Donald Trump’s ambition appears to be to have every state recount its election results and show him winning the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden. But, if the results of the odd Arizona recount are any indicator, he should be careful what he asks for.
Trump actually claimed this week that states like Texas should have their ballots recounted, despite the fact that he won the state’s electoral college votes. However, despite the business conducting the recount having a substantial incentive in identifying ways that Trump says he was cheated, the much-discussed recount of Maricopa County’s votes by Cyber Ninjas officially showed that he lost the state in 2020.
The New York Times claimed early Friday that Trump actually lost votes in the process, while Biden received about 100 more.
In reality, a draft study from the firm Cyber Ninjas indicated the opposite: in Maricopa County, the fast-growing region that encompasses Phoenix, President Biden received 99 more votes and Mr. Trump received 261 less votes.
The results are a major setback for MAGA supporters who have been searching for proof of the electoral fraud that Trump predicted before the election and campaigned on for months thereafter. For months, some of Trump’s most ardent followers predicted a domino effect once huge fraud was exposed in Arizona, leading to similar problems in other states. Despite the nefarious nature of Cyber Ninjas’ months-long, delay-plagued investigation, nothing of interest was discovered.
For many supporters, the investigation is seen as the first in a series of state investigations that will, like a domino effect, disprove Mr. Biden’s legitimacy in the White House.
State Senator Wendy Rogers, a Republican who is among Arizona’s most ardent advocates of the stolen-election canard, underscored that faith in a single sentence posted Thursday on Twitter: “Tomorrow we make history.”
Instead, election experts argued, a Trump-backed investigation that had free access to 2.1 million ballots and electoral equipment failed to demonstrate even the most basic argument that the November election was skewed, let alone manipulated.
The complete report is still pending, and those concerned about the security of the Cyber Ninjas recall will undoubtedly analyze it. But, as in November, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Trump didn’t achieve what he wanted in Arizona.
