The man Donald Trump appointed Thursday to be vice chair of a commission to investigate voter fraud repeatedly backed Trump’s unfounded charge that millions voted illegally in the 2016 election.
President Trump signed an executive order creating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and named Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as vice chair. For the past decade, Kobach has advocated for strict immigration laws and tough voter identification laws.
In Kobach, Trump also chose someone who supports his claim of massive vote fraud in the 2016 election.
“We do know that there’s a very large number,” Kobach said on “Cavuto” on Fox News in February. “And it will be impossible to ever know what the exact number of noncitizens who voted.”
Kobach added, “I think it’s probably in excess of a million. If you take the whole country. I think it’s in excess of a million if you take the entire country, for sure.”
Kobach said it would be hard to know if the illegal votes changed the election outcome, but said that most would have voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“It’s hard to say,” Kobach said. “Well, you would have to then assume that the vast majority of them voted for Clinton, not Trump.”
In November, Kobach was also quick to rush to Trump’s defense on the claims.
“I think the president-elect is absolutely correct when he says the number of illegal votes cast exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton at this point,” Kobach told a group of reporters.
Kobach did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway also cited Kobach in attempting to back Trump’s claims. Speaking on Good Morning America in November, Conway said some of Trump’s information came from Kobach.
“The President-elect has been talking to different people, including Kris Kobach of Kansas, about voting irregularities or the number of illegal votes that may have been cast,” Conway said. “And I believe that he bases his information on that.”
