Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview Monday that it would be his “honor” to lead a commission that President Donald Trump announced he will set up to investigate voter fraud.
“The President and I talked about a week ago, and he announced in that interview here on Fox with Bill O’Reilly that he’s going to set up a commission,” Pence told Fox News. “At the very center of our democracy is the integrity of the vote, the one person, one vote principle, and it’ll be my honor to lead that commission on behalf of the President and to look into that and give the American people the facts.”
VP PENCE: It will be my honor to lead the voter fraud investigation and give the facts to the American people pic.twitter.com/mQWlOfPh38
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 6, 2017
Trump was originally scheduled to sign an executive order in late January opening a Justice Department investigation into his unfounded claims that massive voter fraud cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election.
Trump still has not signed the order, and an unnamed senior official in Trump’s administration told CNN that the probe was no longer “a top priority” for the President.
Trump announced the formation of a commission to “look at” voter fraud in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that aired Sunday.
“You take a look at the registration, you have illegals, you have dead people, you have this, it’s really a bad situation,” he said. “I’m going to set up a commission, to be headed by Vice President Mike Pence, and we’re going to look at it very, very carefully.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Sunday morning that he doesn’t think taxpayer money should be spent on Trump’s investigation.
“Election fraud does occur,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “There is no evidence that it occurred in such a significant number that would have changed the presidential election. And I don’t think we ought to spend any federal money investigating that.”
