"Some Republicans approach this by saying, 'Okay, we'll continue looking into it for the 15th time. I would encourage them to say, 'No, that's wrong. That's a lie. I'm sorry you have been lied to, but it's a lie,' " the Maricopa County official said.
May 18, 2021

Imagine: Even some Republicans have had enough of the Big Lie.

"The Republican-led board of supervisors in Arizona's Maricopa County is now demanding an end to the election audit pushed by the state and fueled by former President Trump's big lie that the election was stolen. They call it a grift disguised as an audit," CNN's Brianna Keilar said.

This board is done explaining anything to these people who are playing investigator with our constituents' ballots and equipment paid for with real people's tax dollars.

"Again, that man, a Republican. This comes after President Trump poured fuel on the fire with this demonstrably false statement that, quote, 'the entire database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been deleted. One Arizona Republican responded saying, quote, 'Wow. This is unhinged. I'm literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen right now. We can't indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party, as a state, as a country,' " Berman said.

"That Arizona official joins me now. Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer. He runs Maricopa County's election department and is a longtime Republican. Thanks so much for being with us. You weren't speaking out. You weren't really going public with this but you are now because you say you were exasperated. Exasperated at what?"

Richer said it was "one thing" with the audit when they were looking at UV lights and looking for bamboo fibers in the paper and using the wrong color pens.

"But when they just accused us too many times of breaking the law, they defamed our good employees too many times, they've defamed the hard-working people here and we're humans. We're all humans, and we have our limits. The board of supervisors and I, almost all of whom are Republican, said enough is enough. You heard that from Chairman Sellers."

"You say enough is enough. You listed some of the things, whether checking for bamboo, using the ultraviolet light. But there's other things on this list. Accusations of ballots flown in from South Korea. Allegations, literally, that chickens ate some of the ballots and the chickens were incinerated. What are some of the other crazy things being thrown out?" Berman asked.

"I mean, that chickens one is probably pretty top of the charts but we still hear about Hugo Chavez. The damage done against Dominion is irrevocable and will never be unrung. And I just hear these things time after time, and some Republicans approach this by saying, 'Okay, we'll continue looking into it for the 15th time. I would encourage them to say, 'No, that's wrong. That's a lie. I'm sorry you have been lied to, but it's a lie.' "

Berman asked who lied to them.

"By anyone who is perpetuating this -- the big lie. Which, you know, certainly, you know, Sydney Powell was the progenitor of the Dominion claims."

"Who else? You called one of them unhinged. "

"What the president said in his latest news release was, it was just dumbfounding because I was sitting there and I said it was pretty much tantamount to saying that the pencil that was sitting in front of my desk, right in front of me, does not exist.

"And I got that letter from him from a supporter who said, 'Stephen, what gives, why are you deleting files?' And this person's good judgment means a lot to me. I was just tired because, how do you respond to that? Well, the former president of the United States just said that. Well, I'm sorry, but that's just not true and I'm looking at it right now."

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