ARIZONA, USA — Editor's note: The above video aired during a previous broadcast.
The debate about Arizona's 2020 Presidential election results continued for months after Election Day. It even continues today. Debunked claims of special ballots, planeloads of ballots flown in from South Korea and ballot harvesting helped cement Arizona as the birthplace of 2020 election conspiracy theories.
This culminated in an "audit," sponsored by the state Senate's Republicans. The "audit" became a key talking point among those who denied the election results.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich played a role. He previously announced his office was launching an investigation into the "serious vulnerabilities" that the audit said it found in the election, despite the audit not finding any such vulnerabilities. His office has since also not found significant problems.
But Brnovich, particularly in the last month, has progressively distanced himself from those claims, culminating in a recent 60 Minutes interview.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Brnovich: 'Serious vulnerabilities' occurred during 2020 election
'Most of it's horse****'
Brnovich sat down with Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes to talk about his experience as attorney general during the height of the audit. In the interview, Brnovich called the claims of Arizona election fraud the equivalent of horse fecal matter.
"Most of it's horse****," Brnovich said in the interview. "And I've been trying to scrape-- scrape it off my shoes for the last year."
See the entire 60 Minutes video here:
'There are a lot of clowns out there'
Brnovich said he was hungry for any evidence of election fraud he could find, but in the end, his office ended the investigation into the election without any facts to back up the claims.
"There are a lot of clowns out there that saw what they wanted to see," Brnovich said.
Despite saying this, history shows Brnovich attempted to start numerous legal battles relating to the election and the baseless conspiracy theories, including:
The 'giant grift' continues
"It's like a giant grift in some ways," Brnovich said.
As the interview was recorded, numerous candidates vying for Arizona political positions continue to echo the debunked claims of fraud that Brnovich originally helped legitimize.
Candidate for governor, Kari Lake, has made a close partnership with Abe Hamadeh, who has thrown his hat into the ring to take Brnovich's position when he reaches his term limit. Both have repeated false conspiracy theories on the election.
The most notable conspiracy-theory candidate is Mark Finchem, who is running for Secretary of State, a position that would give him full control of Arizona's election.
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