Voter fraud commission struggles out of the gate

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s special voter fraud commission isn’t off to a great start.

Trump won more than enough Electoral College votes to secure a victory last November, but he trailed Hillary Clinton by about 2.8 million in the popular vote. A few weeks after the election, Trump tweeted he would have won that tally, too, if not for the millions of illegal voters.

Skeptics asked for proof, and Trump resolved to defend his claim that between 3 million and 5 million people voted illegally last year. On May 11, Trump established the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, tasked with reviewing state election processes and weeding out fraudulent votes. But the Trump administration found out this week few states are ready to cooperate.

Vice President Mike Pence oversees the commission, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach serves as the group’s vice chairman. Last week, Kobach sent a letter to all 50 states requesting their voter data. He asked for registrants’ full names, addresses, dates of birth, political affiliations, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, their voting histories since 2006, details on any criminal charges, information regarding voter registration in other states, their military status, and overseas citizenship information.

As of Wednesday, not a single state had agreed to fully adhere to the request. Some states such as Oklahoma that voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump wanted to indulge the commission but still stopped short of turning over Social Security digits. CNN reported 44 out of 50 states will not comply with at least part of the request, and six states are still deciding next steps.

Officials in at least 10 states and Washington, D.C., said they would not comply at all with the inquiry.

Many Democrats criticized the commission as an attempt to suppress voters. But even deep red states don’t like the idea of a federal commission sticking its nose into their voting systems.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, said in a statement on Friday he had not received a copy of the letter yet, but he knows what his reply would be: “They can go jump in the Gulf of Mexico, and Mississippi is a great state to launch from,” he wrote. “Mississippi residents should celebrate Independence Day and our state’s right to protect the privacy of our citizens by conducting our own electoral processes.”

Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, also a Republican, made a similar statement but added he thinks the commission is a political ploy.

“My response to the commission is, you’re not going to play politics with Louisiana’s voter data,” Schedler said.

Each state has its own laws regarding the release of voter information. Commission members knew it would be a stretch to get all they requested, but the widespread backlash surprised them.

Trump weighed in on Saturday with a tweet asking what noncompliant states were trying to hide.

This week, the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the commission in federal district court in Washington, D.C. The complaint claims the commission’s demand for detailed voter histories violates the constitutional right to privacy. It also argues the request is reckless since it directs state election officials to send voter records to an unsecure website, which could lead to identity theft.

The letter gave states about two weeks to provide the voting data and any evidence of fraud and election-related crimes in their states. It also asked for suggestions on improving election security.

But with every state refusing to comply in full and others outright ignoring the request, the commission will hardly have comprehensive data to review. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, a Democratic member of the commission, said the group would work with what it has and reassess next steps July 19.

Free Iran

While Americans celebrated their independence this week, hundreds of thousands of Iranians wished they could do the same.

Last weekend, over 100,000 people gathered for an annual pro-democracy rally of Iranians hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Villepinte, France. This year, the gathering featured an array of American speakers including former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C.

Thousands of Iranian expatriates have relocated to France, and each year they rally to demand a regime change in Iran to a democratic, non-extremist government. Iran is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Pittenger, who also spoke in 2015, told me there was a different mood this year with a new leadership in the United States.

“Leaders all around the world were troubled over the ambivalence of President Obama’s policies,” Pittenger said.

He explained many Arab nations want regime change in Iran to take down Islamic terrorists, but unclear messages from the Obama administration didn’t help. With Trump, Pittenger said, the United States has a clear understanding of the terrorism threat and the role Iran plays: “We are standing against Islamic terrorism—that is unequivocal.” —E.W.

Round two in Europe

President Donald Trump landed in Europe this week for his second international trip as commander in chief.

He arrived in Poland on Wednesday for the first of three days of diplomacy. On Thursday, Trump will travel to Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 Summit with other world leaders. He will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday afternoon and later join South Korean President Moon Jae-In and Japanese President Shinzo Abe for dinner.

But all eyes are on Trump’s planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Amid multiple investigations looking into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump will meet face to face with the man purportedly behind it all. Many U.S. intelligence officials agree Russia deliberately attempted to meddle in last year’s election with the intention of securing Trump’s victory—and they claim Putin orchestrated it.

Trump has often talked of forming a better relationship with Russia to work on shared interests such as combating terrorism. “That’s why President Trump will try to work with Russia and Putin on that one issue—if he can’t he can’t,” Congressman Pittenger said. “It’s not a trust relationship at all. You need to be very clear-eyed, these people are not your friends.”

Trump will have to temper his interaction with Putin and not appear too friendly. So far Trump, seems cognizant of the balancing act.

“It could have very well been Russia, but it could well have been other countries and I won’t be specific, but I think a lot of people interfered," Trump said at a Thursday press conference in Warsaw, Poland, when asked about election interference. “Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.” —E.W.

Healthcare rumble looming

Republicans will return from their Fourth of July recess with healthcare legislation still at the top of their to-do list.

As lawmakers departed Washington last week, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., penned Trump a letter suggesting Congress abandon its current healthcare path. He said if Republicans can’t vote on healthcare when they return to the nation’s capital on July 10, they should immediately vote to repeal as much of Obamacare as possible and work through August to pass a replacement package by Labor Day. Trump seconded that idea.

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., didn’t seem convinced.

McConnell told reporters at an event in Kentucky that he has no plans to redirect. He said the Republican healthcare bill remains contentious, but he will keep working to whip enough votes to pass it.

Both conservatives and moderate GOP senators have criticized McConnell’s Better Care Reconciliation Act and holdouts haven’t warmed up to the legislation over the Fourth of the July break.

“It’s not easy making America great again, is it?” McConnell said. —E.W.

He said, they said

President Donald Trump continues to spar with the mainstream media this week and according to a new poll, that’s just fine with his supporters.

A Survey Monkey poll obtained by Axios shows that Republicans agree with Trump’s claims that CNN is fake news. It found that 89 percent of Republicans view Trump as more trustworthy than the cable network, and 91 percent of Democrats think the exact opposite.

But even more interesting is where the survey said Republicans choose to get their news. Of 4,965 adults surveyed from June 29 to July 3, 33 percent of Republicans said they got their news exclusively from Fox News. Trump routinely criticizes CNN on Twitter and often promotes Fox content. Of the survey respondents, 64 percent said they disapproved of Trump’s tweets, but only 38 percent of Republicans dislike them. —E.W.