Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey doubles down stating President Donald Trump will “try to steal” the midterm elections; predicts violence

BY COLIN A. YOUNG

Gov. Maura Healey doubled down Monday on comments she made late last week and over the weekend that President Donald Trump will “try to steal” the midterm elections.

In a GBH Radio appearance Friday, Healey said she was concerned that Trump’s deploying of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to deal with long airport security lines caused by a partial federal government shutdown is a first step towards the weaponization of ICE to “scare people and demotivate people from going to the polls.”

“He’s gonna weaponize every aspect of the federal government to try to steal this election. That’s what’s gonna happen, and I predict we’re gonna see some violence before the election, just to give him an excuse to exercise emergency powers,” Healey said Friday. “So, you know, we can beat it, we can confront it, we can maintain safe and secure elections as we have here in Massachusetts and across this country, and also people need to be aware of what’s happening so that when it happens, you can call it out.”

At Saturday’s No Kings rally on Boston Common, the governor used similar language, telling attendees, “We know that Donald Trump is gonna weaponize every agency in the federal government to steal this election.”

Asked Monday about using the word “steal” and her past issues with Republicans using similar rhetoric when discussing things like the 2020 election, the governor told a reporter to “forget about the word steal, OK?”

“Well, what do you think it would be if you actually turn the results of an election away from what they actually were? That, to me, you can call it stealing. You can call it erasing, you can call it invalidating. It doesn’t matter,” Healey said.

At another point, she added, “We have to be prepared for, across this country, Donald Trump taking steps, doing things that absolutely would be illegal — but it hasn’t stopped them before — to interfere with the election. And I think it’s important to talk about it for people to realize that that’s what we’re up against.”

Trump on Sunday told again reporters about his support for voter identification and proof of citizenship requirements and said mail-in ballots are “inherently dishonest” and have to be stopped” with exceptions for the military and people who are sick, disabled or traveling.