The Trump Clown Car Has a Smashup in Arizona

[Zorro]

Monday was supposed to be a banner day for former President Donald Trump and the MAGAverse. After multiple delays, legal challenges and public controversies, the results of the third — and hopefully final — review of the presidential voting in Maricopa County, Ariz., was scheduled for delivery to its Republican sponsors in the State Senate. At long last, the proof of mass election fraud would be laid out for all to see! Mr. Trump would be vindicated! Maybe even reinstated!

At least, that’s what MAGA die-hards hunkered down in their bunkers of disinformation were hoping. Most everyone else — including plenty of Arizona officials from both parties — just wanted this gong show to end.

Alas, it was not to be. On Monday, the Republican president of the State Senate, Karen Fann, announced that the Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based firm overseeing the recount, had not yet completed a full draft report after all. It seems the firm’s chief executive and two other members of the “audit team” had come down with Covid-19. Also, the State Senate had only just received images of the ballot envelopes from Maricopa County, which still needed to be analyzed for inclusion in the final report.

And so the spectacle grinds on.

The clown-car chaos in Arizona is a near-perfect distillation of what Mr. Trump has done to the Republican Party, as well as much of the broader public. On what feels like a daily basis, he beats the drum about a stolen election, setting a tuneful lie that many Republican voters still dance to as the party mandarins look on, in either active support or silence. The political ramifications of this disinformation will be on display in Arizona’s U.S. Senate race next year, as well as those elsewhere, as independents and moderates assess if this is the party they want to reward.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/opinion/arizona-results-trump-republicans.html

[brewens]

1. Will they end up claiming all kinds of leads and clues, but "the steal" was too

sophisticated and they covered their tracks too well. That might keep them out of trouble while still keeping the fraud alive.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Wasn't this "audit" supposed to release its final report in early JUNE...?

[cstanleytech]

3. When your real goal is not to uncover anything but to create

noise to provide cover for a new era of Jim Crow laws being enacted you want to delay any such “final report” for as long as possible.

[lees1975]

4. Arizona Republicans have a long, long history of making themselves look stupid

going back to at least Barry Goldwater. They have some former governors who were incredibly corrupt and a long record of ignorance and stupidity. It makes you wonder what voters are thinking when they elect some of these people, like Joe Arpaio and Karen Fann. Well, it looks like there are indeed now more Democrats in Maricopa county than Republicans. They need to get out and vote in the off years when state legislators are elected, and get rid of some of these nut jobs who have wasted the state's money and made it look like a giant insane asylum in the desert. Gerrymandering might prevent getting at some of the real idiots, like Fann, but Dems are just a seat or two away from the majority to neutralize them.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. Rehnquist got his button by suppressing the AZ vote.

Just Our Bill

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12511559803

[0rganism]

5. if the perpetrators of the fraudit aren't sued into poverty, their allegations will become as fact

not actually facts, per se, but sufficiently fact-like that they will simply gain acceptance over time and eventually people will adapt it as part of history as "a state Biden stole from Trump"
after all, no one took them to court over it, right? so they must have been on to something.
only firm legal action can prevent this scenario. the Big Lie must not go unchallenged. if the perps are not held to account, we will all drink together from the fountain of consequences.

the appearance of truth cloaked in self-righteous zealotry goes a long way in this crumbling nation.

[lees1975]

6. Take a look at the Arizona Constitution

You will find it provides for both referendum and recall. So, Arizona Democrats, get your party together and go after Karen Fann. Get a recall petition going and force her to spend her campaign money on keeping her seat.