As the Arizona Senate holds its hearing on the forensic Maricopa County election audit, former President Donald Trump reissued his rebuke of Fox News' early call on the state in the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
Trump trumpeted outcome-determinative numbers of suspect votes being uncovered by the audit, which were discussed at Thursday's Senate hearing, but the official forensic audit report will be released "at a later date," barring what Republicans say is obstruction by Maricopa County officials.
"The irregularities revealed at the hearing today amount to hundreds of thousands of votes or, many times what is necessary for us to have won," Trump wrote in a statement from his Save America PAC. "Despite these massive numbers, this is the state that Fox News called early for a Biden victory.
"There was no victory here, or in any other of the swing states either."
The Trump White House vehemently objected to Fox News' Election Night decision desk projecting Biden to win the state, arguing it turned the public face of the election as polls were still open and votes will still coming in via mail-in ballots in key battleground states that adopted mass mail-in balloting due to COVID-19 precautions.
"Arizona Senate hearings on the Maricopa County Election Audit is devastating news to the Radical Left Democrats and the Biden administration," Trump's statement began. "While this, according to the Senate, is preliminary, with results being announced at a later date, it seems that 74,243 mail-in ballots were counted with 'no clear record of them being sent.'
"There were 18,000 voters who were scrubbed from the voter rolls AFTER the election. They also revealed that the voting system was breached or hacked (by who?). Very big printer and ballot problems with different paper used, etc., and MUCH MORE."
The auditors are still seeking information from Maricopa County officials on the election and are reviving plans to canvass from door to door to interview voters about the 2020 election, The Arizona Republic reported Thursday.
"Based on the data we're seeing, I highly recommend we do the canvassing because it's the one way to know for sure whether the data we're seeing are real problems," forensic auditor and Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan told lawmakers.
The final report on the audit results is potentially being held up by Maricopa County obstruction on requests for information, according to Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott.
"We need to get the additional information, because how do you do a final report if you don't have all the information?" she said, the Republic reported.
The Biden administration has opposed the door-to-door canvassing, with the Justice Department concerned it might amount to voter intimidation and violate federal civil rights protections.
But, Trump argued in his statement, if there is nothing to hide, why not pursue transparency?
"Maricopa County refuses to work together with the Senate and others who are merely looking for honesty, integrity, and transparency," the statement concluded. "Why do the commissioners not want to look into this corrupted election? What are they trying to hide?
"The highly respected state Sen. Wendy Rogers said in a tweet the hearing today means we must decertify the election. In any event, the Senate patriots are moving forward with final results to be announced in the not-too-distant future, but based on today's hearing, why even wait?"
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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