Schakowsky statement on President Trump's Latest Diversionary Tactic

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky released the following statement after President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a commission to review ‘voter integrity’ in American elections:

“President Trump’s new executive order calling for an investigation into voter fraud is his latest diversionary tactic. There is no evidence – zero – of widespread voter fraud. The Committee on House Administration found that the attempted voter fraud rate was .00000010247, and there is bipartisan agreement that there is no evidence of significant voter fraud. Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million votes – there is no getting around that fact and, as many tweets as he may send, trying to pin it on voter fraud doesn’t pass the laugh test. Instead of spending time and taxpayer dollars to investigate an imaginary problem, we should focus changing state laws designed to suppress voting – like the photo ID law in Wisconsin that prevented nearly 200,000 people from casting a ballot. What makes it all the worse is that this partisan investigation may be used to justify further impediments on American citizens’ right to vote.

“Our elections are not at risk because of nonexistent voter fraud, but instead because of the role of Russian operatives meddling into our electoral process and their possible collusion with the Trump Campaign. President Trump is doing everything he can to prevent the American public from getting the answers they deserve. It is no coincidence that today’s announcement comes days after President Trump fired the FBI Director overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in our democracy and any collusion with the Trump campaign. Despite attempts to divert attention and change the subject, we will continue to fight for a special prosecutor so that the Russian role in the 2016 election is made clear and wrongdoers are held accountable.”