As Democrats continue their relentless push to put former President Donald Trump behind bars, Republicans are learning that their integrity will never be enough even when they dissent from Trump Orthodoxy.
Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who refused to back Trump’s election security campaign in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, was the focus of an MSNBC opinion piece last week, in which the author slammed Ducey for holding back information about a private call with the former president after the vote.
Ducey, a Republican, opposed the former president’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was swayed by massive voter fraud and widespread irregularities. The then-governor lost Republican support in rejecting Trump’s claims and officially certifying a Biden win for the state – but recent reports about a phone call Trump made to Ducey in the wake of the election have now made him a target for progressives, too.
On July 1, the Washington Post reported how Trump pressured Ducey to overturn the election on the basis of finding sufficient illegal votes to overturn a Biden win.
“In a phone call in late 2020, President Donald Trump tried to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state’s presidential election results, saying that if enough fraudulent votes could be found, it would overcome Trump’s narrow loss in Arizona, according to three people familiar with the call,” the report explained, adding that Trump also asked Vice President Mike Pence to call Ducey and “prof him to find the evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud.”
Ducey accepted the call and told the Associated Press that the former president has an “inquisitive mind.” Few other details about the call, however, were ever released.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
While the former Arizona governor likely wasn’t looking for praise for doing what he thought was right – we know that because he has since said very little about it – the Washington Post’s report seems to have made him a new enemy for progressives – and journalists – who refuse to accept even the possibility that the last U.S. election may not have been entirely fair.
“Ducey should have come forward with what Trump had said to him as soon as that news first broke over two years ago,” Hayes Brown wrote for MSNBC.
“That he didn’t is a shame, especially given how his state became ground zero for many of the most dangerous election truthers,” Brown continued.
To some, Ducey’s decision not to reveal every detail of a private phone call could be evidence of some kind of misconduct. But, if the truth is that the former president asked the governor to look for illegal votes – meaning votes that cannot be counted in a fair election – then did Ducey, or Trump for that matter, do anything wrong?
Trump’s claims of election fraud are widely disputed; especially those pushed by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who was recently ordered to pay $5 million after he lost his own election fraud challenge. And, if facts relating to election integrity matter, then so must the facts relating to the nature of a phone call between the president and the governor of Arizona.
If Trump had asked Ducey to break the law, then the outrage might be justified. That just doesn’t appear to be the case.
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
From 19FortyFive
Donald Trump Just Proved How Stupid He Is
