The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: mark brnovich
Now Arizona GOP Attorney General Calls Election Fraud Claims 'Horseshit'

Now Arizona GOP Attorney General Calls Election Fraud Claims 'Horseshit'

In a pathetic attempt to salvage his reputation, Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich called 2020 election deniers "clowns that throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks" in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday. In Arizona, both the Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake, and the nominee for secretary of state, Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem, are election deniers, despite no credible evidence supporting the claim that Arizona has experienced voter fraud.

During his interview with CBS News, Brnovich called out 2020 election deniers including Lake, noting that election denying is "like a giant grift in some ways." Despite allowing the conspiracy theories of a ‘stolen election’ to grow while he was in office, Brnovich argued that election officials "deal in facts and evidence" and claims of fraud are "horses**t."

The lifelong Republican (who voted for Donald Trump in 2020) noted that since he was responsible for investigating election fraud, he thoroughly investigated any leads that were sent to his office.

"There was no one in this country who wanted to find evidence of fraud more than I did," Brnovich told CBS News. "But I thought it was important to systematically go through and say 'no' this is the facts, this is the evidence, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but when you're an actual prosecutor, when you're the actual government, there's a higher obligation—you can't afford to be sloppy."

He also claimed that Trump called him after the presidential election and said, "All you gotta do is say the election's fraudulent, and you will be a superstar, you'll be the most popular guy in America.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Arizona's GOP Attorney General Urges Federal Probe Of 'True the Vote'

Arizona's GOP Attorney General Urges Federal Probe Of 'True the Vote'

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, an election-denying Republican, has asked the IRS and FBI to look into the finances of the Texas-based non-profit behind election conspiracy movie 2000 Mules, True the Vote, for allegedly raising money off baseless allegations and outright lies about voter fraud in the 2020 elections.

Brnovich’s office had asked True the Vote, led by Catherine Engelbrecht, a longtime election fraud conspiracy theorist, for data about some of its claims in convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza’s election-denying film — particularly its unfounded allegations of fraudulent ballots and “stash houses” in Maricopa and Yuma counties — but never heard back from the group, according to the New York Times.

In the right-wing documentary, which multiple experts have thoroughly debunked, True the Vote touted geolocation data that showed hundreds of people around the country, called “mules,” coordinating in illegal ballot stuffing for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden in 2020.

In a letter, dated Friday and reported on byPolitico and even Fox News, a staffer with the Special Investigations Section of Brnovich’s office, Reginald Grigsby, assailed True the Vote for failing to report back to the attorney general’s office with information to back its allegations of rampant voter fraud while falsely suggesting it had — saying it had given the state a hard drive — in fundraising communications.

"They indicate they have provided the information to law enforcement agencies; in our case they have not after promising to do so. Another law enforcement agency has also stated they have not provided them the information, informing them they had given the information to us," Grigsby wrote in the letter.

Grigsby urged the federal agencies to look into multiple questionable interactions with the group’s leaders, Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips, a former Texas official and 2000 Mules star, and suggested that an investigation might turn up evidence of financial wrongdoing, Politico noted in its report Friday.

"TTV has raised considerable sums of money alleging they had evidence of widespread voter fraud and their efforts would train the public to protect election integrity at the polls and to help protect all voters' rights," the letter said. “Given TTV’s status as a nonprofit organization, it would appear that further review of its financials may be warranted,” it added.

Engelbrecht and Phillips had three meetings with representatives of the attorney general’s Special Investigations Section — on June 23, 2021, April 5, 2022, and June 1, 2022 — Grigsby noted, during which “Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips stated they would provide us with the information to support their allegations."

“Not only is this patently false, TTV acknowledged via correspondence and during a meeting with them that they had not given us the information but that they would,” Grigsby wrote.

Top Republicans, including former President Trump, have presented the movie as hard evidence that an overarching Democrat-orchestrated effort to rig the elections in multiple battleground states had cost Trump the victory in 2020.

The former president hosted a screening of 2000 Mules at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and in attendance were a number of big names in the Republican sphere, including Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and disgraced conservative provocateur Michael Flynn.

"There's no way they can discount what is in this movie," Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake told Newsmax in May. "It is in black and white."

True the Vote raised $7 million after Trump’s defeat, promising to investigate and provide evidence of fraud in Counties in Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, but never did, incurring lawsuits and accusations of deceit from Republican-leaning donors.

Despite not turning up any evidence of fraud in the 2020 elections, Engelbrecht has moved on to propagating the possibility of electoral wrongdoing in the upcoming midterm elections.

Running For Senate, Brnovich Embraces Trump Lies He Had Rejected

Running For Senate, Brnovich Embraces Trump Lies He Had Rejected

A Republican attorney general who in November 2020 publicly pushed back at former President Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud changed his tune after announcing his run for Senate -- an about-face that has won him high-profile GOP support.

Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s Attorney General, told Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor indicted for contempt of Congress, that he had “serious concerns” about the findings his investigation into the state’s vote was turning up.

“It’s frustrating for all of us, because I think we all know what happened in 2020,” Brnovich said on Bannon’s podcast in a segment the conspiracy-pushing host titled “AZ AG On Interim Report On Stealing The 2020 Election.”

A GOP-led partisan “audit” of Arizona’s 2020 ballots turned up more votes for Joe Biden than previously reported. The sham review, orchestrated by the Republican state Senate to legitimize Trump’s claims of “massive fraud,” was shamed even by right-leaning publications.

In November 2020, Brnovich himself rejected claims of widespread voter fraud in Arizona, saying, “There is no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.”

“It does appear that Joe Biden will win Arizona,” Brnovich told Fox Business host Neil Cavuto after the AP, Decision Desk HQ, and even Fox News called Arizona for Biden.

However, times have changed for Brnovich, who in January sent out a fundraising letter that contained a photo of himself and Trump and a cringey message: “DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO BE ON TRUMP’S TEAM!”

According to the Washington Post, Brnovich, in a campaign email this week, said his office had learned that almost a fifth of Maricopa County’s early ballots were “transported outside the chain of custody,” a claim he offered no evidence to support.

Brnovich also claimed — without evidence, of course — paperwork was “missing” information and that Maricopa County verified its ballot signatures with artificial intelligence. However, every signature was verified by election staff, according to the Post.

Arizona’s attorney general is not the only GOP candidate embracing Trump’s false fraud claims in the hopes of winning the former president’s endorsement.

For his charade, Brnovich did earn himself an endorsement from a staunch Trump ally: Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO).

But critics have slammed Brnovich for caving to “promoters of disinformation for political gain in the Republican primary,” according to the Post.

“If no one is held responsible for lying … or undermining confidence based on their own greed and, you know, desire for power to either be elected or be reelected — if no one is held accountable for those actions, then we are in real trouble right now,” said Tammy Patrick, an ex-elections officer in Maricopa County, per the Post.

Another critic has recently ripped into Brnovich for his bogus elections investigation — former President Trump.

The former president assailed Brnovich in a Monday statement for doing nothing about the 2020 election in his state. "Rather than go after the people that committed these election crimes, it looks like he is just going to 'kick the can down the road' and stay in that middle path of non-controversy," Trump said.

The former president also said he will be making his endorsement in the Arizona Senate race in the “not so distant future.” The announcement will be a significant blow to Brnovich’s chances, as he’s one of several Republican candidates in the race.

Former President Trump, left, watches Sen. Mitch McConnell speak in 2019.

How Trump Is Ruining McConnell's Plan To Regain Senate Majority

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu dealt a serious blow to Senate Republicans Tuesday when he took a pass on running for Senate against one of the GOP's top targets—Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

But Sununu is no exception to the rule, and he could very well be the canary in the coal mine for Senate Republicans. While Republicans had been eyeing New Hampshire as a serious pick-up opportunity, they had also dabbled with the idea of making Democrats at least squander some resources on playing defense in blue states like Vermont and Maryland. But as NBC News points out, that GOP aspiration is contingent on one of those state's popular Republican governors showing any interest at all in signing on to be part of the Senate GOP caucus.

"Vermont Gov. Phil Scott won re-election by 15 percentage points in 2018, the same year his famously progressive state overwhelmingly handed independent Sen. Bernie Sanders a third term," writes NBC. But Scott—really the only Vermont Republican who could pull off an upset against incumbent Sen. Patrick Leahy—didn't even vote for Trump and has no interest in running for Senate.

Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is in the same boat—popular but uninterested in running.

In short, it appears no moderate, sane-ish Republicans are jumping at the chance to join Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's caucus, particularly because Trump is so clearly calling the shots. Sununu's very public rejection of the Senate GOP also isn't going to make joining the caucus seem any more appealing to the kinds of candidates who would likely fare better in a general election.

So as moderate Republicans decline to run while fringe GOP candidates dominate the field, the entire Republican line up is getting more extreme.

That has Brian Walsh, a former Senate GOP campaign operative, hearing "echoes of 2010," when Senate Republicans failed to seize a majority despite the pro-Republican political environment.

"Arguably, Republicans lost five seats between 2010 and 2012 because of bad general election candidates," Walsh told NBC. "I'm not saying that's necessarily going to happen here. We don't know that yet. But broadly, candidates matter."

Here's the GOP scorecard so far:

In New Hampshire, which Republicans had slated as a top target for a pick up, they're now scrambling for a candidate.

In Georgia, another GOP pick-up opportunity, Republicans will likely be saddled with Trump pick Herschel Walker, who has a violent and allegedly abusive history.

In Nevada, which Republicans also hope to flip, the state party is in the midst of an epic meltdown. At the same time, they appear to be rallying around former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who made stoking Trump's Big Lie his life's mission.

Laxalt sued to stop the ballot counting in the state's largest county (which Trump lost), sued to overturn Biden's victory, baselessly claimed votes of dead people had been counted, baselessly claimed votes from undocumented immigrants had tipped the state to Biden, and again filed a post-certification lawsuit alleging the GOP secretary of state had allowed non-citizens to vote.

In Arizona, another GOP flip opportunity, the four-person primary is headed hard right and nasty negative as state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, energy executive Jim Lamon, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Mick McGuire and Blake Masters duke it out. Brnovich (aka nunchuck guy) likely has the highest statewide name recognition outside of GOP Gov. Doug Ducey (who Trump hates and has declined to run). But Masters runs billionaire Peter Thiel's investment firm and just this week Trump announced a fundraiser for him (because Trump also faults Brnovich for failing to overturn the state's 2020 results).

In Pennsylvania, one of Democrats' best pick-up opportunities, the GOP primary for the open seat has turned downright embarrassing. Trump endorsed Army vet Sean Parnell, who is embroiled in an ugly custody battle in which his estranged wife testified that Parnell abused her and one of their children. Senate Republicans are dodging questions about the race as Parnell's candidacy spirals.

In North Carolina, which also has an open Senate seat, Trump complicated the race with an early endorsement of a lesser-known GOP congressman, Rep. Ted Budd, while former Gov. Pat McCrory has a higher profile and a likely edge among Republican voters. If McCrory triumphs, it remains to be seen whether he can win over Trump voters in the general election.

Other potential Democratic pick ups include Florida and Wisconsin, with incumbent Sens. Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson, and on the outside edge, open seats in Ohio and Missouri, where Republicans just might manage to put the seats in play despite their considerable advantages in each state.

Notably, Trump is playing the key role in nearly every one of those Senate contests. In almost every state, Trump has done at least one of several things: repelled a top-tier candidate, made an endorsement, radicalized the GOP field, or become a complicating factor by incessantly pushing his election fraud lies and demanding absolute fealty.