Trump Shuts Down Voter Fraud Commission, Turns To DHS For Next Steps
President Donald Trump on Wednesday shut down a White House Commission that he had charged to investigate voter fraud. He then tasked the Department of Homeland Security with determining the next moves.
The White House released a statement on Wednesday saying that Trump had “signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission,” tasking the Department of Homeland Security “to review these issues and determine next courses of action.”
The reluctance of states to the commission appears to have forced its demise. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that, “Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense,” Trump has signed an order to dissolve the commission and asked the Department of Homeland Security to determine the next steps taken by the administration.
According to critics, the campaign was a conservative plot to strip minority voters and poor people from the voters roll and to justify claims made by Trump that voter fraud cost him the popular vote during the 2016 Presidential elections.
Trump did not admit that the commission was unable to find evidence of fraud but said that the closing was due to legal challenges.
“Despite substantial evidence of voter fraud, many states have refused to provide the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity with basic information relevant to its inquiry,” Mr. Trump said in a White House statement on Wednesday.
“Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the commission, and have asked the Department of Homeland Security to review these issues and determine next courses of action,” he said.
There have been no states which have managed to gather evidence supporting Trump’s claims that there was widespread voter fraud and many people, including from within the Republican Party have rejected it.
Trump set up the commission in a bid to gather evidence that would justify his unsubstantiated claims that Hillary Clinton received about 2.9 million more votes while he won the presidency in the Electoral College.
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