Democrats on Wednesday celebrated the dissolution of a highly controversial panel set up to investigate President Trump’s claims of voter fraud during the 2016 election.
Trump announced Wednesday he was dissolving the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which was created last May to investigate his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2016 election.
A number of Democratic lawmakers praised the decision, deriding the commission as a violation of voters’ rights.
{mosads}Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense,” Trump signed an order that abolished the panel and turned the matter over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Trump has previously said, without evidence, that millions of illegal votes cost him the popular vote against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The panel met twice, but was bogged down by states’ lack of cooperation and several lawsuits alleging it violated voters’ privacy.
On Wednesday, critics of the panel celebrated Trump’s announcement.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said the commission got “the ugly death it deserved.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) called on the Department of Homeland Security to “end this taxpayer-funded fishing expedition.”
Others railed against the panel as an attempt to “suppress” voters, with some saying the only “fraud” was the commission itself.
Read lawmaker’s responses below: