Government

Trump Disbands Fraudulent Voter Fraud Commission, Blames 'Democratic States' As Parting Lie

He also threatens to sic Homeland Security on states, because he thinks that protecting his ego is a matter of national security.

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(Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

And so it ends with a whimper. To my mind, the most dangerous aspects of the Trump administration so far have been, in order:

  • His eagerness to start a nuclear war.
  • His commitment to letting the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society pack the courts with arch-conservative but healthy white men.
  • His attempts to disenfranchise minority voters.

Your list my vary. Trying to kill millions by taking away their healthcare, denying climate change and refusing to do anything about it, deporting Americans and breaking up families, supporting Nazis, supporting pedophiles, and generally governing via Twitter are all terrible things that can make any reasonable list of “evidence that Trump is the worst president in American history.” But for me, those three things have the greatest and most lasting deleterious effect on the ability of our democracy to function. You can’t participate in self-government if Republicans decide your vote doesn’t count, you can’t participate in self-government if a judge declares you to be less equal than the white man, and you can’t participate in self-government if you are irradiated off the planet.

But today, I need to update my list because a major Trump problem has just been handled. Trump announced that he was disbanding his voter fraud commission. This is the commission that was headed by Mike Pence and Kris Kobach. Trump said that the commission was there to preserve the integrity of our elections (a rich claim from a guy under multiple investigations as to whether he colluded with foreign powers to undermine the integrity of an American election). But make no mistake, this commission was designed to do no less than bring about the repeal the National Voter Registration Act.

And now… it’s gone.

“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,” Trump said in a brief statement early Wednesday evening.

“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.”

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There is literally more substantial evidence of aliens visiting us in ancient times in search of gold and slaves than there is of voter fraud. And aliens did NOT visit us in ancient times in search of gold and slaves. The commission was a farce from the day it started. Trump was only into it because his fragile little ego can’t handle losing the popular vote. Republicans like Pence and Kobach were into it because disenfranchising minorities is the only way Republicans can continue to be competitive in national and most statewide elections.

Of course, Trump needs someone to blame for the fact that his commission did not find what was not there.

Over on the Washington Post, Philip Bump tears apart this lie and leaves it in tatters:

If by “Democratic states” we mean states that backed Hillary Clinton in 2016, it’s true that most of those refusing to provide data did so. Business Insider compiled an updated list in October of those states that were and weren’t planning to hand over voter data. Of those 17 states that weren’t planning to give data, 11 backed Clinton. So “mostly,” in the sense of “more than half,” were Democratic.

But if you count “Democratic states” as ones led by Democrats — that is, led by a Democratic governor who could order the state’s bureaucracy to comply with Trump or not — Trump’s wrong. Of the 17 states that denied Trump’s request, 12 have Republican governors.

What’s more, while deep-blue states like California were in the “deny” camp, so were some deep-red ones. Wyoming. Tennessee. Texas (after a court ruling). South Carolina. The secretary of state in Wyoming explained that he was not complying to “safeguard the privacy of Wyoming’s voters because of my strong belief in a citizen’s right to privacy.”

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As if you needed more evidence that the commission was specifically targeted at minority voters (or, in the alternative, as if one of you willfully ignorant people who do not see the racial overtones of voter fraud investigations could possibly be convinced by more evidence), the fact that Trump is now referring the issue to Homeland Security should be instructive. The Trump administration is not interested in any kind of machine politics aspect of so-called voter fraud. They’re not interested in rooting out modern-day Boss Tweeds (if they exist) who have some devilish scheme to swing alderman elections.

No, the Trump administration just cares about all these brown people who seem to be voting a lot. “Maybe Homeland Security can do something” is Trump code for “Brown people aren’t really Americans and shouldn’t be voting in our elections.”

In any event, the Pence/Kobach voter fraud commission looks like another Trump failure, and boy am I happy it is.

I think I’ll elevate denying climate change to my top three things that are worst about Trump. Nobody talks about climate change when it’s snowing, because people are stupid. But I really don’t want my kids to have to swim to the polling booth, even assuming that their brown votes will still be counted in the future.

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