Arizona Republicans just inadvertently documented the GOP's own failures: analysis
As the so-called Arizona election audit continues, Republicans are starting to recognize how foolish they look as a party because of it, explained Washington Post reporter Phillip Bump.
At least one Republican, the Maricopa County Recorder, erupted at his own party while speaking to CNN Tuesday morning.
"It was one thing with the audit when they were looking at UV lights and looking for bamboo fibers in the paper," Stephen Richer said. "But when they just accused us too many times of breaking the law, they defamed our good employees too many times, they've defamed the hard-working people here. We're all humans, and we have our limits!"
Other Republicans took issue with the "bamboo" conspiracy theory that somehow "Asia" brought in 40,000 ballots to help President Joe Biden win. No bamboo was ever found in ballots, but they were convinced it was possible.
"It's time to say enough is enough," said Bill Gates, the vice chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and not affiliated in any way with Microsoft. "It is time to push back on the 'big lie.' We must do this. We must do this as a member of the Republican Party, we must do this as a member of the Board of Supervisors. We need to do this as a country."
Gates along with several other colleagues unleashed in a blunt letter that it's time for Arizona state Sen. Karen Fann (R) to admit that it's over.
At this point, even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has agreed that Biden is the 2020 winner and he's ready to move on.
"To be very clear, there is nothing unusually sloppy or unfounded about the Arizona audit," wrote Bump. "With no obvious exception, all of the allegations of fraud and malfeasance that have emerged since Trump lost six months ago have been equally shoddy and baseless. Each of them has been the product of an under-informed or obviously biased complainant — or, alternatively, has been numeric prestidigitation meant to imply fraud that never actually manifests in any other way."
He closed by explaining that the unusual part of this display is that it has happened through a formal process but based on absurd claims from President Donald Trump, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). The difference is that it's happening at a moment when no one is paying attention and much of the country has moved on. The audit activists are insisting that the Republican officials in place can't do their jobs properly and they're doing it without any form of evidence to justify the claim.
"There probably will never be a 'have you no sense of decency' moment for Trump's effort to argue that the election results were suspect," Bump closed. "But Republicans coming together to identify the flagship effort to undermine those results as biased and sloppy is at least a step in that direction."
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