Culture

The Head Of Trump’s Election Integrity Commission Suggests ‘We May Never Know’ Who Won The Popular Vote

by: Uproxx authors

The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is already off to a rough start. Set up to examine voter fraud and suppression and headed by Vice President Mike Pence, the commission has already been knocked for requesting voter identification information and other privacy concerns after releasing unredacted public comments. As a result, many are questioning the very existence of the commission.

The commission held its first meeting Wednesday, and afterward Kris Kobach — the commission’s vice chairman, Kansas secretary of state, and ardent believer in rampant illegal voting — hit the media circuit. That’s where, while speaking to MSNBC’s Katy Tur, he made the sensational claim that “we may never know” who won the popular vote in the 2016 Presidential election. (Despite no evidence having been produced that Hillary Clinton did not receive nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump.) His statement was prompted by Turr, who asked if he believed Clinton won the popular vote in November.

“We may never know the answer to that,” he said. “We will probably never know the answer to that question. Because even if you can prove that a certain number of votes were cast by ineligible voters, for example, you wouldn’t know how they voted.” Tur then asked if Trump not winning the popular vote was the reason for the commission’s formation, but Kobach rejected the idea. “That is not the reason the commission exists,” he said. “It’s not to justify, to validate or invalidate what the president said in December or January about the 2016 election. The commission is to look at the facts as they are, and go where the facts lead us on voter fraud and threats to the integrity of our elections.”


Tur pressed him on the “may never know” statement, to which Kobach responded:

“What I’m saying is let’s suppose that the commission determined that a certain number of voters by ineligible voters. You still won’t know whether those people who were ineligible voted for Trump or for Clinton or for somebody else. So it’s impossible to know exactly if you took out all the ineligible votes, what the final tally would be in that election.”

Tur later clarified on Twitter that Kobach’s comments meant “he can’t be sure Donald Trump won either.” Commission Chairman and Vice President Pence, meanwhile, previously took it upon himself to cheer the commission despite its facing multiple lawsuits. Pence, along with Trump and many others gathered before the first meeting, claimed the commission “has no pre-conceived notions or pre-ordained results.” He then added, “We’re fact finders.”

(Via MSNBC and ABC News)