Charlie Sykes on Arizona Audit: ‘A Clown with a Flamethrower Still Has a Flamethrower’
During a discussion on the slew of dubious voter fraud claims made by Republicans about the 2020 election, Charlie Sykes had a warning for those who are tempted to laugh at the ongoing election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona. In that case, the Republican-controlled legislature has authorize a company called Cyber Ninjas to conduct the audit, despite having no previous experience doing so. At one point, auditors were trying to detect traces of bamboo on ballots over a rumor that many of them had been flown in from Asia.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace played a clips of Republican politicians in 2020 bragging that their elections had been free and fair, only to later stress they need to act in order to ensure election integrity. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, this year at least 14 states have enacted laws that in some cases make it more difficult to vote.
“Think about how fast this has accelerated since November,” said Sykes.
The beating heart of the Republican Party is to embrace this Big Lie to cast doubt on the election, and to use that then as an excuse to change the laws. And as we’ve said before, we can roll our eyes and treat the Arizona audit as a joke, but a clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.
And the danger of this is that this is spreading from state to state. And as those soundbites illustrate, you don’t actually need to have any evidence that there was a problem for the Republican governors and legislatures embrace the Big Lie… There is no logical connection to it except that this is now become–this has become gospel in the Republican Party. And it is not just Arizona.
Sykes noted that Republican legislators from several states had visited the audit, which is being funded in part by donors with connections to former President Donald Trump. Former Republican attorney general of Arizona, Grant Woods has said the audit is a “kangaroo audit” being run by “some real nutcases.”
“What you’re seeing is here is about to metastasize across the country,” predicted Sykes.
Watch above via MSNBC
