Exasperated AZ GOP Official Who Called Out Trump Trashes Sham Audit: ‘Stop Indulging This’
A Republican official tasked with maintaining files on 2.6 million registered voters in Maricopa County, Arizona tore into Donald Trump’s big lie and the sham election audit being conducted in his county.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday that he’s had it with the false accusations about the presidential election in Arizona, specifically, the county he works for. “That’s my team,” he said. “That’s my office.”
On Saturday, Donald Trump issued a statement, falsely claiming, “The entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!”
That prompted Richer to tweet in response. He called Trump’s claim “unhinged.”
Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now.
We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.
This is as readily falsifiable as 2+2=5. If we don’t call this out… pic.twitter.com/5tDy1wsZg6
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) May 15, 2021
The Maricopa County election tally swung the presidential contest in Arizona to Joe Biden, marking the first time since 1996 a Democrat won the state. Trump’s false claim came amid an “audit” of presidential ballots cast in the county that is being conducted by a firm called Cyber Ninjas. Its CEO is Doug Logan, who has given credence to election conspiracies on social media. One of the auditors was former Republican state Rep. Anthony Kern, who was at the Capitol on January 6th. (A recent report said Kern was removed from the audit.)
“What can we do here?” a frustrated Richer asked Burnett of Trump’s false claim about the county’s database. “This is tantamount to saying that the pencil sitting on my desk in front of me doesn’t exist.”
Burnett noted that multiple election audits have already been conducted, all of which have confirmed Biden’s victory.
“Just stop indulging this. Stop giving space for lies,” Richer said.
Previously, former Arizona Attorney General and former Republican Grant Woods referred to the Maricopa County audit as a “kangaroo audit” being run by “some real nutcases.”
Watch above via CNN.
