Why can’t Olson answer who won the election?
Yet another Republican has entered the crowded race for the U.S. Senate, armed with the essential qualification for any GOP candidate in 2022. Twinkle toes.
Corporation Commissioner Justin Olson is the fifth Republican vying for the chance to retake the Senate seat held by Republicans for more than 50 years until Democrat Mark Kelly came along.
During an appearance on Politics Unplugged on Sunday, Olson outlined why he thinks he’s the man for the job.
“Arizona needs a senator that represents Arizona values,” he said.
“We need a senator who is going to be an unwavering voice for fiscal responsibility, for lower taxes, for economic growth,” he said.
What we apparently don’t need is a senator who can answer a simple yes or no question. Specifically: Did Joe Biden win the 2020 presidential election?
Cue Dennis Welch, host of 3TV/ CBS5’s Politics Unplugged: “I want to know know where are you on this, as far as looking back. We’ve got a big audit here. Do you think that President Donald Trump was defeated by President Biden and President Biden is the legitimate president of the country?”
“That’s a great question that you’ve asked and it includes several components,” Olson replied. “It mentions the audit, it mentions the outcome of the election. I think the key takeaways from this previous election is that when we have these very, very close elections that it highlights the need for the utmost highest levels of election integrity so that everyone can be confident in the outcome of the election. Now, as Biden is in the White House by now there’s no denying that and so what we’ve got to do now as conservatives or Republicans is do everything that we can moving forward to ensure that the next election is very secured.
“There are common sense reforms that need to be enacted so that we know that every ballot that’s cast is cast is by a legitimate voter. Every ballot that’s cast should have with it the voter ID requirement. This is a reform that is very popular among the American people. This is overwhelmingly accepted by American voters. Folks want to know that their elections are secure. These are simple reforms that we can enact and make it easy to vote and hard to cheat so that everybody can be confident in the outcome of the election.”
For those keeping count, that’s 208 words, none of which were “Yes” or “No.”
So Welch tried again.
“As of right now, there’s been no credible evidence at least here here in Maricopa County, Arizona, of any type of widespread election fraud. Simply put, Yes or no. Did Joe Biden win the election legitimately.”
“When these elections come down to razor-thin margins, and there are many ballots that are cast that require some judgment calls on whether they are going to be included or not included, and that’s what causes folks to have a lack of confidence in the election. So that’s why we’ve got to improve the election integrity measures that we have in place so that all voters can be confident that every vote that was counted was a legitimate ballot. And this isn’t the first time that we’ve had a very close election and it caused folks to have a lack of confidence in the outcome. I was an early voter, meaning a young voter, in the year 2000 when we had a race that came down to just a very small number of votes that were cast in Florida and that led many folks to have a lack of confidence in the election. And so going forward, what we need to do is we need to put in place these reforms. When I was in the state Legislature, I voted for election integrity. I voted to ban ballot harvesting. We’ve got to put in place some enforcement mechanisms to stop that from happening because we did see significant anomalies occur both in the 2018 and the 2020 elections and we’ve got to investigate all of those anomalies so that we can be confident that every vote that was cast was cast by a legitimate voter. Moving forward we’ve got to put in place these reforms.”
For those keeping count, that’s another 292 words, plus a few more that were difficult to hear because Welch finally broke in to try once again
to get an answer.
“Simply, you don’t want to say who won the election,” Welch said. “I want to know how come you’re uncomfortable saying yes or no, whether Biden was the legitimate winner of that election?”
“I think that’s a great question,” Olson replied, before proceeding to not answer it.
“I think I answered the question. Certainly, it’s clear that that Biden is in the White House right now. But when we have these razor-thin margins and there are votes that are determined on a judgment call whether to be included in the count or not, that’s what causes folks to not have confidence in the outcome. So we can put in place reforms that make it easy for folks to vote and hard for folks to cheat so that all voters can be confident in the election.”
Credit for getting the signature “easy to vote, hard to cheat” line in there twice.
But what Olson didn’t say was simply this: Who. Won. The Election.
I get it. He’s the likely frontrunner for Trump’s endorsement, having until recently served as chief financial officer of Turning Point USA, the Phoenix-based conservative student group that hosts Trump rallies across the country.
Yet last week, when Olson announced his
candidacy, he appeared to grudgingly acknowledge Biden’s win in Arizona, when pressed by several reporters including The Arizona Republic’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez.
“Election in Arizona? Yeah, that’s been the outcome,” he said. “But we absolutely should look into everything that happens in the election to ensure that we have secure elections so that everybody can be confident because these elections that are decided on very razorthin margins highlight the need to ensure that every ballot that was cast was a legitimate ballot.”
Olson’s not the only guy in the race wearing tap shoes.
By my count, of the five Republican candidates in the race, only Mick McGuire, the retired adjutant general of the Arizona National Guard, has actually acknowledged that Biden was the “duly elected” president.
That likely puts him out of the running for that all-important Trump endorsement and thus out of the running, period.
Attorney General Mark Brnovich in November acknowledged Biden’s Arizona win, which could cause him problems as well.
Solar executive Jim Lamon and Blake Masters, both outspoken Trump supporters, have dodged the question.
“He (Biden) was certainly sworn in, so in that sense he’s the president,” Masters said. “I don’t know what happened in the 2020 election. I don’t know what happened with all the ballots and all the certification process in the four or five key states with very tight margins. I think anyone who says they know for sure has an agenda.”
And anyone who says they don’t know for sure? After 11 months of conspiracy theories and not so much as a shred of evidence that the election was stolen? After a fivemonth audit that turned up no proof of fraud?
Such complete and utter disregard for truth, apparently, makes one a contender.
Well, in a Republican primary, anyway.