Trump discusses election integrity, FBI raid on Georgia County election office before midterms

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump sat down with ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor Tom Llamas on Wednesday, February 4, to talk about election integrity before the 2026 midterm elections slated for November.

The US leader addressed the FBI’s raid at a Georgia election office in Fulton County.

He insisted that he was not behind the search operation despite repeatedly making allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 US election. 

Trump clarifies he's not behind FBI raid at a Georgia election office

Trump told Llamas, “I’m not doing anything, but the FBI went in because it’s been under review for years ... Why would anybody be upset that they went in and got the ballots? …”

“They got a court order signed by a respected but liberal judge,” he added.

Trump backtracks from his statement of 'nationalize the voting'

Besides, the commander-in-chief appeared to be reverting from his own call to “nationalize voting” during the interview.

Earlier this week, Trump had said, “The Republicans should say, 'We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least — many, 15 places.' The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

But on Wednesday, February 4, Trump claimed, “I didn’t say 'national'. I said there are some areas in our country that are extremely corrupt,” while specifically mentioning Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit that played an important role in his 2020 defeat against Joe Biden.

Trump denies Italian satellite conspiracy theory

Further in the interview, Trump was also asked about election conspiracy theories he reportedly shared on social media about Italian military satellites that made US voting machines switch votes in favor of Biden.

“You tweeted out some theories about Italians and satellites. Do you believe that stuff?” Llamas asked.

But the 79-year-old’s response was “No, no. No. No. … I sometimes will… retruth.”

Trump endorses both Vance and Rubio

Also, during the sit-down when Trump was asked to pick a favorite as a potential 2028 ticket, he said, “Well, I don’t want to get into this. We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’ — it wouldn’t be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic,” referring to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Explaining more about Vance and Rubio, Trump added, “I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other. I think there’s a difference in style. But they’re both very capable.”