Attorney General Todd Blanche is pushing back on claims that armed federal agents will be deployed to monitor the upcoming midterm elections, calling the allegation “completely false.”
Blanche addressed the issue during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
He said the Department of Justice has monitored elections for decades and argued that the Trump administration is continuing a longstanding federal practice.
“Since the sixties the Department of Justice has monitored elections,” Blanche said.
“Every single election’s been monitored.”
Blanche said the current administration is doing the same thing previous administrations have done for generations.
“And so we’re doing, we meaning this administration, President Trump is doing the same thing that every single administration has done in our generation, multiple generations,” he said.
According to Blanche, the goal is to make sure federal election law is being enforced properly.
He said critics should recognize that the federal government is preparing to send monitors around the country.
“What these senators should be saying is thank God that we have a government that’s ready to show up and have volunteers,” Blanche said.
He added that the administration hopes to have at least 1,000 election monitors involved.
“We’re hoping to have a thousand or more,” Blanche said.
Blanche emphasized that the monitors would not be sent only to Republican-controlled or Democratic-controlled states.
“They are not going to Republican states,” he said.
“They’re not going to Democrat states.”
Instead, Blanche said monitors would be sent across the country, per Breitbart News.
“They’re going to every state to make sure that our elections are carried out legally, fairly, and appropriately,” he said.
Blanche repeatedly described the effort as routine.
“And again this happens in every single election, and of course we’re going to do it,” he said.
He added that the administration considers election integrity a major priority.
“Of course we’re going to make sure the law is followed,” Blanche said.
“And election integrity is so important in this country and it’s something that we’re all talking about, as we should.”
Fox News host Shannon Bream then pressed Blanche directly on one of the most serious allegations surrounding the effort.
She asked whether armed federal agents would be among the people sent to monitor elections.
“Who are these people going to be?” Bream asked.
“The accusation that it is going to be armed federal agents, is that accurate? True or false?”
Blanche answered without hesitation.
“Completely false,” he said.
He said the individuals involved would be election monitors, not armed federal agents.
“They’re going to be election monitors as they are every single time,” Blanche said.
His remarks came amid growing political scrutiny over federal involvement in the administration of the 2026 midterm elections.
Critics have raised concerns about the possibility of an unusually aggressive federal presence at polling places.
Blanche rejected that characterization.
He framed the planned deployment as an ordinary continuation of DOJ election-monitoring efforts.
The attorney general also sought to reassure voters that the program would not be targeted by party or state political leaning.
Instead, he said the administration wants monitors in every state.
Blanche’s comments make clear that the administration plans to continue federal election monitoring.
But he drew a sharp distinction between traditional election monitors and armed law enforcement officers.
According to Blanche, the claim that armed federal agents will be stationed at polling places is simply false.
The administration’s stated goal, he said, is to ensure that federal law is followed and that elections are conducted legally and fairly.
