Tom Tiffany had something to tell his supporters about Wisconsin's November election.
"And by the way, good news, good news, the federal Department of Justice is coming to Wisconsin for this election to make sure that we have election integrity," the Republican nominee for governor said at a campaign stop at the Pioneer Keg in Dodge County on Thursday, September 17, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The man asking to run Wisconsin's government is cheering on federal officials from Trump's administration showing up at Wisconsin's election. And he's the same man who tried to throw out the 2020 result.
His campaign couldn't back it up
When the Journal Sentinel asked for details, a Tiffany campaign spokeswoman said 1,000 federal monitors would be deployed for the midterms, and pointed to an August 18 CBS News report.
That report is about a record 1,000 Justice Department monitors nationwide. The Journal Sentinel noted it "did not include any information specifically about Wisconsin, or about how many monitors would be present in the state on Nov. 3."
So either Tiffany knows something about Trump's plans for Wisconsin that his own campaign couldn't produce, or he told supporters something he couldn't back up.
What "coming to Wisconsin" could mean right now
On its own, a federal election monitor is nothing new. The Justice Department's civil rights office has long sent monitors to make sure voters aren't discriminated against or intimidated.
But this isn't happening on its own. In the same weeks:
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE agents could carry out immigration enforcement at polling places, States Newsroom reported. Civil rights groups and unions have now filed a second lawsuit this month to stop it, arguing that federal law bars "armed men" at polling sites. We've covered the first lawsuit. (A DHS spokesperson told States Newsroom ICE was not planning any operations targeting polling locations.)
- FBI Director Kash Patel didn't rule out sending FBI agents to polling places when senators pressed him two days before Tiffany's remarks, saying officers would "follow the law".
- Federal authorities have already been scrutinizing Wisconsin's elections, including FBI agents interviewing a number of state and local election workers, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Armed federal officers and military personnel aren't allowed at polling places under federal and state law, the Journal Sentinel noted, citing the Brennan Center.
Tiffany isn't the only Republican on this site telling supporters that federal agents are coming. In Michigan, John James bragged that his "friend Kash Patel" promised an FBI "presence" before Election Day.
Tiffany's election record
Tiffany's idea of "election integrity" is on the record.
- In December 2020, he was the only member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation to sign onto the Texas lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the 2020 results in four states Joe Biden won — including Wisconsin. The court rejected it.
- Hours after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, he voted to reject the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania. He has said he would have objected to Wisconsin's results too, but the attack disrupted the vote on it, according to the Journal Sentinel.
- He has claimed officials in Dane and Milwaukee counties allowed "hundreds of thousands of illegal votes to be cast and counted" — yet a nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau report and a conservative law firm's investigation both found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
What the record shows
On September 17, Tom Tiffany told supporters it was "good news" that the "federal Department of Justice is coming to Wisconsin for this election" — and his campaign could offer only a national report that said nothing specific about Wisconsin. He said it while the Trump administration's Homeland Security secretary says ICE agents could enforce immigration law at polling places and the FBI director won't rule out sending agents. Tiffany signed onto the 2020 lawsuit to throw out Wisconsin's presidential result and voted to reject two other states' electoral votes hours after January 6.
Source
This post is based on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's reporting, republished by Wausau Pilot & Review. Photo: USA TODAY Network via Wausau Pilot & Review.
