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THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's

  1. Sudo Black Hole [my hereto riemannian peach]
    Originally posted by Donald Trump The thing that astonishes me is that people make this sort of shit up, maliciously, and the media spreads it, either irresponsibly or maliciously.

    That's scary.

    Although it's nothing new. The Maine exploded due to a coal bunker fire, the Lusitania was packed with munitions, and there were no North Vietnamese boats present during the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction either.

    Yes, the train derailment that lead to the invasion into Manchuria too, it's an old play that's as old as the hills. It's just catching it when it SEEMS real. The afghan bounty thing seemed patently ridiculous at face value.

    We are supposed to believe there are channels from pashtun tribes to the Russian ministry. We are to believe they need inventivizing to kill foreign invaders like that hasn't been the entire history of Afghanistan.

    Then we are to believe there is an informer of the whole program who was privy to the entire channel of communications but didn't provide any direct sources or any evidence at all. The "evidence" is in the form of money seized from a drug warlord who had a greater vested interest in taking out US soldiers than Russia does.

    It seems very suspect that is something Russia would be inventivizing instead of infrastructure damage or US military Intel. I don't doubt the US may have been briefed of suspect reports but then again they hear a Lotta shit
  2. Originally posted by Sudo The best things Trump did were on his first and last days in office by tearing up the TPP and pardoning Kodak Black. Everything in between was kinda meh

    Kojak Black.
  3. POLECAT POLECAT is a motherfucking ferret [my presentably immunised ammonification]
    My dog is less gullible than the leftards out there and he jumps up to look out the window 50 times a day Just cuz I ask him if he can see it
  4. Donald Trump Black Hole
    https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/16/liz-cheney-was-a-primary-culprit-of-spreading-fake-news-on-russian-bounties-to-undermine-trump/

    Cheneys.

    stl1, did you support the 2003 Iraq invasion? I bet you did.
  5. Data African Astronaut
    Originally posted by Donald Trump https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/16/liz-cheney-was-a-primary-culprit-of-spreading-fake-news-on-russian-bounties-to-undermine-trump/

    Cheneys.

    stl1, did you support the 2003 Iraq invasion? I bet you did.



    Yeah I'm sure he supported Republicans lmao
  6. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    Originally posted by Donald Trump The thing that astonishes me is that people make this sort of shit up, maliciously, and the media spreads it, either irresponsibly or maliciously.

    That's scary.

    Although it's nothing new. The Maine exploded due to a coal bunker fire, the Lusitania was packed with munitions, and there were no North Vietnamese boats present during the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction either.




    Like Mexico didn't pay for the wall?
  7. Donald Trump Black Hole
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/another-leftist-narrative-collapses-chief-me-confirms-sicknick-had-2-strokes-died-natural
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/brian-sicknick-death-strokes/2021/04/19/36d2d310-617e-11eb-afbe-9a11a127d146_story.html

    Imagine being such a fucking sucker for lies.

    Will this even be reported on by the "left wing" media?
  8. POLECAT POLECAT is a motherfucking ferret [my presentably immunised ammonification]
    NO, it don't fit the adjenda
  9. Sudo Black Hole [my hereto riemannian peach]
    Originally posted by Donald Trump https://www.zerohedge.com/political/another-leftist-narrative-collapses-chief-me-confirms-sicknick-had-2-strokes-died-natural
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/brian-sicknick-death-strokes/2021/04/19/36d2d310-617e-11eb-afbe-9a11a127d146_story.html

    Imagine being such a fucking sucker for lies.

    Will this even be reported on by the "left wing" media?

    Strokes can be onset by stress and was definitely exacerbated by the capital rush. I agree it's reaching though but definitely not completely unrelated.

    For example I have a friend who did a copious amount of cocaine and suffered a stroke, however to the hospital it was simply a stroke and not similar to an overdose; it was just an isolated stroke.

    That said the capital hill pig seemed very very weak and probably hyperventilated himself into a stroke. I don't think you can directly correlate this with the attack but it's certainly related
  10. Donald Trump Black Hole
    Originally posted by Sudo Strokes can be onset by stress and was definitely exacerbated by the capital rush. I agree it's reaching though but definitely not completely unrelated.

    For example I have a friend who did a copious amount of cocaine and suffered a stroke, however to the hospital it was simply a stroke and not similar to an overdose; it was just an isolated stroke.

    That said the capital hill pig seemed very very weak and probably hyperventilated himself into a stroke. I don't think you can directly correlate this with the attack but it's certainly related

    I'd agree with that.

    Like if you stress someone and they subsequently die of a stroke, can it be said that you killed them?

    Maybe, but not really, they were on their way out anyway, all it took was a trigger.

    If anyone in the west actually gave a shit about their country they'd be trying to clean up diets and lifestyles.

    Not that I can talk.
  11. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    Making

    America

    Gag

    Again

    -or-

    Monica Lewinsky Wasn't So Dumb After All



    Salon
    “Wrong and dangerous”: Taxpayers are still funding Trump’s defense against rape accuser
    Igor Derysh


    Attorneys for longtime magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who has accused former President Donald Trump of raping her more than 20 years ago, argued on Friday that it was "wrong and dangerous" for the Justice Department to defend him against her defamation lawsuit.

    Carroll filed the lawsuit in 2019 after Trump denied her claim that he raped her in a department store fitting room in the mid-1990s. The Justice Department intervened last year to defend the then-president, arguing that Trump, who accused Carroll of "totally lying," made the comment in his official capacity as the nation's chief executive. A federal district judge last year rejected the DOJ's attempt to intervene but the department appealed the ruling before Trump left office, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for his defense.

    Carroll's lawyers said in a court filing on Friday that the DOJ is trying to convince the court to "adopt a new rule that would create categorical immunity for any federal official who defames anyone while speaking to the press or responding to perceived critics."

    "This rule is both wrong and dangerous," the filing said, adding that it "reflects a disturbing belief that federal officials should have free rein to destroy the reputations and livelihoods of any perceived critic — no matter how unrelated to the business of governance."

    Carroll's attorneys asked the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals court to rule that "Trump did not act within the scope of his employment as President of the United States when he repeatedly, willfully defamed a private citizen to punish and retaliate against her after she revealed that he had sexually assaulted her decades before he took office."

    The DOJ in its appeal argued that Trump discussed a matter of public concern in denying the allegation, which lawyers said was "an issue potentially relevant to his ability to perform the duties of his office effectively."

    "The President … acts within the scope of his office when he responds to public critics," the DOJ said in a court filing.

    Carroll first alleged that Trump raped her during an encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman in her 2019 book "What Do We Need Men For?" Trump responded by accusing Carroll, best known as a columnist for Elle Magazine, of lying and told reporters, "She's not my type."

    "Trump has tried and failed repeatedly to get my lawsuit booted," Carroll said in a statement on Friday. "Last fall, he had his Justice Department intervene and try to get it dismissed in federal court. He lost. Then, just a week before President Biden's inauguration, Trump's private lawyers and the DOJ joined forces to argue on appeal that when Trump called me a liar who was too ugly to rape, he was somehow being presidential. This is offensive to me."

    Carroll added that she is "confident that the Second Circuit will make it clear that no president, including Donald Trump, can get away scot free with maliciously defaming a woman he sexually assaulted."

    In October, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the Federal Tort Claims Act, which protects federal employees from personal liability in lawsuits, "does not include presidents." Kaplan said that if the DOJ got its way, Carroll "would be left with no remedy, even if the president's statements were false and defamatory."

    "The undisputed facts demonstrate that President Trump was not acting in furtherance of any duties owed to any arguable employer when he made the statements at issue. His comments concerned an alleged sexual assault that took place several decades before he took office, and the allegations have no relationship to the official business of the United States," Kaplan wrote. "To conclude otherwise would require the Court to adopt a view that virtually everything the president does is within the public interest by virtue of his office."

    Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, predicted that the 2nd Circuit would uphold the October ruling.

    "As the district court properly recognized, while the facts in this case are unique, the legal principles are not," she said in a statement. "In this country, no one, not even the president, is above the law."

    Carroll's lawyers are also seeking a DNA sample from Trump to compare to the dress Carroll says she wore during the alleged assault.

    "After Trump sexually assaulted me, I took the black dress I had been wearing and hung it in my closet," she said last year.

    A ruling upholding the previous decision to reject the DOJ intervention would likely clear the way for Trump to be deposed in the case.

    Trump is facing a similar lawsuit from Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" who in 2016 accused Trump of groping and kissing her without consent in 2007 and 2008. Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit in 2017 after Trump accused her of lying.

    Last month, the New York State Court of Appeals granted Zervos' motion to dismiss an appeal from Trump's lawyers seeking to halt the suit on the argument that sitting presidents are protected from legal action, at least partly because Trump had left office. That ruling means that Trump can be compelled to testify under oath in the case.

    "Now as a private citizen, the defendant has no further excuse to delay justice from Ms. Zervos and we are eager to get back to the trial court and prove her claims," Zervos' attorney Beth Wilkinson told The New York Times.

    Trump is expected to face questions about other allegations against him if he is deposed. More than two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault or misconduct. Trump has denied several individual allegations while repeatedly issuing blanket denials of all the claims against him.

    "There are many other similar allegations made against former President Trump and his responses to them would appropriately be the subject of questioning," Kevin Mintzer, an attorney who has represented numerous women in sexual misconduct cases, told the Times. "I would expect he's going to have to answer those questions."
  12. Donald Trump Black Hole
    Originally posted by stl1 Trump denied her claim that he raped her in a department store fitting room in the mid-1990s

    Like I keep telling you people, that was my evil twin brother, Donal.
  13. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    You needed to be a little more aware of where you were leaving your baby batter, Donny.

    Republicans believe extramarital sex by a President is an impeachable offense, don't they still?

    They purported to believe it when Clinton was President!
  14. Originally posted by stl1 Making

    America

    Gag

    Again

    -or-

    Monica Lewinsky Wasn't So Dumb After All



    Salon
    “Wrong and dangerous”: Taxpayers are still funding Trump’s defense against rape accuser
    Igor Derysh


    Attorneys for longtime magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, who has accused former President Donald Trump of raping her more than 20 years ago, argued on Friday that it was "wrong and dangerous" for the Justice Department to defend him against her defamation lawsuit.

    Carroll filed the lawsuit in 2019 after Trump denied her claim that he raped her in a department store fitting room in the mid-1990s. The Justice Department intervened last year to defend the then-president, arguing that Trump, who accused Carroll of "totally lying," made the comment in his official capacity as the nation's chief executive. A federal district judge last year rejected the DOJ's attempt to intervene but the department appealed the ruling before Trump left office, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for his defense.

    Carroll's lawyers said in a court filing on Friday that the DOJ is trying to convince the court to "adopt a new rule that would create categorical immunity for any federal official who defames anyone while speaking to the press or responding to perceived critics."

    "This rule is both wrong and dangerous," the filing said, adding that it "reflects a disturbing belief that federal officials should have free rein to destroy the reputations and livelihoods of any perceived critic — no matter how unrelated to the business of governance."

    Carroll's attorneys asked the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals court to rule that "Trump did not act within the scope of his employment as President of the United States when he repeatedly, willfully defamed a private citizen to punish and retaliate against her after she revealed that he had sexually assaulted her decades before he took office."

    The DOJ in its appeal argued that Trump discussed a matter of public concern in denying the allegation, which lawyers said was "an issue potentially relevant to his ability to perform the duties of his office effectively."

    "The President … acts within the scope of his office when he responds to public critics," the DOJ said in a court filing.

    Carroll first alleged that Trump raped her during an encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman in her 2019 book "What Do We Need Men For?" Trump responded by accusing Carroll, best known as a columnist for Elle Magazine, of lying and told reporters, "She's not my type."

    "Trump has tried and failed repeatedly to get my lawsuit booted," Carroll said in a statement on Friday. "Last fall, he had his Justice Department intervene and try to get it dismissed in federal court. He lost. Then, just a week before President Biden's inauguration, Trump's private lawyers and the DOJ joined forces to argue on appeal that when Trump called me a liar who was too ugly to rape, he was somehow being presidential. This is offensive to me."

    Carroll added that she is "confident that the Second Circuit will make it clear that no president, including Donald Trump, can get away scot free with maliciously defaming a woman he sexually assaulted."

    In October, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the Federal Tort Claims Act, which protects federal employees from personal liability in lawsuits, "does not include presidents." Kaplan said that if the DOJ got its way, Carroll "would be left with no remedy, even if the president's statements were false and defamatory."

    "The undisputed facts demonstrate that President Trump was not acting in furtherance of any duties owed to any arguable employer when he made the statements at issue. His comments concerned an alleged sexual assault that took place several decades before he took office, and the allegations have no relationship to the official business of the United States," Kaplan wrote. "To conclude otherwise would require the Court to adopt a view that virtually everything the president does is within the public interest by virtue of his office."

    Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, predicted that the 2nd Circuit would uphold the October ruling.

    "As the district court properly recognized, while the facts in this case are unique, the legal principles are not," she said in a statement. "In this country, no one, not even the president, is above the law."

    Carroll's lawyers are also seeking a DNA sample from Trump to compare to the dress Carroll says she wore during the alleged assault.

    "After Trump sexually assaulted me, I took the black dress I had been wearing and hung it in my closet," she said last year.

    A ruling upholding the previous decision to reject the DOJ intervention would likely clear the way for Trump to be deposed in the case.

    Trump is facing a similar lawsuit from Summer Zervos, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" who in 2016 accused Trump of groping and kissing her without consent in 2007 and 2008. Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit in 2017 after Trump accused her of lying.

    Last month, the New York State Court of Appeals granted Zervos' motion to dismiss an appeal from Trump's lawyers seeking to halt the suit on the argument that sitting presidents are protected from legal action, at least partly because Trump had left office. That ruling means that Trump can be compelled to testify under oath in the case.

    "Now as a private citizen, the defendant has no further excuse to delay justice from Ms. Zervos and we are eager to get back to the trial court and prove her claims," Zervos' attorney Beth Wilkinson told The New York Times.

    Trump is expected to face questions about other allegations against him if he is deposed. More than two dozen women have accused Trump of sexual assault or misconduct. Trump has denied several individual allegations while repeatedly issuing blanket denials of all the claims against him.

    "There are many other similar allegations made against former President Trump and his responses to them would appropriately be the subject of questioning," Kevin Mintzer, an attorney who has represented numerous women in sexual misconduct cases, told the Times. "I would expect he's going to have to answer those questions."

    tl/dr
  15. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    Originally posted by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ tl/dr



    Too short.

    Didn't read.
  16. Originally posted by stl1 Too short.

    Didn't read.

    UMADD
  17. POLECAT POLECAT is a motherfucking ferret [my presentably immunised ammonification]
    ifn he aint he will be when TRUMP takes back the white house
  18. Which won't be long now at all.
  19. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    Making

    America

    Goofy

    Again


    Inside the Pro-Trump Conference Where COVID Denial and Calls to Kill Political Enemies Reign
    The Daily Beast


    In Tulsa, Oklahoma, this past weekend, thousands gathered at the Health and Freedom Conference—maskless, of course—to bask in the glow of Trumpworld luminaries and scheduled speakers such as pillow magnate Mike Lindell, MAGA attorney Lin Wood, and the actor who played Jesus Christ in the Mel Gibson movie. The crowd was there to reaffirm their fealty to twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory, coronavirus denialism, their religious faith, and the belief that their high-profile political enemies deserve to be executed.

    And Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer was on the ground in Tulsa to take it all in.

    “[It was] sort of a confluence of COVID denialism, QAnon, evangelical Christianity, all this kind of stuff, gathering outside of Tulsa, 4,500 people,” Sommer told co-host Asawin Suebsaeng on this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast. “They were ready to throw down and talk about how much they love both Trump and QAnon, no masks, [of course]… I didn’t see a single mask... I, too, had to go sans mask to fit in.”

    There were, naturally, “a lot of people who are big deals in Trumpism. I mean, it was Lin Wood, and Michael Flynn, and Sidney Powell. Jim Caviezel, who you may remember from The Passion of the Christ,” Sommer said. “These were people who were fringe in a way, but who still have a lot of sway in the Republican Party… Look, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party was at this thing.”

    According to Sommer, one of Wood’s addresses to the audience included a moment when he blathered on about “people [who] are torturing children,” and how “the punishment for treason is a firing squad”—at which point the crowd of roughly “5,000 people just explode, like standing ovation, all this stuff. So, I mean, it was really something to see.”

    Later in this Fever Dreams installment, Suebsaeng and Sommer welcome guest Sara Kenigsberg, a veteran video producer for the 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns of both Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. On this episode, she opens up about what it was like when the Trump re-election campaign, conservative media, and MAGA icons aggressively went after her last summer… for her past tweets about pigs.

    That’s right: Last summer, as the United States was engulfed by the COVID-19 pandemic, a tumultuous presidential race, a torpedoed economy, and mass protests, the Trump campaign found time to devote considerable messaging resources to denouncing a mid-level Biden 2020 official over her love of pigs, yoga, and adorable piglets.

    Kenigsberg, who at that point had recently assumed the position as a producer on Biden’s presidential campaign, had shared a meme spreading the message of: “Please stop calling cops pigs. Pigs are highly intelligent and empathetic animals who would never racially profile you.”

    It wasn’t long before MAGAland declared her a new public enemy, with the Trump campaign putting out multiple statements about her. Kenigsberg recalls what happened behind the scenes, as she and the Biden staff responded to these salvos, and the torrent of threats and hate mail that followed. “It was just such a ridiculous controversy when so many other important things were happening in the world,” she said. “It was really pathetic on the part of the Trump campaign.”
  20. stl1 Cum Lickin' Fagit
    KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE ! ! !

    (and on life support)



    The Daily Beast
    The Last Scheme to Discredit the 2020 Election Is On, and It’s Even Crazier Than You Think
    Kelly Weill


    When a Republican-led coalition gathers to “audit” Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results on Thursday, the motley crew will include a former lawmaker who previously lost a police job for lying about a stolen iPad and a technology firm helmed by a proponent of election conspiracy theories.

    Joe Biden won the presidential election in Arizona, including in hotly contested Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. Although multiple bipartisan reviews have upheld those results, and Donald Trump has long since exited the White House, a new effort to recount all of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million votes is kicking off this week. The scheme is led by actual elected officials with power, including the leaders of Arizona’s state Senate, which has tapped a Florida-based cybersecurity firm to oversee the audit.

    But from kooky fundraisers to a conspiracy-minded tech CEO to an auditor who lost the very 2020 election he’s auditing, the recount has eyeballs rolling.

    On Monday, former Arizona state representative Anthony Kern tweeted that he would be involved in the recount. “#Electionintegrity,” he wrote in his announcement. Arizona’s House Democrats had a less sunny response: quote-tweeting Kern with a picture of him standing in a crowd of Trump fans at a Jan. 6 rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. “One of Arizona’s election auditors reporting for duty,” the House Democrats tweeted. “#ShamAudit.”

    Kern, who did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment, maintains that he did not enter the Capitol or participate in the riot, and has not been charged with a crime related to the day’s events. Still, the specifics of his actions are the subject of a legal spat in Arizona. On the day of the riot, he was serving his final days as a state representative, having lost re-election the same day as Trump. He and another Arizona representative who attended the pre-riot rally have declined public records requests for their messages related to the event, with their lawyer stating that “the threat of criminal prosecution gives rise to certain Constitutional rights that may overcome the duty to disclose otherwise public documents under Arizona’s public records law.”

    The two Republicans have also filed a defamation lawsuit against an Arizona lawmaker who signed a letter asking the FBI to investigate their Jan. 6 activities.

    This isn’t Kern’s first time facing legal scrutiny. Prior to becoming a lawmaker, he worked as a code enforcement officer for the El Mirage Police Department. In 2014, he was fired for misleading his supervisor about a computer tablet that went missing, the Phoenix New Times revealed in 2019. As part of his termination, he was placed on the state’s Brady list, a compendium of law enforcement officers with known credibility issues. (In fact, as the New Times noted, even Kerr’s claims to being law enforcement were dubious: He was a civilian officer throughout his employment, and though he represented himself as holding a "law enforcement" certification in financial disclosures in 2014, 2015, and 2016, he did not receive peace officer certification until 2017.)

    In 2019, while serving in the Arizona House, Kern helped push a bill that would make it easier for people like himself to remove their names from the state Brady list. Colleagues told the New Times they had not been aware that Kern was on the list. The bill did not pass, but a similar one is currently being debated.

    Arizona Democrats called Kerr’s participation in Thursday’s audit inappropriate. Rep. Athena Salman, a Democratic member of the state House’s Government and Elections Committee, noted that Kern was also in D.C. in January in his capacity as a Trump elector. (Kern promoted a bogus theory that “dual electors” could throw the election to Trump.)

    “You’ve got this former lawmaker who lost his last election,” Salman told The Daily Beast of Kern. “You’ve got someone who was an elector for Donald Trump. You’ve got someone that’s literally on the Brady list because they have a well-documented history of lying... This is one of the guys that they bring in and say, ‘That’s who we need looking at these ballots and determining whether or not these are quality votes’?”

    But Kern is far from the only controversial figure involved in the audit. The recount is being led by a business called Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity company led by Doug Logan.

    Following Trump’s defeat in November, Logan became a prominent Twitter voice casting doubt on the election results via multiple debunked conspiracy theories. An Arizona Republic report found that Logan frequently retweeted Sidney Powell, the former Trump campaign lawyer whose theories about election fraud were so outlandish that, when Powell was sued for defamation, she argued in court that no reasonable person could have taken her seriously.

    Logan’s Twitter involvement with pro-Trump fringes went even further. Archived tweets from Logan’s now-deleted account reveal that he frequently tweeted at Ron Watkins, the former administrator of the site 8kun. Watkins is a vocal proponent of election fraud claims and in a recent documentary appeared to accidentally admit that he was “Q,” the author of the lurid QAnon conspiracy theory. (Watkins now denies that he is Q.)

    “I’d love to chat if you have a chance,” Logan tweeted at Watkins on Nov. 12. The following day, he tweeted at Watkins after tweeting about hacking voting machines. “If you have any ‘original source’ documents you're basing your info off of, I'd love it if you shared the links ;-),” Logan tweeted. Later that day, he tweeted at Watkins with “source material” on voting machines.

    In December, in a reply to a now-deleted thread from Powell and her colleague Lin Wood, Logan tagged Watkins again. “Haven’t you been working on this?” Logan asked him.

    Elsewhere, Logan quote-tweeted Wood to promote a hoax about voting machines supposedly being seized in Germany, which would somehow prove Trump to have won the election.

    Via a spokesperson, Logan declined to comment for this story. “We are not commenting on the politics swirling outside of the audit,” the spokesperson said. “The transparent and accountable audit process will speak for itself.”

    But Wood previously told Talking Points Memo that he knew Logan personally, claiming that Logan had come to his house late last year to join a group of people investigating voter fraud.

    “He was there working on the investigation into election fraud,” Wood told TPM, claiming that Logan had joined a coalition of people in the house. “I opened up my home to allow people to work on the election fraud investigation.”

    Of course, the audit’s very existence is a victory for Arizona Senate Republicans, who spent months embroiled in court cases and logistical battles over how such a recount would take place.

    Although the Republican-led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors did turn over voting data that upheld Biden’s victory in a previous review, the group argued against turning over the county’s 2.1 million physical ballots, citing rules on voter privacy. Then, in February, the Arizona Senate won a court ruling enabling them to examine the ballots by hand.

    Their next challenge was figuring out how to conduct the audit. Initially, Senate President Karen Fann tapped the “Allied Security Operations Group” to head up the recount, but backtracked after critics noted that that group was pro-Trump and had made false claims about voter fraud in Michigan. After the partnership crumbled, a colorful assortment of Trump supporters, including MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and supposed Satanism expert Lyle Rapacki, stepped in to promote the audit, The Daily Beast previously reported.

    Soon thereafter, a group called “Voices and Votes” took up the cause of fundraising for the audit. That group was led by One America News host Christina Bobb, who had promoted voter fraud conspiracy theories, TPM reported. Wood told the outlet that his foundation had chipped in $50,000 to the cause.

    Ultimately the audit’s outcome is irrelevant. Multiple bipartisan reviews have upheld the state’s election results and Biden’s Arizona victory has already been certified in the state, in a process that involved the state’s governor, secretary of state, and state Supreme Court chief justice—all of them Republicans. Also: Biden is president and not going anywhere.

    But what remains is a worrying precedent, Salman said.

    “They can’t de-certify the election results for 2020,” she said. “I wholeheartedly believe that they're testing the boundaries to see whatever they can get away with, so that they can do this whole performance again, and manufacture the results that they want coming into the 2022 election cycle.”
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