The failed Arizona audit would have 'deflated the enthusiasm' of any sane politician -- except Trump: election law expert

CNN.com reported that former President Donald Trump seems obsessed with proving over and over again how badly he lost the 2020 presidential election.

The ex-president was humiliated at the ballot box but then proceeded to be humiliated in court over 60 times. Trump then held a partisan audit funded by his donors and run by his supporters, and he still ended up losing over 360 votes from his original total.

Despite this, he appears to want to do it again.

"The lesson they're taking from Arizona's Maricopa County ballot review is not that they failed and should stop, but rather that they should try to avoid the negative scrutiny that hounded the Cyber Ninjas' review and 'do it better' in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, even if there's no evidence of fraud," the report said, citing conservative Sarah Longwell, who runs the group Defending Democracy Together.

"It has nothing to do with auditing votes," Longwell explained to CNN.com. "It has to do with creating a cloud of suspicion around the elections and keeping their fraud narrative front and center."

Elections law expert Richard Hasen noted that the polling proves Republicans believe Trump over any possible proof or logic and that there's little chance of ever being able to pull them away.

"One would think in a real world, that even this fake audit, that was stacked in favor of helping Trump, that a finding in favor of Biden would have deflated the enthusiasm. And maybe it has among some," he added. "But facts don't matter when you're incessantly lying about election integrity."

He also explained that trying to destroy elections is Trump's point.

"No. 1, it will further undermine people's confidence in the process," Hasen said. "And No. 2, someone who believes or purports to believe that the last election was stolen is more likely to act in a way to not conduct a fair election as a kind of payback for the supposed rigging the last time."

Read the full report at CNN.com.