Trump taps Pence to head voter fraud investigation

President Trump will have Vice President Mike PenceMike (Michael) Richard PenceThis week: Confirmation showdown looms in Senate Pence picks up wounded service members for Super Bowl Trump predicts Patriots will win Super Bowl by 8 points MORE oversee a special commission to investigate voter fraud, which he says helped Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonJuan Williams: Supreme Court battle could ruin the Senate Hillary Clinton goes 'gaga' for Lady Gaga's Super Bowl performance Lady Gaga steers clear of politics in Super Bowl show MORE win the popular vote.

“I’m going to set up a commission to be headed by Vice President Mike Pence and we’re going to look at it very, very carefully,” Trump told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly in an interview airing Sunday afternoon before the Super Bowl.

“Look, Bill, we can be babies, but you take a look at the registration, you have illegals, you have dead people you have this, it’s really a bad situation, it’s really bad,” he said.

The announcement came up when Trump was asked about criticism that his claim of voter fraud is not backed up by the data.

“Many people have come out and said I’m right, you know that,” Trump said. “You have illegals, you have dead people … it’s really a bad situation.”

The Washington Post reported that Pence pledged to GOP lawmakers at the annual Republican retreat in Philadelphia that the administration would initiate a “full evaluation” of voting rolls nationwide.

But Trump’s plans for a “major investigation” into what he claims were fraudulent votes by as many as 3 million to 5 million illegal immigrants may not get too far without congressional funding.

Already Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellJudd Gregg: The filibuster cometh Juan Williams: Supreme Court battle could ruin the Senate Trump ready to crack the whip on GOP Congress MORE (R-Ky.) has said he doesn’t want to spend federal funds on the investigation and leave it to state authorities.

But Trump on Sunday stuck to his claim of massive voter fraud, which even Republicans on Capitol Hill have questioned and The New York Times has dismissed as a “lie.”

Trump said there is evidence of votes being attributed to dead people and of people voting in different states in the same election.

McConnell and other GOP leaders agree there is voter fraud but not on the scale claimed by Trump.

“There is no evidence that it occurred in such a significant number that would have changed the presidential election,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning.