Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who served in the Obama administration, said Sunday it is “disconcerting” to hear President Trump and his chief of staff Mark Meadows cast doubt on the integrity of the election.
Trump has spent months claiming that mail-in voting leads to widespread voter fraud, though there is no evidence to suggest expanded mail-in ballots during the coronavirus pandemic would lead to an increase in fraud.
Meadows has questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray after he testified before Congress that he has not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud in a major election.
“It’s disconcerting to see the president and his chief of staff cast doubt on the integrity of our democracy,” Johnson said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “In fact, mail-in voting is almost as old as the nation. There are states now where the predominant way to vote is by mail.”
“We managed to have a peaceful election in 1944 during WWII. We managed to have a relatively calm, peaceful election in1864 when the nation was literally at war with itself,” Johnson continued. “So my concern is the president himself seems to be the one casting doubt on mail-in votes in particular.”
He added that the documented cases of fraud around mail-in voting is a “small fraction.”
Meadows, in an earlier “Face the Nation” interview on Sunday, questioned the integrity of mail-in voting as he doubled down on criticism of Wray.
“To suggest that there is a process that is full of integrity is trying to make a verdict before you’ve actually heard the case. That’s my problem with Director Wray. They need to investigate it and make sure that the voting populace, make sure their vote counts and no one else’s does,” Meadows said.
The director told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Committee this week, that “We have not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it’s by mail or otherwise.”