hand it over to chris kobach. now, the answer to that letter from chris kobach so far is no. it's been kind of an outcry from elections officials. it's been sort of a subtle secretary of state little thing to behold today. the no response started with connecticut where the secretary of state there said she would only hand over data that was already public and nothing more. that started a cascade of other states saying no. mississippi got its share of headlines today when their secretary of state said chris kobach and his voting commission, and i quote, can go jump in the gulf of mexico. [ laughter ] mississippi not only said no, they said they can go jump in the gulf of mexico. that exact phrase was in the state's official response. even chris kobach himself as secretary of state in kansas, he doesn't intend to comply with his own request. he initially told reporters in kansas that of course he would send all this data. and then today he said okay, he is not going the hand over all the social security numbers, at least not yet. what do they want to do with all of this particu

hand it over to the trump administration, hand it over to chris kobach. he answer to that letter from chris kabach so far is no it's been kind of an outcry from election officials, it's been a sort of subtle secretary of state little thing to behold today t. no response started with connecticut, the secretary of state there said she would only hand over data that was only public and nothing more. >> that started a cascade of other states saying, no, mississippi got its share hoff headlines when their secretary of state said chris kobach and his voigting commission can and quote go jump in the gulf of many excolorado mississippi not only said no, they said they can go jump in the gulf of mexico. >> that exact phrase was in the state official response. even chris kobach himself as secretary of state if kansas, he doesn't intend to comply with his own request. he initially told reporters in kansas, of course, he'd send this zsa that. today he said, actually he's not going to hand over all the social security numbers. at least not yet. what do they want to do

in early june and weeks later chris kobach announced that he was running for governor of kansas.f the way chris kobach has used his official role as vice-chair of this commission to promote his gubernatorial run. the hatch act prohibits this kind of conduct and we believe that we have set forth extensive evidence that shows that chris kobach is using everything that he does with this commission so that he can ultimately secure that gubernatorial position in kansas. we think it's unlawful, but more importantly, we believe that this commission is a dangerous and unprecedented attempt to promote voter suppression across our country. it's dangerous and we encourage states across the country not to participate or turn over data to this commission. >> now, when they have named it the integrity commission, i mean, the integrity commission in and of itself i found very interesting because they are really trying to claim that there were millions of fraudulent votes that no one has seen but them. i mean, it's largely been in their heads and if there was integrity involved you would have to

chris kobach picked up right where hans left off. he's the architect of modern day voter suppression measures. he's one of the only ones that defend trump's claims that they voted illegally. you have to show proof of citizenship to register to vote. most people don't have on them when they do go to register, one in seven new voters in kansas have been blocked from registering that's an enormous number of people. >> i don't -- i don't have any idea where my birth certificate is, tons of people don't have a passport. >> it was a very suppressive policy, he wants proof of citizenship to be at every state and the federal level. he claims this is necessary, because noncitizen voting is so rampant. he has power in kansas, he's only convicted one noncitizen of voting. >> one person? >> one person. >> what are they up to? what is your fear for what they are doing? >> they are going to spread lies about voter fraud in order to build public support for policies that suppress the vote. trump said millions of people voted illegally. >> a prepost

"washington post" reports that according to chris kobach all that voter information will be stored onwhite house computers. under the direction of a member of the vice president's staff. that's fine then. this past year, we now know in an attack that continued right up until days before the election, russian hackers tried to access voter data from individual states. they successfully broken into multiple states' voter systems. it's always been the silver lining here, the thing that makes stealing voter information and stealing elections so hard to do in this country is every state has its own system, a database where they store all their own information in different ways. it's been a safeguard thus far. and the feeling that that safeguard might be endangered is what's been rumbling under this news that the white house wants to put all that information about every single voter in all 50 states all in one place, on a white house server. what could possibly go wrong. depending on how you count it, between 14 and 45 states have already said they will not turn over some or all of that data

like you said it's a rogue's gallery of votes suppressors and chris kobach is probably the vote seat in chief in the united states he's the guy that helps swing the swing states for trump in by simply suppressing the votes of minority of minority voters and so now he's been promoting big time in that first meeting of these election taggerty commission his plan to take the cross check system nationwide now we've talked about that before that's his claim that there are that you know trumps claim that there are three million voters voting twice the list of those three million double voters was created by this kris kobach i have the list they try to keep it secret from me but i've got the list and it's names like you know james edward brown who's both lee voted again as james thomas brown in another state it's about people that are registered to states voting twice in in the same election it just happens to be common names of african-americans age. the national weather service in mount holly new jersey has issued a severe thunderstorm warning four hundred county in northwestern new jerse

even chris kobach as secretary of state in kansas, he doesn't intend to comply with his own request.ially told reports in kansas city he would send all of the data and today he said he's not going to hand over the social security numbers, at least not yet. what do they want to do with all of this particular and personally identifying data on every single registered voter in the entire country? look at. this this is from his letter. quote, any documents that are submitted to the commission will also be made available to the public. oh, good. so they're going to publish everything on everyone. 200 million people. no problem. here is everything. now chris kobach told reporters that he didn't mean that data but it would be hosted on a secure service run by the federal government and it wouldn't be disclosed to the public despite what he told the secretaries of state. okay. this universal file of every single american's voting reports that that he is making for the trump administration, he's now telling reporters even though he said other wise in writing, he's now telling reporters it is

rolan, this thing is turning around on chris kobach and donald trump because what started as an effortp's unsubstantiated claim that millions of people voted illegally, we do have voting problems in this country and it's largeby because of restrictive voting things that guys like chris kobach are trying to put into place. >> this commission on voter fraud is a fraudulent commission. it has been from day one. donald trump has made fraudulent arguments. he lied about 3 to 5 million people voting illegally. he lied to people crossing the borders into new hampshire even republicans in new hampshire and lewendo lewendo lewendowski and seven lawsuits facing this so-called voter integrity commission. the legal defense and education fund filed their lawsuit. they dropped it about an hour ago. and they allege this commission specifically discriminates against people of color. that is a significant point there because, remember, bush v. gore. remember, the constitution does not guarantee a right to vote. that was an opinion by scalia in that particular ruling. it's a state issue and that's part

he's not saying about chris kobach, if he's taking names off voter roll that are common names. missouri, kansas, and we hear everything. placebo filed because i'm william hunt. william hunt over in washington voted, so we all got kicked off that is what steve obach is doing with gerrymandering and other stuff. republicans don't get enough they and that is why redistrict in gerrymandering and everything. host: william, thank you. caller's fear is exactly part of why the democrats are worried about this commission, they believe, the ommission has no regulatory authority, can't kick anybody the report t fear would produce impetus to do more clean up voter rolls. last call, is the lawrence, kansas, jeremy is next, independent line. ahead. go caller: yes, thank you very much. before i cover the solution to i believe is h nder hashtag unrig reform act of 2017, i want to talk about what this actually represents, a fraud. there is voter suppression going n in a heavy fashion through cross check, other people have talked about, there has not been evidence of mass voter fraud going on, d

the president tapped chris kobach to head the commission after claiming without providing evidence that millions had voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. >>> next to the warning when fireworks are part of the holiday festivities. police are investigating the possibility of illegal fireworks in the blast that levelled this home. and this year, the tinderbox-like conditions out west are causing wildfires to quickly grow out of control. abc's clayton sandell is there tonight. >> reporter: they're supposed to be for celebrating. but tonight, a fourth of july explosion of the worst kind. >> house just blew up. we saw people inside. >> reporter: that missouri house, leveled, injuring three people inside. >> the house is demolished. is on the ground. >> reporter: the atf and the local fire chief say a possible cause could be illegal fireworks manufacturing, but they are still investigating. >> this is bad! >> reporter: around the country the holiday is putting the fire in fireworks, even the legal ones. a show igniting this blaze near detroit. in phoenix, winds carried embers fro

to help steer his commission, he chose kansas secretary of state chris kobach, who calls the state'slaints complete nonsense. >> we are looking at all forms of election irregularities, voter fraud, voter intimidation, suppression. the. >> kobach has zellously fought this at home. he is a champion for voter i.d. laws and he was fined by a federal judge in kansas just last week for his conduct in a lawsuit involving voting rights. connecticut's take, i have been go secretary kobach's history, we find it very difficult to find confidence m the woin the this commission. there is no credible evidence there has ever been a widespread voter problem. that is adding clearly to the hesitancy of many of these states. tom foreman, cnn, washington. >> what do republican voters think of the gop health care bills? >> the polling is bad. as we found out, sitting down with republican voters, they are putting congress on notice. >>> as republicans, raise your hand if you want to see democrats and republicans work together and come up with something different than the senate and the house have put fort

let me just say chris kobach who is the vice chair of this commission has a history of spreading thisalse claim of massive voter fraud and has really started selling this so-called check that he's doing on voter rolls in other states in order to further this false information. and we are concerned that he will take this nationwide and in so doing chill minority votes. >> well, his record is very clear. let's keep monitoring this. thank you, david dunn and todd cox. >> thank you. >>> and a quick note, social media i want to say has been showing much love to filmmaker matthew a. cherry this week. cherry is currently fundraising for his animated short "hair love" a comedic look at a black father's challenge to do his daughter's hair for the first time. as a father of two daughters i can definitely relate, even though i took mine straight to the salon with james brown's request, but i encourage you to visit kick starter.com to help brother cherry realize his vision for little black girls. >>> up next, the politics of black hair made for a very different week for former nfl star michael vi

vice president pence for chairing the commission i also want to thank kansas secretary of state chris kobacherving as vice chair. going to be a lot of work, they're going to work very hard over a fairly short period of time and i want to thank you both very much, chris, mike this bipartisan panel consists of both republican and democratic leaders and experts on voter integrity i would like to personally thank each of our panel members for serving. i really do appreciate it. in addition to the chair and vice chair, this distinguished bipartisan panel includes indiana secretary of state connie lawson. thank you. new hampshire secretary of state, bill gardner. thank you. maine secretary of state, matthew dunlop former ohio secretary of state, ken blackwell. election assistance commissioner, chris ty ty mcmor mick former arkansas representative david dunn thank you, david wood county west virginia clerk, mark roads heritage foundation senior legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert, hans von spakowski. president and general counsel of the public legal foundat

. >> oddly enough, chris kobach of the state of kansas can't comply fully with his own commission's lettersomething they sent out because of their own state rules so is this more of a fishing campaign from the trump administration and from kobach specifically saying do as i say, not as i do? >> well, you know, the secretary from kansas and i have come through a lot especially with the secretary state association. we sit next to one another. there have been basketball court games between kentucky and kansas. >> obviously, that's a hot topic. >> we made it through that and he failed to appear and we're in the vice president's backyard and we've had no explanation and members of the commission can't explain why the request for data is needed. we're only left to turn to what the president himself 140 characters at a time has tweeted. it's his insecurity with lewding the popular vote, and if you look nationally this year, 2017 alone, it's 89 bills and over 30 states that seek to restrict voter access to the ballot box. that's not something i'll be a part of as secretary of state and my colleagu

chris kobach is the architect of the playbook for republicans on voter suppression.n you've got jeff sessions who said that the voting rights act was an intrusion on states rights and he separately sent out a request to the states. then you have a former doj person who wants to make it harder to vote for everyone across the country, part of this, you know, effort to suppress the vote that is really about making it harder for people. >> let's talk specifically here then, so you do not trust the principles that are involved here. they're requesting this information. if they get this information, again, a lot of these states are saying no right now f. they get this information, specifically then, what are you fearing they do with it? >> well, i think what it will be used is a platform for them to try and go after not only the voting rights, that the national voter registration act, which is the law that actually governs who gets on the rolls and who doesn't get on the rolls, really what they're after is trying to figure out a way to put in place a lou to make it harder

meanwhile the point man on the president's commission, kansas secretary of state chris kobach, is steadilyo. >> let me answer your questions. first of all, the commission's purpose is not to prove or disprove what the president speculated about back in january. the purpose of the commission is to find facts and put them on the table. >> reporter: but the facts are already being twisted as many states have looked at the white house shopping list and noted their own laws for bid releasing some of that data, especially any portion of a voter's social security number, kobach pinned an op-ed on breitbart, a far right website, saying the commission didn't request that information. really? look at his letter to the states. while kobach noted some laws might prevent it, he did indeed ask for the last four digits of social security number if available. now, this whole dispute could be moot if the court sides with that privacy group. a ruling could come this week. but either way, it's hard to see how this effort will move forward effectively with so many states raising red flags about their willingn

chris kobach joins us now. what is your response to the criticism? >> it's ridiculous.st of all, they allege that somehow i'm not qualified because i pointed out widespread voter fraud in my own state of kansas. we're litigating our proof of citizenship requirement when voting, and we presented to a dur u.s. district court 128 cases of people trying to get on voter roles. i'm simply saying in my state we discovered a problem. but no commission looked tat from a nationwide perspective. so the other thing they claim is that somehow a commission studying this issue results in voter suppression. to try to decipher that, i think they're saying if a commission studies the problem in washington, d.c., somebody out in california will decide not to vote some november that doesn't make sense. in the letter they don't explain what is a ludicrous argument. >> they're making their case, there's politics here. the general assertion is that you are looking for a problem in the name of suppression, and they're targeting you because you tangled on this issue before with the aclu and eve

. >> part of this is being pushed by chris kobach, the secretary of state for kansas. >> yep. >> whothis. you are looking at him on the screen. he has tried to do this. he used as proof an example of a man who he said had died a long time ago but had voted on a recent election. it turns out that the guy was very much alive and it was his father who had died. this is just not proving to be a successful venture. >> greg palace, the journalist, has been talking about the whole idea of cross-checking. they're saying, if there is a roland martin in texas and michigan, oh, that must be the same person, so they're challenging it. mothers jones has a piece about three conservatives, one from virginia, one trump just put on this commission, what they are doing is sending legal notices to small towns in mississippi who can't afford a legal battle saying purge your roles. they can't afford it. this is a part of republican strategy. col there was a guy whose last name was smith. segregations in virginia. he wouldn't even have a committee hearing during the civil rights movement. bob goodlatte wo

. >> i wanted to play for you an extraordinary interview that chris kobach who is leading this task forcemy colleague katie tur yesterday, the secretary of state of ohio. and this was the back and forth about the election result s from 2016. >> do you believe hillary clinton won the popular vote by 3 million to 5 million votes? >> we may never know the answer to that. we probably will never know the answer to that question. even if you can prove a certain number of casts were cast by ineligible voters, for example -- >> is that why this commission exists, because the president believes he would have won the popular vote. >> i'm glad you asked that question. that's not the reason why the commission exists. >> you think that maybe hillary clinton did not win the popular vote? >> we may never know the answer to that question. >> i misspoke, from kansas, your reaction to it. >> it is a statement from someone and, let's start with the facts. hillary clinton won more than -- nearly 3 million more votes than donald trump nationally. he won the electoral college, we accepted the results. that doe

. >> so chris kobach can't provide the information himself. >> seems to be. >> sreenivasan: there seemsbe a lot of focus on protecting the integrity. i don't see any description about russian meddling that might have happened. >> it's not clear exactly what the commission is going to do. initially the president said he wanted to look at the potential for voter fraud. a couple of democrats on the commission said they wanted to look into russian meddling. kobach said he might be willing to look at that but that wasn't on the list of questions sent to various officials. i'm concerned it's going to be something that is going to try to support the president's agenda, claiming voter fraud and making it harder for people to register to vote. >> sreenivasan: is this the kind of information campaigns would pay for? >> in some states campaigns do pay for this kind of information. the fact this will be sento the president's office is concerning. rather than having outside, professional staff or social scientists that study this information, we know this information is going literally to the execut

kansas secretary of state chris kobach is vice chair and he sent an extraordinary request to all 50 states to submit information about the voters, including this -- the full name of every registered voter in each and every state, their addresses, their dates of birth, their political affiliations, their voter history, and the last four digits of their social security numbers. >> i'm only aware of three states that have said they won't give us what is publicly available which is silly. >> it is not silly. 45 states are resisting this request so far. at least in part because of his power and the question of it, to request disclosure of voter information that was just listed. trump's voter fraud commission next meets on july 19th and then they will swear in members from both parties and identify future targets for scrutiny. joining us now, wayne williams and jim condos from vermont. thank you both for taking a bit of a break from the meeting there, from the conference and i'll start with you here secretary cond os. how concerned are you about voter fraud from 2016 and coming up in 2018? >> we

chris kobach made a career out of voter suppression, if kansas, he has gone on a campaign to suppressfficult as possible. it's harder to vote in kansas than anywhere else in the united states and he has also tried to prosecute people for what he claims is voter fraud. he found i think after looking at a number of different elections in kansas six people who he says voted twice. that's it. >> you know, one of the things, there's voter suppression, but there are a lot of people and tell me if you agree, who believe that this so-called election integrity commission is really about purgeing voters from the voter rolls? in there absolutely it is, they want to stop people from voting. i think that's what their objective is. they want to intimidate people, take them off the rolls. there was a report i saw recently that said there were millions of people who were registered in more than one state, but when they boiled it down and actually figured out how many it was, it was a handful. the fact is that voter fraud is extraordinarily uncommon. we have a real problem in our country with our elec

of what the end goal is, and, of course, kris kobach's personal history leads you to conclude this is something he's been associated with all along. >> chris strange thing about this cloud of suspicion about whether or not there's vast voter fraud is we've had many secretaries of state -- >> there isn't. >> right. >> these are the people who would know, these are the people in the states who control the voting and whether it's fraudulent or whether it's, you know, honest. >> and they're republicans and democrats. >> absolutely. and they all say, we don't have it in our state. we don't see it. >> according to the data, this is a solution in search of a problem. i mean, there's no other way to put it, alisyn. there's -- there's been extensive studies done, not one, not partisan, extensive studies done of elections and alleged voter fraud and the simple fact is, is that to the extend they found mistakes they're almost always, 99.99% of the time attributable to human error, that there is no malicious intent here. this has been something that republicans talked about before donald trump, but it is something that donald trump, and this is true w

kobach for serving as vice-chair. it will be a lot of work. they will work very hard over fairly short period of time. i want to thank you both much,r. chris, mike. there is bipartisan panel consisting of both republican and democratic leaders and experts on voter integrity.. i would like to personally thank each of our panel members for serving. really do appreciate it. in addition to the chair and vice-chair, this distinguished bipartisan panel includes indiana secretary of state connie lawson. thank you. new hampshire secretary of state bill gardner. thank you. maine secretary of state matthew dunlap. former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell.ll, election assistance commissioner christie mccormack. former arkansas state representative david dunne. thank you, david. wood county, west again i can't clerk, mark rhodes. heritage foundation senior legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert, hanz spakowski. president and general counsel of the public interest legal fonddation, great group, j. christian adams. and jefferson county, alabama, probate judge, alan king. thank you. thank you very much. each of

secretary of state kris kobach for serving as vice chair going to be a lot of work, they're going to work hard over a short period of time and i want to thank you very much, chrisrtisan panel consisting of both republican and democratic leaders and experts on voter integrity. i would like to personally thank each of our panel members for serving. appreciate it. in addition to the chair and vice chair, this distinguished bipartisan panel includes indiana secretary of state connie lawson. new hampshire secretary of state bill gardner. maine secretary of state matthew dunl dunlap former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell. formerar ar state representative david dunn, thank you, david. wood county west virginia clerk mark rhodes. heritage foundation senior legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert hans van spakowski chairman of the presidential interest foundation group, great group. jefferson county alabama probate judge alan king. thank you. thank you very much. each of you has been entrusted with the great responsibility of helping to advance the cause of fair, honest, and lawful elections. your work will help protect our de

that committee kris kobach who might be one of the premier experts who had a chief concern about voter fraud in this country. that's why you are arguably in the perfect spot. christ ballots. it was actually about the voter rolls. already publicly available. the commission asked can we have the publicly available voter rolls that any person who walks in off the street can have. the reason you need that is so you can start somewhere when you are looking at things like, perhaps, deceased people on the voter rolls, noncitizens on the voter rolls. things like that. fortunately, there was one case where they were trying to stop our meeting today from even occurring and the judge correctly ruled against the aclu and other organizations that were trying to stop us. but, yeah, we have got to have this information just to continue. again, to reassure people that it's all publicly available. on any given day during campaign season there are 100 campaigns in each state. brian: does it makees it easier for you, chris, since it's available. >> say, for example, someone alleges before the commission that 100 people committed voter fraud in this county and this state. the first