An Arizona Republican elections official who has faced threats over the 2020 election on Friday lamented that his party would even consider nominating Donald Trump for president next year.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer delivered his comments during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” during a discussion over whether 14th Amendment could be used to keep the former president off the ballot.
Legal scholars argue that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol precludes him from holding public office.
“So you're talking about these (election) lies, right, Trump is continuing with this day in and day out, right, and yet, he's got a 34-point lead, a commanding lead,” Burnett said.
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“In fact, in our latest poll it's a dead heat between him and President Biden. What does it tell you about American democracy that this is still embraced so overwhelmingly, by Republican voters?” she asked
“It's incredibly disheartening, and you would think that, you know, in the world's beacon of democracy, no way could this happen here but clearly in can,” Richer said.
“Now, I still have confidence in the American public, but it's shocking to me that some of these conversations, some of these actions could go on and still that percentage of people could be willing to contemplate going down that road.”
Richer acknowledged that the Grand Canyon State has been at the center of threats to election officials, noting that last week “I was in a sentencing at a federal district court where someone who threatened to kill one of my colleagues because of the elections in 2020, the elections in 2022, and so how many more people like that have to be locked up because of the falsehoods that they're following like lemmings over the cliff.”
Asked Burnett: “How are you still dealing with this? I mean, I know you had a there was a man, a Missouri man who was indicted last month after threatening you. You talk about your colleague. This is three years after the election. How do you deal with the fact that you're still dealing with this, death threats to you, your family?”
“You see things that are happening in Ukraine, you see things that are happening throughout the world, and it gives you a real sense of an arc of history, and so without being too melodramatic about it, I feel privileged to play a role in this incredibly important conversation,” Richer said.
He added: “I'm going to continue that fight. I know a lot of my colleagues are going to continue that fight. I know a lot of them have chosen not to continue that fight and I can't blame them for all the stuff that we've had to go through, but I'm trying to look at the positive of it.”
