Four Republicans are running for Arizona governor, and three of them claimed the 2020 election was stolen in a debate on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 (read story here). The other refused to say whether she would’ve certified the election if she were governor.
In Arizona, the ballots were officially recounted, then counted again in an unofficial, non-binding, not legally sanctioned “audit” commissioned by GOP legislators (and partly paid for by taxpayers). No material irregularities were found and every count, official and unofficial, confirmed Biden won Arizona. Across the country, dozens of lawsuits were filed, and none were supported by substantial evidence of significant fraud; all were thrown out by judges, including some appointed by Trump.
But Kari Lake, one of the candidates, called out Karrin Taylor Robson, her top rival, for refusing to say the election was “stolen.” Lake insisted that was “sickening” and “disqualifying” (words I would use to describe Lake).
She contended, without evidence, that 34,000 Arizona ballots were counted several times. I have no idea where that came from, maybe she pulled it out of her ass, but the Republicans’ own sham “audit” was only a couple hundred off the official results, so she doesn’t even have her own side backing up that monster fib.
Although Robson has a slight lead in polls, Lake could win the primary next month, and would be the November favorite. By all appearances, if she becomes governor, she’ll refuse to certify Arizona’s 2024 electoral votes to anyone but a Republican.
What’s going on with these people? Let’s start with the premise they’re crazy, because they are. They’re also liars. But why?
It’s simple, really: Because Republican voters will vote for them if they do this, and won’t vote if they don’t. But that doesn’t excuse them; they choose this path, nobody made them do it. But ultimately, it’s the voters who deserve the most blame. Politicians wouldn’t behave this way if voters didn’t reward and punish accordingly. So the real villains of this story are Arizona’s Republican voters.
The blurb accompanying the photo below (from here) goes like this: “News Anchor Kari Lake worked for the top news station in her state.” (It was a Fox station, of course — ed.) “However, as an experienced reporters, she began to notice a disturbing shift in journalism: fiction presented as fact and obvious bias presented as truth.” (Or maybe she just became delusional, and could no longer tell hallucinations from reality — ed.) “Sadly, the days of journalistic integrity are over.” (So she decided to be a dishonest, lying politician instead — ed.)
