The three Republicans said, “FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has demonstrated blatant partisan bias, overstepping her official Commission duties and making politically motivated social media and TV appearances.”
Posted on 08/28/2019 10:16:11 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
WASHINGTON—Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chairman Ellen Weintraub’s renewed feud with President Donald Trump over voter fraud allegations from the 2016 election has the ranking House Committee on Administration Republican asking some pointed questions about excessive partisanship within the regulatory panel.
“Recently, I believe this tone of partisanship has been amplified by some at the Commission,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said in a letter to the FEC’s leadership made public Tuesday.
“Partisan attacks only serve to undermine your work and the work of the entire Commission staff,” Davis said.
He was writing on behalf of the three Republicans on the Administration committee, representatives Mark Green of North Carolina and Barry Loudermilk of Georgia.
Davis’s letter was prompted by Weintraub’s response to Trump’s comment to reporters prior to his Aug. 15, 2019, rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, that he would have won that state in 2016 “except we had a lot of people come in at the last moment, … thousands and thousands of people, coming in from locations unknown. But I knew where their location was.”
Trump first made that claim in February 2017, saying “thousands” of people were bussed into New Hampshire to vote for Clinton.
Weintraub responded in a March 2017 letter: “Our democracy depends upon the American people’s faith in our elections. Your voter fraud allegations run the risk of undermining that faith.”
Trump appointed a presidential commission in May 2017 to investigate voter fraud claims, but its existence was short, beset with controversy, and blocked by resistance from state officials. He disbanded the commission on Jan. 3, 2018.
This time around, Weintraub tweeted in response to the president, accusing Trump of repeating “unfounded claims about massive voter fraud in New Hampshire,” and releasing a letter on official FEC stationary in which she demanded of him, “Lay your cards on the table or fold.”
Weintraub repeated her challenge to Trump during subsequent media interviews, including one on CNN in which she claimed there is no evidence of such fraud anywhere in the 2016 contest or historically in America.
“There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016 or in any previous election. People have studied this … the government has studied this … and no one can find any evidence of rampant voter fraud either historically or particularly in the 2016 elections,” Weintraub told CNN’s John Berman.
In his letter to the FEC, Davis requested answers no later than Sept. 20, 2019, to more than two dozen questions, including five directly related to whether Weintraub or any FEC commissioner can use official resources in “rebutting” officials or candidates in an election campaign or asking an official to release information to the public that is not required to be made available.
In a statement Monday released with the Davis letter, the three Republicans said, “FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has demonstrated blatant partisan bias, overstepping her official Commission duties and making politically motivated social media and TV appearances.”
They added that they “are using their oversight role to ensure that these agencies are fulfilling their purpose to create free, fair, and safe elections where American votes are counted and protected.”
Charges of voter fraud have a rich history in U.S. elections, stretching back to the 19th century with the infamous “Boss Tweed” and the Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City elections for decades.
Similarly powerful political machines have operated in the decades since Tammany, including some Republican but most Democratic, in other big cities such as the Daley machine that ruled Chicago into the 1980s.
Also famous among more recent controversies were charges of voter fraud in multiple South Texas precincts that handed then-Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson a narrow 87-vote victory in a 1948 Democratic Senate primary runoff against the highly favored Coke Stevenson, thus earning LBJ the sobriquet “Landslide Lyndon.”
The three Republicans said, “FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub has demonstrated blatant partisan bias, overstepping her official Commission duties and making politically motivated social media and TV appearances.”
The look on the face in that picture (no, not the guy in the back facepalming) sure looks like knowing, malevolent, gleefully unaccountable guilt to me.
No Fraud. Right. Got it.
That is a really weird comment.
Anyway - Trump could have replaced Weintraub his first day in office - as long as he replaced her with another Democrat or a non-Republican.
Instead, and as usual, Trump decided to let a Bush Family re-tread keep her old job.
Why is that obvious fem ho still there? THis is getting frustrating like under Bush, Trump not cleaning house.
Weintraub was appointed by Bush in 2003. She is a Democrat.
The FEC cannot have more than three Commissioners from the same Party.
Her six year term ended in 2009.
Obama liked her so much he never appointed a successor.
I just checked the FEC website.
Two of the six Commissioner seats are vacant, and just two of the sitting Commissioners are Republicans.
Trump could have replaced Weintraub with a Republican on his first day in office.
In fact, all four sitting Commissioners have expired terms.
Trump could appoint three Republicans and three Conservative Independents.
Instead, he does nothing - except complain about election fraud.
Make a list. ..it’s a long long dishonorable list. .
Why is Weintraub still drawing a Federal paycheck? She needs to be a given a reason to resign and spend more time with her family.
But you love your muslims.
Don’t know where you get that ; pinhead
WYF is THAT? Another ugly lesbian or transgender!???
Re: But you love your Muslims.
I have no idea what that means.
I judge people by their political convictions and voting record.
Just like secular American Jews, American Muslims overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party.
According to Pew Research, 78% of American Muslims voted for Hillary Clinton.
Only 4% of foreign born Muslims voted for Trump.
Based on your post #4 you should be voting with the democrats.
Jew-hate is strong among the left.
Mind your manners. It is Mr.Pinhead.
Zeestephen did not write Comment #4.
...she claimed there is no evidence of such fraud anywhere in the 2016 contest or historically in America.
Not even from Russia? What a mealy-mouthed liar she is. Either she's incompetent, or corrupt, or she's both. Thanks Marv.
...no evidence of such fraud anywhere in the 2016 contest or historically in America
So, why do we need the FEC?
sorry, Mr. I was feeling feisty ;^)
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