Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during election security call
Democratic state officials criticise Trump administration’s election support as 2026 midterms approach
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during election security call
Photograph: Phoenix New Times (embedded from source)
What this story says
- Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told CISA officials during a security call that he did not trust them, citing threats to election workers from the Trump administration.
- Acting CISA Director Nick Andersen and assistant director Jim Harrell offered no concrete support for the 2026 election, focusing instead on 2028, according to participants.
- The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to withhold $1 billion in FEMA funding from states that refuse Trump administration election rule changes, prompting a lawsuit from Democratic states.
- The Justice Department plans to deploy 1,000 monitors to observe voting in the 2026 midterms, as reported by Bloomberg.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
35/100
Craft
85/100
Hype
32/100
6 sources · methodology
Thin on the right so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes accused the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of abandoning its election security duties during a call with state officials on 17 August 2026. Fontes, a Democrat, told CISA officials he did not trust them, citing threats from the Trump administration against election workers. The call, hosted by CISA, was intended to address election security ahead of the November midterms.
Participants said acting CISA Director Nick Andersen and assistant director Jim Harrell offered no concrete support for the 2026 election, which is fewer than 90 days away. Instead, they focused on preparations for the 2028 presidential election. Fontes and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, also a Democrat, said the federal government had left states to manage election security alone. Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs called the call a "positive step" but urged further trust-building.
The Department of Homeland Security has threatened to withhold $1 billion in FEMA funding from states that do not adopt Trump administration election rule changes. A coalition of Democratic states and officials has sued the department over the move. Separately, the Justice Department plans to deploy 1,000 monitors to observe voting in the 2026 midterms, as reported by Bloomberg.
What the coverage left out
No right-rated outlet ran this story at all. None of the digests or reports mentioned the specific election rule changes the Trump administration is demanding in exchange for FEMA funding. The cost of the Justice Department’s election monitoring deployment was also not reported by any outlet.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 4 times, most recently on 17 Aug 2026, 23:15, and will add the sides that appear.
How other outlets pictured it
Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
4 rated outlets
- The left-rated reports led on the confrontation between Fontes and CISA officials. The Phoenix New Times and Alternet digests both highlighted Fontes’s statement, "I don’t trust you," and his criticism of the Trump administration’s threats to election workers. The Washington State Standard digest also focused on the call’s tensions, while Raw Story led on the legal challenge to the DHS’s threatened withholding of FEMA funding.
- The Phoenix New Times full report quoted Fontes directly: "They don’t work with us, they work against us." It also included comments from Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, who said states were "almost entirely on their own" for election security. The report described CISA’s briefing as a "generic 'CYA' (cover your a**) briefing" that offered few assurances of support.
Centre
2 rated outlets
- The centre-rated reports carried the same core facts but led on different angles. Votebeat’s full report, republished by the Phoenix New Times, focused on the call’s tensions and Fontes’s criticism of CISA. It quoted Fontes’s statement, "I don’t trust you," and included his accusation that the administration had "abandoned their duties and threatened prosecution."
- Political Wire’s digest led on the Justice Department’s plan to deploy 1,000 election monitors, citing Bloomberg. It did not mention the CISA call or the FEMA funding dispute.
Right
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Read it at the source
6 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
4- Tensions reach boiling point on election security call for state leaders (opens washingtonstatestandard.com in a new tab)
washingtonstatestandard.com — is washingtonstatestandard.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Trump admin's $1 billion election ultimatum immediately sparks new legal war (opens Raw Story in a new tab)
- Fontes tells Trump's election security agency: 'I don't trust you' (opens Phoenix New Times in a new tab)
Phoenix New Times — is Phoenix New Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ‘Don’t trust you’: Fury reaches boiling point on call hosted by Trump admin (opens Alternet in a new tab)
Centre
2- Trump Administration Readies 1,000 Election Monitors (opens Political Wire in a new tab)
Political Wire — is Political Wire biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ‘I don’t trust you’: Trump administration election security call gets testy as Democratic state officials push back on federal pressure. (opens Votebeat in a new tab)
Right
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during…?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 67% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during… left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during… biased?
- Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during election security call is one event reported by 6 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during…?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered Arizona Secretary Fontes tells CISA: 'I don’t trust you' during…?
- 6 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- What did Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes say to CISA officials?
- Fontes told CISA officials, "I don’t trust you," during a 17 August 2026 election security call. He accused the Trump administration of threatening election workers and abandoning its duties, as reported by the Phoenix New Times and Votebeat.
- Why are Democratic states suing the Department of Homeland Security?
- Democratic states have sued the Department of Homeland Security over its threat to withhold $1 billion in FEMA funding from states that refuse to adopt Trump administration election rule changes. The lawsuit was filed by the Brennan Center, as reported by Raw Story.
- How many election monitors will the Justice Department deploy in 2026?
- The Justice Department plans to deploy 1,000 monitors to observe voting in the 2026 midterm elections, according to a report by Bloomberg carried by Political Wire. No outlet reported the cost of the deployment.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
