Steve Bannon Falsely Claims Trump’s Arizona Rally is Start of 2020 Election “Decertification Process”

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon claimed on Saturday that former President Donald Trump’s Arizona rally was the start of a process to “decertify” the 2020 election even though no such mechanism exists, Insider reports.

Bannon on his “War Room” podcast said during a segment with former Trump advisor Peter Navarro that Trump’s rally in Florence, Arizona was the “kickoff of 2022.”

“A huge speech in front of a massive crowd by Donald J. Trump and, of course, they're all melting down about who's on stage with him. They're all people that are going to get to the decertification of the 2020 Biden electors," Bannon said.

"I want to make sure Jamie Raskin, Bennie Thompson, all you guys write this down. Take your No. 2 pencils out. We're going to decertify, I didn't say we were going to certify Trump electors, but we're going to decertify Biden electors in Arizona, in Wisconsin, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in the great state of Georgia," he said.

No such thing as decertification:

Biden’s victory was certified by Democratic and Republican secretaries of state and then again by Congress. He was sworn in last January and there is no process to “decertify” the election.

Law professors told Poynter that “there is no constitutional mechanism to undo the popular vote that led to the appointment of the electors.”

“Federal law clearly does not give states a right to withdraw or change a certification once a president has been sworn into office,” Paul Bender, Arizona State University law professor, told the outlet.

Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey echoed that sentiment.

“There will be no decertification of the 2020 election —  the audit does not call for one, and even if it had, there is no lawful way to decertify. As we have every step of the way, Arizona will follow the law,” Ducey tweeted.

“Declaration of war”:

Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell called out Bannon’s comments on Twitter.

“You cannot interpret this as anything but a declaration of war on democracy,” he wrote. “We are in the endgame. We can resurrect democracy or lose it forever.”

But skeptics pointed out the flaw in Bannon’s argument.

“Bannon knows there’s zero chance that this will happen but somehow he’s made the calculus that his listeners won’t care when it doesn’t,” wrote columnist Molly Jong-Fast.

 

Related News
Comments