Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., argued Sunday the Commission on Election Integrity is simply an attempt to “discredit” U.S. democracy, adding that it is “exactly what Vladimir Putin wants” to take place.
“.@POTUS’s voter fraud commission wants to suppress the right to vote and discredit our Democratic process,” tweeted Durbin, the No. 2-ranking Senate Democrat. “Exactly what Vladimir Putin wants.”
Durbin was responding to a column in the Washington Post calling Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach a “useful idiot.” Kobach is currently heading up the commission, which was established officially in early May.
Earlier in the week, Kobach tried to defend the commission against claims that they are pushing voter suppression in the wake of a letter signed by over 70 Democratic lawmakers calling for the Kansas secretary of state to be booted from the commission.
“To try to decipher that for you, I think they’re saying if a commission studies the problem in Washington, somebody out in California is going to decide not to vote some November,” Kobach said. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
The piece, written by Jennifer Rubin, calls the idea of the commission “preposterous.” In addition, The New York Times released an editorail Saturday titled, “The Bogus Voter-Fraud Commission.”
