A much-anticipated audit by Republicans in Arizona’s most populous county apparently affirmed President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory there — defying the expectations of former President Donald Trump’s supporters and critics alike.
SO WHAT
The findings, revealed in a draft report of the Maricopa County review, bely the most paranoid fears of both the “MAGA” faithful and the #Resistance.
WHAT HAPPENED
Arizona was one of the key six states that flipped to now-President Joe Biden, and a long-awaited (by MAGA lovers and haters, alike) audit of the vote in the largest county in the state completed by firm Cyber Ninjas showed 99 additional votes for the Democrat.
THEN:
- Liberals had framed qualms about the vote as the apex of paranoid nuttiness on the right. “In America, if you lose, you accept the results. You follow the Constitution. You try again,” Biden said in a keynote address on voting in July. “You don’t call facts ‘fake’ and then try to bring down the American experiment just because you’re unhappy.”
- But some in the MAGA faithful had anticipated reversal, even that Trump could be re-installed in office.
Most notorious had been MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, a sometime Trump collaborator:
NOW:
- Some in the MAGA contingent are claiming partial victory. “Draft report of Maricopa audit finds Biden won but flags as many as 44,000 votes as ‘critical,'” reads the report from prominent conservative reporter John Solomon on JustTheNews.com.
- House Republicans on Friday asked Cyber Ninjas CEO to testify and tell the American people more.
- But brass tacks, as of today, President Biden actually gained votes.
OK, BUT
Major Republican politicians are using the occasion to open up about more overarching concerns re: how the vote was conducted in the pandemic.
- They are arguing that this cannot become the new normal.
Take Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters:
