Arizona’s Republican AG Slams ‘Horsesh*t’ 2020 Election Denial: ‘I am Not Like the Clowns… It’s Like a Giant Grift’
CBS’s Scott Pelley took a deep dive on Sunday night into election denial in the state of Arizona, which is running a full slate of GOP candidates this November who claim the 2020 election was stolen.
Pelley interviewed outgoing Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a lifelong Republican who lost the primary for U.S. Senate this year to Trump-backed Blake Masters.
Brnovich had some strong words to describe claims of election fraud in Arizona, telling Pelley those claims are “horses***.”
“That’s what it is. Most of it’s horses***, and I’ve been trying to scrape it off my shoes for the last year,” he added.
Brnovich elaborated adding, “We, as prosecutors, deal in facts and evidence. And I’m not like the clowns that throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.”
“Clowns?” asked Pelley.
“Clowns. Did I say that?” Brnovich replied.
“Yes, I think that there are a lot of clowns out there that– they saw what they wanted to see. What is that Simon and Garfunkel line that– “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”? There’s a lotta that going on.”
Pelley then explains that the GOP candidates for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general all have pushed unfounded election conspiracies.
“It’s going on in the top Arizona races where the Republican for governor is a denier,” Pelley narrates before playing a clip of Kari Lake, the GOP nominee for governor, saying on June 27, 2022, “We had a fraudulent election, a corrupt election, and we have an illegitimate president sitting in the White House.”
“It’s like a giant grift in some ways,” Brnovich then tells Pelley.
“A grift, a swindle, is what you’re saying?” Pelley followed up.
Brnovich sternly replied, “Yes.”
For the same segment, Pelley also spoke with Arizona’s Republican Secretary of State candidate, Mark Finchem, who offered Pelley what he claimed was a clear example of voter fraud.
“Well, we’ve got information that’s been turned over to the attorney general’s office and you say that there was nothing there. OK. Then I’m gonna have to live with that. But do I know for a fact that there were other ballot trafficking operations around the country and some in Arizona? Yeah, I do,” Finchem told Pelley.
“Name one,” Pelley pushed.
“Yuma County, 25,000 ballots,” Finchem replied.
“Same fingerprints on those ballots for five individuals. So where’d that go? Where’s that evidence? I know it’s been turned over to the attorney general’s office. I know that the FBI field office actually did the prints,” he added after Pelley asks for details.
If elected on November 8th, Finchem will be in charge of Arizona’s elections and will be the second-ranking state-wide elected official as Arizona doesn’t have a lieutenant governor.
Pelley then explains that 60 Minutes researched the claim and “that’s false according to the FBI. Yuma County told us that no one in law enforcement fingerprinted 25,000 ballots. Finchem often says that evidence is with Attorney General Brnovich, implying that something big is coming.”
Watch the full clip above
