President Donald Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, alongside witnesses, appeared in front of members of the Arizona Legislature on Monday alleging that considerable voter fraud occurred in the state while also pushing for the GOP-majority state House and Senate to hold a vote on the certification of the election.
“Your political career is worth losing to save the right to vote in America,” Giuliani told the GOP senators. “At times in our history, men and women stepped forward” to defend Americans’ rights and liberties, he added.
The U.S. Constitution, Giuliani said, stipulates that state legislatures have the authority to certify a state’s electors. “You, the legislature of Arizona, have the plenary power to regulate the selection of electors in a presidential election,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court has ruled that state Houses and Senates can reclaim the power to name electors.
“I don’t see how a decent, honest person could let this happen,” he said.
Jenna Ellis, another one of Trump’s lawyers, said the team isn’t asking the legislature to overturn the results of the election, but to rather, not certify allegedly fraudulent results.
Arizona Secretary of State’s office has not responded to a request for comment. Previously, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said she has seen no evidence of irregularities or fraud in the election that would overturn the results of the election.
Current data shows Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden leading Trump by about 11,000 votes in the state.
Earlier, Giuliani opened by saying that socialist-leaning politicians and officials have gradually eroded the personal liberties of Americans, noting that the allegedly fraudulent election process on Nov. 3 is an extension of that.
“We have been warned for 20 years that going to major mail-in ballots ... will be fraught with tremendous fraud,” he said, adding, “We were warned by former President Jimmy Carter,” former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, and prominent Democrats to “never do it.”
“Democrats used to be against mail-in ballots,” he said, adding that the current crop of politicians has reversed that viewpoint to gain more “money and power.”
In Arizona, a lot of the state’s alleged fraud had to do with the mail-in ballot system, Giuliani remarked.
“Once the ballot is separated from the envelope, it’s gone forever,” he said.
In Pima and Maricopa counties, there are hundreds of thousands of votes that should be “declared null and void,” the former mayor alleged. There was “clear fraud” where poll workers were observed changing votes in Arizona, Giuliani said, remarking that ballot box-stuffing also occurred.
“If they certify it, they are certifying a false statement to the United States of America ... in probably the most important matter we have,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani made the remarks before witnesses offered their claims in front of select members of the legislature.
The first witness, retired Col. Phil Waldron, asserted the U.S. is a victim of “information warfare” due to the allegedly lax security around voting machines tabulating votes in the state. The machines “can be hacked to manipulate votes,” Waldron said.
Giuliani and Trump’s team last week went to Pennsylvania, speaking in front of a public meeting with GOP state senators to reclaim their constitutional authority over the election certification process. Several Republican members of the state legislature have suggested the idea is gaining support among their caucus.
The team is aiming to hold hearings in Michigan as well as other battleground states.
