Journalists Roundtable

Good evening and welcome to Arizona Horizon. I’m Ted Simons. It’s Friday and that means it’s time for another edition of The Journalists’ Roundtable. Joining us tonight to discuss the week’s top stories are: Mary Jo Pitzl of The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, Laurie Roberts also of the Arizona Republic, and Camryn Sanchez of the Arizona Capitol Times.

• Hobbs Flip-flops on Title 42
• Gaynor Exits Governor’s Race
• AG Suit over Elections Manual
• Lake/Finchem Sue to Ban Voting Machines
• Fann Stokes Election Audit
• CyberNinjas Told to Hand over Records
• GOP Education Chief & CD2 Primary Debates

Gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State, flip flopping on Title 42. What is going on here?

Pitzl: “This is an apparent change in position from the leading candidate for governor. This regards President Biden decision to lift Title 42, which would allow immigrants to come into this country instead of being held in Mexico until they can be approved to come in to the U.S., That move has had a lot of pushback from people who feel that this will bring on more or a border invasion and Hobbs now has, apparently, seen the light of that argument.”

Roberts: “Her campaign people insist that she is not flipping, that she is just elaborating on her earlier point, but that makes no sense. That would mean that you are saying Title 42 does not work, but that it would be rash to get rid of it. So, it would be rash to get rid of something that is not working? I mean, it is very clear that she has flipped on this thing. It is not the first time that she has flipped on an issue. We saw the same thing last summer on the issue of the filibuster, she was asked several times by one of the political TV people, ‘Will you ask our two democratic senators to end the filibuster?’ when that was going on, and she said, ‘No, that is not my job.'”