Attorney General Bill Barr is refusing to agree the President does not have the right to change the date of an election. Asked the question during his sworn congressional testimony on Tuesday Barr said he had not done any research into the matter.
Asked by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) if “a sitting U.S. president move an election date,” Attorney General Barr replied, “I haven’t looked into that question under the Constitution.”
When provided with the exact statute, Barr refused to say that a sitting president cannot change the date of an election.
“I’ve never been asked that question,” Barr obfuscated.
“I’ve never looked into it,” he repeated.
Earlier this year senior advisor to the president Jared Kushner announced the White House could not commit to holding to federal law which mandates Election Day as “the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November.”
“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other,” to holding the Election as the law decrees, Kushner declared in March, “but right now that’s the plan.”
Only Congress can change the date of the election, something Barr and Kushner should “look into.”