but he's increased him with his ridiculous tariff policies, which have not actually reduced the trade deficit when I ordered. It's actually larger now than when he was elected. All it's done is to give people higher prices. So he said he was

going to just deport criminals wrong. He's deported, you know, people who go to church, pay their taxes and work really hard in our communities. That's the first bait and switch. The second he said he's going to reduce electrical prices. He's driving him up. In 30, he said he was going to reduce

“the cost of our products. He's been wrong at all. He's three strikes you're out. And so I think that”

there's a reason to believe next November you're going to see a flood tide of rejection of his policies and if we can elect a house representative, which I believe is probable and we got to shot at the Senate, we can start the reverse course of this. But nothing's overnight, it takes work and that's what we got to do in the next several months. Yeah. And I think that Republicans, by and large, see the writing on the wall as well. But and Donald Trump knows that if he only loses the house,

let alone the house and the Senate, which the math is changing only to the viewpoint on the Senate, he knows they will impeach him. I mean, he knows that that is inevitable. And I think we make Democrats make no secret of that others as well, Kristi, no one comes to mind. But another one promise, let's just say, that he has made and actually delivered on, is what he's done to the EPA. And I know that climate change was a central focus of your time in office. So we have some

unfolding news. This was in Project 2025. They told us all the things they were going to do. But as it pertains to the EPA, what Lee's Elden is doing to the EPA. And now their changes related to greenhouse gases. Can we talk about this, please? Because I don't think this is getting enough. And I saw this this morning. And I was just like, oh my God, there's so many things moving and there's so many fronts on which we're being attacked, you know, democracy, freedom,

rights. We, you know, we had a wonderful halftime show that they've turned into a referendum, you know, that there was an FCC claim now by Randy Fine. But the environmental stuff, this is massively impactful. Can you talk about what what they've said into motion related to greenhouse gases? Well, it's pretty simple. They're making Americans exposing us to more dangerous than we should have. We should have a federal government that protects

in every part of our country by massive changes in the climate caused by carbon pollution.

“Most recently in my state, we had, you know, dozens of people flooded out of their homes because”

of these massive floods that are happening because we get these huge rainfall events because the atmosphere can now hold more water as it's warming up. Across the West New United States,

we've had incredible doubling of increasing in forest fires in last several decades.

When I was governor, we had two whole towns, Maldon and medical lake burned down, the whole town, 80% of the homes in the towns burned up, due to these wildfires that have increased dramatically because the West is becoming arid and hotter. And that is resulted in more of these horrific catastrophic wildfires. We saw that in Los Angeles, obviously, and in those horrific fires. We're seeing different weather patterns, including colder weather

in places because the polar vortex is being changed because of climate change. So we're being

“exposed to danger and what is the actions by Trump? Take a billion dollars from the polluting”

industries and strip Americans of the protections they have to try to reduce the danger. And then after the danger to add insult to injury, after this town of Maldon burned down, you know what Donald Trump said? To hell with you, I don't care. I'm not going to allow FEMA to help rebuild your town because he just didn't like a blue state. And he much this is much said that. So we need to change course here to protect Americans against this, but also increase

electrical prices. Because at the same time, you're reducing our dependence on coal and using solar and wind and batteries. You're getting cheaper electricity. And cheaper electricity is a good thing for pocketbooks, not just our health. So yes, he's going to do his worst on this and he's done it. He's tried to repeal every single measure we've had to give Americans cheaper electricity to get wind power. He's tried to kill wind power. By the way, this comes to your point says,

can we restrain this guy with the courts? Well, yes, we can. He tried to cancel about a half dozen of the offshore wind projects in the Atlantic seaboard. Why? Because the fossil fuel

industry gave him a billion dollars. And he's returning the deal, which is to try to kill

cheap renewable energy. But the courts now have said, go ahead, they push the green button and about six of those, those offshore wind projects. So it shows that we do have agency, we do have authority as long as we get active politically and use our voices. And fortunately, the technological changes are so profound. So quick, we're getting this stuff that the prices are coming down. The prices come down 80% for solar energy in the last decade. Batteries the same situation. We know we can have

cheaper, cleaner, safer, more accessible job creating businesses in our community. If we make these investments. So there's good news out there as well. And it'll be better when we, when we get a democratic Senate in house. Yeah, absolutely. Now that's worked for it. Yeah, he lives to God's ears. You mentioned, you know, how he, he's out of present for all Americans. You know, the first president who's ever been overt about this, how he's, he's a Republican,

he's a president for those who support him and voted for him. And he has all of these, you know, he, he exacts retribution on states that that didn't vote for him. States that he didn't like. As if everyone in that state voted against him, like I'm looking at my own state of New Jersey, where we have a lot of Republicans in New York, my neighbor, tons of Republicans. It's not that everyone in these states voted for or against him. But he has made it very plain that he will punish you

if you are in a blue state. And, and one of the things he's doing, and just as a governor,

I wouldn't just ask you about this because it's, it's extraordinary. And it's in one of a million

things right now. They're flooding the zone with all this shit because he is hosting the annual winter meeting at the White House with the governors, the National Governors Association winter gathering, and he's not inviting democratic governors. This is not a president for all Americans. The United States of America, it's not the United States of places that he won.

“Well, maybe you should blame me for this because I went to the White House.”

Oh, it was 20, can't remember what year was 18, somewhere in there. It was before COVID. And we had a question time where we were asking President questions and there were good questions

we were debating whether he wanted to arm first grade teachers with cult 45s on their hip. He thought

that was a solution to problems in our schools. And I just stood up and said, Mr. President, I really think you need to tweet less and listen to first grade teachers more who thinks this is not a very good idea. And he just became kind of flustered and didn't know how to respond and had to ask Greg Abbott from Texas to help him out. And he couldn't even take a simple question and honest

“one. And maybe that's why he's afraid to talk to democratic governors. Maybe you should blame”

me for this. But no, it's such a departure from any sense of servitude. You know, when you get elected, you're a servant. You should have servant-based leadership. You serve people. You do not

command them. You do not dominate them. You don't order them. You serve them. And he's decided not

to serve at least half of the United States, visibly and come out right out and set it. So this is in 250 years. We have maintained our democracy. And you remember Franklin when somebody said, "What do we have?" You know, a monarchy or a republic. And Franklin said, "You have a republic if you can keeper." And we're at a moment where we're asking can we keeper? We're all of us having both an obligation and an opportunity to keep this blessing of liberty and democracy. And

it's an important time in our nation's history. I think you're seeing a flowering of people embracing

“this democracy and finding a revolution against his attitude from people. That's why his”

approval ratings in the basement. It's why Democrats are winning virtually every special election in the last, you know, four or five months. So you're seeing people getting back up on their hind legs and saying, "Not a moss. We're not going to stand for this." So it is happening. And that's why I'm encouraging people to go out and find, you know, be active because we can win this. Every friend group has that one person who insists on doing everything the hard way.

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gigabyte may slow when network is busy, capable device required, availability speed and coverage varies. Additional terms may apply. See mint mobile.com. I think Thomas Jefferson was talking about the threat to democracy would come from within. And that is the moment that we are facing. I'm 51 years old. I've been connected to politics in some way in my entire life. I was raised by a Republican

who flipped actually after George W. Bush later in his life. But I've never seen anything like this.

And I never imagined living in a time like this. And I have a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old. And I don't want them to inherit what we're looking at now. I want to leave this world better for them than the one I found. Honestly, I find it incredibly extraordinary and dark, but extraordinary that I couldn't have imagined what we're facing. But I am buoyed by what I'm seeing come out from with the people. And that's always going to be. It was always going to be the way out.

Well, I always think of what some Winston Churchill said really stuck with me. Churchill during the blitz and the bombing of London. He was walking through the ruins of London one day. This Londoner came up and said, "How do you get through the day with this devastation and the blitz and the fire and the destruction?" And how do you manage to get through the day? And he said, "These are actually great days. These are great days to be alive." He said,

of the continuation of democracy." So these are great days where you can actually make a difference.

“And I think these are great days. Yes, they are disturbing. They're frustrating.”

And I get up every morning, you know, angry about the last outrage. But they are great days because we got something worth fighting for. And we have colleagues and neighbors that we can join us. So it's a good time to be alive. We're so much as it's stake. And none of us are Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson. But we can be a version of our

best selves, which is to stand up for the most important thing in the nation, which is democracy.

So I think it's a great time to be alive and I'm glad to be allied with you. I'm glad to be allied with you as well. I think many Americans, myself included to some extent, have long taken democracy for granted. Like it would always be their kind of like gravity.

“But I think about it, like kind of like a marriage or a relationship, you know, if you ignore it”

and leave it, you know, sitting on the couch by itself for too long, you know, maybe they're going to get up and stray or you know, I think we've let democracy kind of kind of get a wandering eye. And I think we need to, like, are very much reminded in this moment that it's a participation sport democracy does not exist on its own. It requires each and every one of us. And it is,

it is in that way, an incredibly, I guess, powerful time to be alive to know that, that we are

reminded of how special and unique this is and that we are reminded that it is, that it is a reality that each and every one of us gets to shape in our own way. We can't just let it sit there on the couch. Well, and we got to understand, you know, we can get through difficult times. The Civil War was a difficult time. The fight for civil rights was a difficult time. You're too young to remember it. The Vietnam War was a difficult time. Nixon was a difficult time. We are

capable of weathering storms in this nation. We're not made of sugar candy. We're a resolute people that over time, you know, embrace what is it's going to be a brighter future. So should and can get through this period of time if we get in touch with our deepest values. And that is happening across America. Look, I can't drive through the little street corner going up to our little village in Bamber, Jail and Washington. And there's not a dozen people out there

holding up signs that say no kings in the middle of the day. So that's happening all across the United States. People are voting in droves. They're speaking out. They're finding candidates to support. And as a result, I think we will preserve democracy over time. And that's a good day. Good

“day is work at the office. It is. Well, I think this was a really important and helpful dose of”

both the sobering relative where we are right now and also the hopeful message of where we can where we can be if we continue to do the work. So thank you so much for your time and for your advocacy for democracy. And I really appreciate this conversation. Well, thank you. And thanks for

rooting for the she-ox. Well, about about a million people in the streets of Seattle tomorrow.

And we'll try to be humble, but it's very, very difficult when you have a defense like the Seattle she-ox to be humble. That was very, I was in a very impressive defensive display. I'm along Suffering Giants fan, but but in that matchup and therefore I can't I just can't root for the patriots, but in that solidly solidly in the seahawks camp. So they have fun tomorrow and congratulations again. And thank you again. Thank you. Keep blowing the siren. Thanks a lot. Thanks. Talk soon.