Kobach is a 'useful idiot' for Russia - By Jennifer Rubin
July 20 at 11:15 AM
Kris Kobach, Kansas’s secretary of state, candidate for governor and the vice chairman of President Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, leads the widely ridiculed group supposed to investigate millions of illegal voters, whom the president seems to believe cast votes for Hillary Clinton. The idea is preposterous, lacks any evidence according to the people who know (secretaries of state from 50 states) and appears to be a thinly-veiled effort to ratchet up voting restrictions (which, incidentally, federal courts are now routinely striking down).
Vice President Pence, who has been put in charge of this operation (although Kobach is running the show) must realize his group’s credibility is nearly nonexistent. At its first meeting Wednesday, he therefore insisted, “This commission — let me be clear — this commission has no preconceived notions or preordained results.” He added, “We’re fact-finders. And in the days ahead, we will gather the relevant facts and data, and at the conclusion of our work, we will present the president with a report of our findings.” Now if you believe this group of vocal activists who have perpetuated the idea that widespread voting fraud is real are open-minded, we have a bridge to sell you. But at least Pence understands the commission is on thin ice with not just Democrats but all sensible Americans. Not Kobach.
Kobach quickly confirmed suspicions that he and his commission members are, well, crackpots. Asked if he thinks Clinton won the popular vote, he blithely proclaimed, “We will probably never know the answer to that question. Because even if you could prove that a certain number of votes were cast by ineligible voters, for example, you wouldn’t know how they voted.” What?! “What we really (will) never know is how otherwise smart people allow themselves to be part of a giant goat rope meant to validate the lunatic tweets of a president deeply insecure about losing the popular vote,” wisecracked GOP operative and #NeverTrumper Rick Wilson. To be clear once again, there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
Moreover, if we don’t know if Clinton won the popular then do we know Trump won states that made up his electoral college majority? Asked if “the votes for Donald Trump that led him to win the election (are) in doubt as well,” he replied, “Absolutely.” Thunk.
“This is what happens when you have a president making policy based on his own lies — you have to keep telling that lie, even when the logical extension is questioning the president’s own election, as Kobach conceded,” former Justice Department public relations director Matt Miller told me. “The problem is that the policy that will be produced will be deeply damaging to millions of Americans.”
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