Bogus Arizona election audit backfires on Trump

Donald Trump's effort to destroy confidence in America's elections suffered a serious setback late Thursday after a draft of the sham review ordered by Arizona Republicans confirmed that he had lost to President Joe Biden in the state's critical Maricopa County. But the ex-President's relentless campaign of lies took on new life as he prompted Texas to review its own vote counts -- even though he easily won the state.

The end result of the partisan probe in Arizona may disappoint Trump, though local officials said it also contained many faulty conclusions that could fulfill its ultimate aim -- sowing distrust in the US election system and giving the ex-President material to cherry pick to raise new doubts among his supporters about the result.

Arizona's example has inspired Republicans in a list of other battleground states to try to hold their own sham "audits" -- all targeting elections that were free and fair and which courts ruled were not tainted by fraud. The push, in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that were crucial to Biden's win, will not only deepen the pool of mistrust among Trump supporters who want to believe his lie that he actually won. It could offer further impetus to the rewriting of state voting laws by Republicans that suppress Democratic and minority votes and make it easier for partisan officials to interfere in the certification of elections in future. And it will fuel the false narrative that Trump was unfairly forced out of the Oval Office on which he is building a possible 2024 campaign and is using to continue to exert control over the GOP even when out of power.

The former President's ability to force elements of his Republican Party to reject democratic values was earlier in evidence yet again.

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