Mullin denies directive to impersonate voters

Secretary of Homeland Security

“That's absolutely not the directive that we put out there, and it's not even close to what we're doing.”
Open the original interview (opens in a new tab)Inside Politics transcript: Markwayne Mullin responds to voter-portal allegationDana Bash question about alleged voter impersonation; Mullin response at about 12:35 p.m.

Source and context

Interview

Inside Politics transcript: Markwayne Mullin responds to voter-portal allegation (opens in a new tab)Dana Bash question about alleged voter impersonation; Mullin response at about 12:35 p.m.

About this source

Bash asked Secretary Mullin whether DHS officers were told to misrepresent themselves to obtain voter records. Mullin denied that this was a DHS directive and said the department would fix the problem if it were true. CNN marks this as a rush transcript.

Before the quotation

Dana Bash asked Mullin about the whistleblower's allegation that officers had been told to misrepresent themselves to obtain sensitive voter records.

After the quotation

Mullin said he had not seen the whistleblower's materials, maintained that DHS was enforcing election and immigration law, and said it would fix the problem if true.

How this statement is classified

Denied

Case context: Did DHS direct officers to misrepresent themselves to search state voter records?

The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.

Why this label?

Mullin explicitly denies that DHS directed officers to misrepresent themselves on voter portals. He says the department would correct such conduct if it occurred.

Recorded on
Published here

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Jay Jones

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Alex Padilla

“Federal officers are being told by headquarters to lie or to misrepresent themselves in order to access state voter data.”
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