The Arizona election “audit” just went even further off the deep end
Dumb, stupid, and ridiculous are but a few good words to describe Republicans these days. In Arizona, Republican attorney general Mark Brnovich is trying to keep the election controversy going, even after their hand-picked “auditors” concluded that nothing untoward happened during the 2020 election. According to the Hill, Brnovich has requested copies of the reports and evidence generated by the audit. Apparently, he does not believe his own auditors that Joe Biden won Maricopa County.
Now, suddenly, Cyber Ninjas “made mistakes of their own” in the manual recount. This entire time, the media and others have been vocal about the fact that Cyber Ninjas had no experience in election audits. If they did make mistakes, that should come as no surprise. The real “mistake,” at least as far as Republicans are concerned, is that the outcome of the 2020 election did not change. Leave it to Republicans. Their stupidity knows no bounds. Case in point: Alabama Governor Kay Ivey.
Associated Press reported that the Justice Department is considering suing the state for misuse of the state’s share of American Rescue Plan funds. Instead of using this money to mitigate Covid-related losses—as it was intended—Ivey is trying to use it to build prisons. AP reported that Alabama State (Republican) Senator Greg Albritton said: “It’s the right thing to do.” We will assume he has never heard of conversion or fraud. That money was given to the state to provide pandemic relief. Alabama’s prisons are Alabama’s problem. Maybe they are putting too many people in them and need to look at reforming their system instead of stealing federal tax dollars. Having gotten wind of Alabama’s plans, Representative Jerry Nadler, who is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, reached out to Janet Yellen to request the Treasury “prevent the misuse of American Rescue Plan funds” by using those funds to build prisons. Governor Ivey knows better than this, but she is a Republican, so there is that. Republicans think they can do whatever they want, even with other people’s money. Unbelievable.
Finally, we have Republican Governor (Idaho) Brad Little, who has threatened to fine businesses with over 100 employees for instituting mask mandates. Keep in mind that Idaho is experiencing high levels of Covid patients and deaths. Little is apparently in a death grip with Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin for his job. McGeachin served in Little’s absence and enacted a mandate against masks. Now, Daily Beast said they are doing battle to “see who can get farthest to the right to claim the Trumpian mantle.” These people are willing to risk the lives of their citizens to see who can “out-Trump” the other. Fine. If the citizens of Idaho want Trump lite, so be it. They will deserve what they get. Why in the world people want to support a blatant liar like Trump — who claimed he won in Arizona after the audit revealed he lost by even more — is beyond believability. Republicans are hopeless. Apparently, so are the people who support them.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years