From the depths of his swamp in Florida, trump is doing what he has done every day for the past 4 years — making up and regurgitating lies and CTs to keep his rabid supporters frothing at the mouth and writing checks to him. On Saturday, he issued an insidious statement about the insane audit of election results being conducted in Arizona by the equally insane Republicans that infest that state, ranting about deleted databases and stolen elections, in spite of multiple state-conducted audits that prove the integrity of the 2020 election.
This is the response by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (a Republican) -
Laurie Roberts covered the story at the Arizona Republic —
Ex-President Donald Trump embraced his inner National Enquirer on Saturday, announcing that the Arizona Senate’s election auditors have found “unbelievable Election crime" in the 2020 presidential election.
“The entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!,” Trump said.
It hasn’t. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer immediately called the claim "unhinged"
Trump’s a-HA! moment comes three days after Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, laid out what she calls “serious issues” thus far found by the Trump ninjas she hired to search for that ever-elusive evidence that Trump really won the election.
Maricopa County officials on Thursday called the claim “outrageous, completely baseless and beneath the dignity of the Arizona Senate”.
Which is, of course, ridiculous. Any dignity the Arizona Senate had went out the window when Fann announced that she was hiring a company that has no elections experience, other than a CEO who has promoted claims that the election was stolen, to conduct her “independent, unbiased” audit.
The claim about deleted files was made on Wednesday by the “Cyber Ninjas,” who are conducting the extremely unprofessional and chaotic audit. The claim was promptly tossed into the echo chamber by the “Official Account of the Senate Liaison for the Maricopa County 2020 Forensic Election Audit,” an anonymously run twitter account.
Maricopa County officials have been trying to respond to the barrage of lies, that is threatening our Democracy, with facts and truth.
This is a high quality set of tweets from county officials with the hash tag #RealAuditorsDont. It is a delight to read these well-written insightful tweets but as Mark Twain so eloquently said - “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Here is a synopsis of the tweets -
- #RealAuditorsDont: Release false “conclusions” without understanding what they are looking at.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Hire known conspiracy theorists
- #RealAuditorsDont: Say they’ll protect your data when they can’t even protect access to their Twitter account
- #RealAuditorsDont: Require volunteer labor and make them sign a non-disclosure agreement:
- #RealAuditorsDont: Leave ballots and elections equipment out in the open with doors unlocked.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Assume guilt and post false information like it’s a Season 1 cliffhanger.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Ban news reporters and hide their processes when on a government contract.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Take money from biased news organizations and try to hide those funding sources
- #RealAuditorsDont: Take a contract without an end date. That's not a plan.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Belittle concerned constituents on Twitter.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Brag about how many Twitter followers they have.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Name call elected officials for clickbait.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Encourage misinformation by rehashing questions that have already been answered.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Use blacklights and “kinematic artifact detection” when they could look at processes and best practices.
- #RealAuditorsDont: Use the wrong color pens
- #RealAuditorsDont: Obsess over bamboo
- #RealAuditorsDont: Invite former candidates to count ballots they were on
Here is a well written opinion piece by the Vice Chair, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (Dist. 3) -
As a lifelong Republican, I’m worried that my party of small government and balanced budgets is being overtaken by conspiracy enablers whose primary purpose is to promote the “Big Lie” about the 2020 election.
...
We need more Republicans to return to dealing in truth and reality.
We have been elected to lead, not to appease conspiracy theorists.
We have been elected to restore faith in democracy, not sow endless seeds of doubt imperiling it.
To save our party, and to save our republic, we need to stop the Big Lie.
This is the statement from Chairman Jack Sellers in response to May 12 Letter from Senate President Fann.
Yesterday I received a letter from the Senate President asking that members of the Board and other Maricopa County subject matter experts come to a meeting and resolve “three serious issues.” At the same time, the Senate’s audit Twitter account accused County election officials of deleting files off a server before it was delivered. That would be a crime – and it is not true.
I know you have all grown weary of the lies and half-truths six months after the 2020 General Election. Our Board is tired of it too – especially when those lies turn into threats directed at us and County employees who are public servants doing their job. It is dangerous to spout accusations of this magnitude via a tweet.
After reviewing the letter with County election and IT experts, I can say the allegations are false and ill-informed. Moreover, the claim that our employees deleted election files and destroyed evidence is outrageous, completely baseless and beneath the dignity of the Arizona Senate. I demand an immediate retraction of any public statements made to the news media and spread via Twitter.
The contractors hired by the Senate President are not auditors and they are not certified by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission. It's clearer by the day: the people hired by the Senate are in way over their heads. This is not funny; this is dangerous.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public meeting on Monday to refute lies and lay out facts about these issues.
Unfortunately, the circus will continue in AZ and may spread to other Republican controlled states, all in service of the Big Lie. This may not be just about trying to overturn the 2020 election, but may be an attempt to set the ground for overturning future elections, where republicans do not like the outcome, in spite of their worst efforts to disenfranchise Democratic voters. The fraudulent unverifiable results and rumors from the audit may be used to pass more draconian laws to suppress voting and perhaps ban mail-in voting. After all, republicans cannot win in fair elections.
Let’s do all we can to neutralize this constant barrage of lies that emanates like flies from the right-wing swamp, all instigated by the Lord of the Lies himself. Let’s make sure our friends and families are kept informed of these fascist acts by Republicans. Hopefully, others here have some practical suggestions on how to counter these daily attempts by republicans to strangle our Democracy.
Check out diary “Maricopa County calls for an end to what they see as a Sham audit, a Con and a threat to Democracy” for an update from Monday’s presser.