At ‘audit’ listening to, GOP congressman refuses to say Biden received

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Throughout a Home listening to Thursday on the current “audit” of the 2020 election leads to Arizona performed by supporters of former President Donald Trump, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., sparred with Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who refused to simply accept its outcomes exhibiting that Joe Biden received the state.

“Who received the election in Arizona: Donald Trump or Joe Biden?” Raskin requested Biggs originally of the listening to, which was convened by the Home Oversight Committee.

“We do not know. There are plenty of points with this election that passed off,” Biggs replied. The 2-term Republican congressman was reelected final 12 months to signify the state’s Fifth District in the identical election whose outcomes he has been questioning.

The “audit” of populous Maricopa County was accomplished on the behest of the Arizona state Senate, which is managed by Republicans, and performed and funded by pro-Trump organizations. It confirmed Biden received by 45,469 votes — a wider margin than the official end result, which was 45,109.

“There’s the issue,” Raskin stated. “Donald Trump refused to simply accept the outcomes, and sadly we now have one of many world’s nice political events which has adopted him off of the ledge of this electoral lunacy, and it is harmful for democracy.”

Rep. Any Biggs, R-Ariz.,speaks during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday. (Photo by Bill Clark-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. (Invoice Clark-Pool/Getty Photos)

The CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the corporate that performed the partisan audit, declined to seem on the listening to to testify regardless of being invited. Earlier than Doug Logan and his firm had been employed in Arizona, he pushed unfounded claims of fraud within the 2020 election and was working with Trump’s allies to overturn the election outcomes as early as final November.

On the identical listening to, two Maricopa County GOP election officers, who oversaw and accepted the outcomes, testified in regards to the threats they and their households have obtained from Trump supporters for refusing to say the election was stolen.

Jack Sellers, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, stated he has had police parked in entrance of his home on many nights due to particular threats towards him.

The board’s vice chairman, Invoice Gates, stated his household has been the goal of quite a few dying threats.

“I’ve three daughters,” Gates stated. “Now we have been subjected to many threats over the previous few months. Now we have been doxxed. … We have had cellphone calls into the Board of Supervisors saying folks had been going to come back slaughter us and our households.”

Gates later added that he believed {that a} “lot of the folks” who led the audit weren’t centered on “restoring confidence and as a substitute, I believe, it was extra on elevating doubts, and I believe we’re seeing that once more at this time, fairly frankly.”

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas examine ballots from the 2020 general election in Phoenix, May 3, 2021. (Photo by Courtney Pedroza for the Washington Post)

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas study ballots from the 2020 election in Phoenix on Could 3. (Courtney Pedroza/Washington Put up)

Whereas the Trump marketing campaign was contesting the outcomes, each Sellers and Gates obtained cellphone messages on Christmas Eve from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s private lawyer, who instructed that they assist in the hassle as a result of they had been all Republicans.

“I would wish to see if there is a manner that we might resolve this so it comes out effectively for everybody,” Giuliani stated in a voicemail to Sellers, which was performed on the listening to. “We’re all Republicans. I believe all of us have the identical objective.”

Republicans on the committee spent a lot of the listening to speculating that different points of the election, together with mail ballots to doubtlessly hacked voting machines, referred to as the outcomes into query. Additionally they cited the thousands and thousands of People who distrust the 2020 election outcomes, fueled by Trump and his allies hammering baseless claims of fraud.

Polls present that almost all Republicans consider Trump’s claims in regards to the 2020 election, regardless of an absence of proof. An August Yahoo Information/YouGov survey discovered that 66 p.c of Republicans proceed to insist that “the election was rigged and stolen from Trump,” whereas simply 18 p.c consider “Joe Biden received honest and sq..”

The conspiracy principle in regards to the 2020 election being stolen has had real-world penalties, beginning with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which resulted in a number of deaths and Trump’s impeachment. Republican lawmakers in at the least 18 states have handed restrictions since final November that make it harder to vote, arguing that such coverage adjustments are crucial to revive religion in elections. Plenty of Republicans who’ve acknowledged they consider the election was stolen at the moment are working for the top election offices in their states, elevating concern about what might occur if there’s one other shut race in 2024.

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