Straight from the elephant’s mouth:
A Republican official from Maricopa County said that the majority of GOP Arizona lawmakers he speaks to actually know that former President Donald Trump's and their own election fraud claims are "all BS," although many continue to give them credence anyway.
Stephen Richer, a Republican who serves as the Maricopa County recorder, previously explained how he voted for and campaigned for Trump. However, he has expressed frustration with fellow Republicans who continue to baselessly allege that Trump lost in his county and Arizona due to voter fraud.
Late Friday evening, Richer posted a tweet highlighting remarks from GOP Arizona state Senator Wendy Rogers attacking a conservative who helped with the widely criticized Cyber Ninjas audit of Maricopa County. Rogers, like many other Arizona Republicans, continues to baselessly claim that the 2020 presidential results were tainted by fraudulent ballots.
"At least Wendy Rogers is open about the goal. 3 types of gop state senators:
1) those like Rogers, true believers, for whom it was about overturning the election
2) those who know it's all BS, but need to be seen doing something
3) those who publicly call it BS," Richer wrote in Twitter.
"(Majority of GOP state legislators I speak to privately are in camp 2)" he added in a follow-up post.
Fellow Maricopa County Republican officials testified before Congress this past week, also criticizing GOP lawmakers for making false allegations about the way their county conducted the 2020 election.
Here’s some more info:
Former President Donald Trump continues to promote the false and totally debunked claim that he won Arizona in the 2020 election. But when three Arizona Republicans testified before the House Oversight Committee on October 7, they reiterated that in fact, now-President Joe Biden won their state fairly and decisively in 2020.
The Republicans were former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett and two members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors: Chairman Jack Sellers and Vice-Chairman Bill Gates (not to be confused with the tech entrepreneur).
Sellers told members of the House Oversight Committee, "The election of November 3, 2020 in Maricopa County was free, fair and accurate." And Gates had a stern warning during his testimony, stressing that the United States is in deep trouble if other members of his party refuse to accept democratic election results.
Gates testified, "If elected officials continue to choose party over truth, then these procedures are going to continue on — these privately funded government-backed attacks on legitimate elections. As a Republican who believes in democracy, I dreamed of one day going to a nation that was trying to build a democracy and help them out. Perhaps a former Soviet republic like Belarus or Tajikistan. I never could have imagined that I would be doing that work here in the United States of America."
Like the rest of the GOP, the Republican Party has been taken over as a Trump cult. Here’s a friendly remind about who Trump endorsed for Governor in Arizona:
Kari Lake, a former news anchor who is now the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor in 2022, told One America News on Friday that she “would not have certified” the votes had she been governor at the time. She cited debunked lies about “serious irregularities” that were spread by the likes of Rudy Giuliani, whom she noted was in Arizona “at that very moment” of certification. (A New York court suspended Giuliani’s law license this year for making “demonstrably false and misleading statements” about the 2020 election.) Lake previously told the Arizona Republic that Trump was “the real winner of Arizona.” Her latest comments follow the much-hyped and highly dubious “audit” authorized by Arizona’s state senate recently that nonetheless confirmed Biden’s victory in the state.
Trump endorsed Lake on Tuesday after she said his head should be carved on Mt. Rushmore, saying she “will fight to restore Election Integrity (both past and future!).” Polls show she is now the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to replace outgoing GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, who Trump famously called during the certification ceremony and later attacked on Twitter for certifying the results. The Democratic nominee for governor is Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who oversaw the state’s election and has been a target of death threats from “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theorists.
Lake is the latest candidate backed by Trump who supported overturning the 2020 election, a dominant theme with Arizona Republicans. State Rep. Mark Finchem, a Trump-endorsed candidate for secretary of state in 2022, was at the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6. Trump has also supported GOP secretary of state candidates in swing states like Georgia and Michigan who’ve spread lies about the 2020 election and would be in a position to oversee the counting of votes in the next presidential election if they win their races.
Here’s something else you should know about Lake:
A Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor said the Capitol rioters were "invited in by Capitol Police," appearing to push an unproven narrative that the riot was nonviolent.
"They haven't been charged with a crime, and they were invited in by Capitol Police," Kari Lake said during an interview with the conservative news network RSBN at former President Donald Trump's October 10 rally in Des Moines, Iowa.
The US Capitol Police Force was criticized for its handling of the Capitol riot after some officers were seen posing with rioters for selfies and moving barricades aside for the mob to move forward.
But there is plenty of footage and records of officers' injuries to show how violent the breach of the Capitol was. During a July 27 House select committee on the attack, Capitol officers testified to the racism and physical harm they experienced during the January 6 riot.
The DOJ said that more than 1,000 assaults were committed against police officers. But conservative figures have repeatedly minimized the violence that took place during the riot. In May, Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde likened the Capitol rioters to tourists. And in September, North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn said in an interview that the rioters were mainly "normal people" who were "kind of wandering in."
At press time, 671 people had been charged with crimes in connection with the Capitol insurrection.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D) announced Friday that he raised $8 million in the third quarter of 2021 for his reelection campaign, an astounding haul as he continues to flex his financial prowess.
Kelly’s campaign said in a statement that the first-term senator has raked in $18 million this cycle so far and goes into the final quarter of 2021 with $13 million in the bank, bolstering his reputation as one of his party’s strongest fundraisers in the Senate.
The third-quarter haul was made up of more than 219,000 contributions from more than 100,000 individual donors. The figure marks a jump from the $6 million Kelly raised in the second quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, looks like it’s Trump versus Peter Thiel on the GOP side:
The super PAC supporting Republican Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters is launching a $1 milling advertising buy targeting Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the leading contender in the race for the GOP nomination.
Saving Arizona PAC is hitting the broadcast, cable, and streaming television airwaves statewide with a spot accusing Brnovich of being soft on illegal immigration and border security. The advertisement, also scheduled to run on digital platforms, follows a recent spot from the super PAC that criticized the Arizona attorney general for his handling of election integrity issues in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the state last November.
“Attorney General Mark Brnovich isn’t doing his job on illegal immigration,” the voiceover in the new ad says as the spot opens. “Mark Brnovich: Opposing Trump; failing on illegal immigration,” the ad concludes.
Trump continues to insist that the 2020 election, in Arizona and elsewhere, was stolen. And Brnovich has come under fire from the former president for insufficiently backing up this unproven claim.
But the state attorney general, a favorite of movement conservatives, leads the crowded race for the Republican Senate nomination in early polls. The winner of the primary faces Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in the midterm elections next year.
Masters, a first-time candidate, is backed by Republican megadonor Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist for whom he worked for several years before running for Senate. Thiel poured $10 million into Save Arizona PAC, which, perhaps coincidentally, adopted a name very similar to Trump’s Save America PAC.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot next year and we need to get ready to keep Arizona Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D. AZ) and his fellow Arizona Democrats campaigns: