Journalists’ Roundtable: 12-4-20: Arizona election results certified, GOP responses

Arizona’s election results have been certified, but responses have still been critical. State Republicans, along with President Trump, are still challenging the results and even attacking Gov. Ducey. Discussing the aftermath of the certification in this week’s Journalists’ Roundtable: Laurie Roberts of The Arizona Republic and Jeremy Duda from Arizona Mirror.

This week’s Journalists’ Roundtable covered:

• AZ Certifies Election
• Trump and GOP attack Ducey
• GOP Challenges Vote
• Governor: No State Shutdown

AZ Certifies Election

Roberts: “On Monday, four of our state leaders, the attorney general, the governor, the secretary of state, and the supreme court justice got together, certified the results, the election is now done and in the books in Arizona… mostly.”

Trump and GOP attack Ducey

Duda: “President Trump tweeted that Gov. Ducey had betrayed the people of Arizona and wonders why he was in such a rush to sign it, considering that leads to Mark Kelly getting sworn in almost immediately. He didn’t’ seem to know or care that this is just a perfunctory thing that is required by law.”

Roberts mentioned just a couple of weeks ago President Trump was praising Ducey, who has been “loyal to a fault”, as someone who was doing a “fantastic job.”

Roberts: “Ducey did his job, Ducey did what he was required by state law. To do anything other than what he did would have been against the law. If Republicans want to [believe] that he’s some sort of betrayer… I mean, who has he betrayed? He followed the law as is required. It seems to me what President Trump is really saying is that ‘He betrayed me, the president.’”

GOP Challenges Vote

Duda: “In terms of evidence or proof of election fraud, we have seen nothing, absolutely nothing. This is I think this is the fifth lawsuit, I think there is a sixth filed this week. This is Kelly Ward’s second lawsuit on behalf of the Arizona Republican party that was dismissed and the judge found it to be so legally defective, he invited the Secretary of State to the office to demand legal fees under a statue based on frivolous or bad faith lawsuit.”

Going into the holiday season, Ducey announced there would no shutdown or mask mandate.

Duda: “We did not see any real, concrete measures to kind of help slow the spread of COVID as we head into a second wave that is looking to be substantially worse than the first wave in the summer when we were among the worst states in the country.”