All posts tagged "arizona"

Election-denying MAGA lawmaker coasts to swing state primary victory: reports

A Trump-backed congressman overcame scandals and a McCain snub to coast to victory in a gubernatorial primary, per reports.

According to reporting by CNN and NBC News, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) won the GOP gubernatorial primary on Tuesday night with a huge margin of victory. He's set to face off against Democratic incumbent Katie Hobbs.

Biggs won despite a Washington Post report coming out the day before the primary that dug up his involvement in a decades-old legislative episode involving a polygamist sect accused of child sexual abuse.

Cindy McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain, also came out with an endorsement of Hobbs, which could still loom over him in the upcoming midterms, analysts say.

Biggs led the hard-right House Freedom Caucus as its chairman from 2019 to 2022, and called Congress "irredeemable" as he announced he won't run for re-election in 2026. He's a reported election denier who has disputed President Donald Trump's loss in 2020, according to local reporting.

Trump-endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson suspended her campaign earlier, narrowing the field. Trump had backed her before Biggs.

He coasted to victory against his challengers, Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), Ken Miceli and Scott Neely. He had 71 percent of the vote when it was called in his favor, according to reporting by NBC News. Schweikert came in second with less than 17 percent.

Biggs carried Trump's endorsement plus the backing of the late Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action, per CNN reporting. Arizona is one of five states Trump won in 2024 with a Democratic-controlled governorship on the 2026 ballot, and Trump-aligned Republicans have struggled to break through there.

Trump's AZ endorsement on the line as McCain backs Dem over MAGA: 'Cindy's revenge'

President Donald Trump's influence was expected to be tested on Tuesday night as Arizona voters will decide whether MAGA-backed candidate Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) faces off in the Republican primary against Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) for governor — and an analyst revealed a stunning plot twist tied to late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

CNN anchor Erin Burnett talked to political commentator S. E. Cupp during a panel discussion about why this election primary was so significant.

"And there's a lot on the line for President Trump's endorsement tonight," Burnett said. "Because when it comes to governor's primaries, Trump has suffered two recent high profile losses. Those are in the primaries in Iowa and Georgia. Biggs' primary opponent is Republican Congressman David Schweikert, who has consistently won in one of Arizona's most competitive congressional districts. He argues that the party can't gamble with a MAGA taking on Democratic incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs in the fall."

Biggs has tried to sell voters on his past working with McCain — yet voters might have a different view.

"But John McCain's wife, Cindy, is fundraising, and she's not fundraising for Schweikert," Burnett said. "She's fundraising for the Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs."

Cindy McCain's move could have an impact on Arizona voters, in the state that has traditionally been Republican-led, Cupp explained.

"I don't think she would put it this way. And full disclosure, I'm friends with McCains, but this is sort of Cindy's revenge," Cupp said. "What MAGA tried to do to the McCains in Arizona — these really beloved public figures in the state was appalling. Not only did they try to tarnish his legacy, but they lied about the McCains. They said awful things about the McCains — Kari Lake in particular, just despicable. That turned off a lot of Arizona voters. I think MAGA really wanted to win without John McCain or move past John McCain because of Trump's sort of like hurt feelings with him."

It's likely voters will have something to say about it, Cupp added.

"But Arizona republicans are saying, 'No, if you want to win, you should act more like John McCain and sound more like John McCain. And so I think that's what Andy Biggs is trying to do. I'm not sure Arizona Republicans are going to buy that," Cupp said.

GOP frets as Trump-endorsed candidate faces sexting scandal amid 'messy' primary: NYT

A Trump-backed Republican and former county sheriff has been accused of sexting women outside of his marriage and then threatening his accusers to try and stop them from posting about it online, as questions have been raised over whether the scandal could impact him in the primary election this week, The New York Times reported on Monday.

Mark Lamb, who is vying for Arizona's Fifth Congressional District to replace Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who is running for governor, was expected to be the GOP front-runner in the "messy race" as voters cast their ballots in the primary across the state on Tuesday, according to The Times.

"But the contest between Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, and a lesser-known businessman in a deeply religious part of the state is a test of the power of a Trump endorsement — and the potency of a sex scandal in a Republican primary," The Times reported.

A bombshell report from The Arizona Republic in May detailed allegations that he had sent women intimate images and used a campaign social media account to engage in flirtations, including an accusation that he "facilitated an affair between his wife and a friend who worked on his campaign and for the sheriff’s department." This report also indicated Lamb made racist jokes via text messages and spent time at a Tennessee ranch. Lamb, who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had claims around his behavior investigated by the church.

A spokesperson for Lamb, Ed Morabito, told The Times that the accusations were "lies and slanderous and come from long-discredited individuals."

"Sheriff Mark Lamb is endorsed by President Trump, and every independent poll has him winning easily by double digits,"
Morabito said.

Lamb's opponent, Daniel Keenan, has spent $1.65 million to run an ad that describes Lamb as an unfit candidate.

"The Republican Party can’t afford to have their version of Graham Platner," Keenan, who founded a building company, told The Times. "If he somehow survives the primary," Keenan said, discussing Lamb, "he puts our district at risk of falling to the Democrats because they’re going to pour in millions, exploiting all of his, you know, personal allegations."

Chilling analysis warns 'MAGA has already won its war'

A frightening analysis revealed how "MAGA has already won its war" as the Trump administration hires hardcore election deniers to key roles.

"They need to sow doubt; they need to undermine public trust," Joanna Lydgate, who heads the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, told The Atlantic for a recent report. "Whether it's an executive order or death by 5,000 cuts, it's chipping away at our election system."

The Trump administration is embedded with election deniers like Clay Parikh, The Atlantic reported. Parikh "gained a following by circulating conspiracy theories about President Trump's 2020 defeat, including that poll workers gave Trump supporters — but not other voters — felt-tip markers to fill out their ballots, rendering them invalid."

Parikh, a cybersecurity expert, is now a special government employee in the Trump administration, and an analysis he wrote "allowed the FBI to seize election materials in Georgia in January," The Atlantic reported.

Similarly, Kurt Olsen, an attorney, spent years "pushing debunked or unsubstantiated theories," and after the Trump administration brought him on last year to investigate the 2020 election, his work also "helped lead to the seizure of the Georgia ballots," according to The Atlantic.

"In Arizona, federal probes of the 2020 election by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are underway," The Atlantic noted. "Olsen and other Trump administration officials have participated in extensive meetings about U.S. elections with senior members of the Justice Department in recent months.

Heather Honey was a "Pennsylvania-based election activist" who "sought to reverse Trump's defeat" in 2020. She worked on "numerous efforts to challenge elections in Arizona," and "now holds a key role at the Department of Homeland Security," The Atlantic reported.

"There, she interacts with state election officials, many of whom don't trust her," six of those officials told The Atlantic.

"MAGA has already won its war against American elections," The Atlantic report concluded. "Confidence that a person's state or local government will run a free and fair election is slipping."

This Trump fool is the reason for Savannah Guthrie's continued misery

Until Sunday, it wasn’t clear to me why Savannah Guthrie’s mom was still missing nearly a month after her disappearance. Then came images of the FBI director, Kash Patel, partying with members of the US Olympic hockey team after they won the gold medal.

Then it all started to make sense.

Why wouldn’t Nancy Guthrie’s kidnapping remain unsolved given the country’s leading lawman doesn’t take the law seriously? He thinks the FBI gives him access to things other people can’t, as if law and order were an exclusive membership card to an elite club.

Meanwhile, real people suffer.

For all we know, Nancy Guthrie could be dead.

If you haven’t heard, Patel took a taxpayer-funded jet to Italy to watch the men’s hockey final. His office said he was checking on security. His people accused reporters of lying when they reported the news. Their boss, with images of his partying, exposed their lies.

Sunday’s episode was only one instance of a larger pattern of lawlessness that's getting so big that the Times noted that Patel has “shown little willingness to curb or even conceal his jet-setting." He "has offered comparable explanations" (ie, lies) "to provide SWAT team protection for his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, a country singer and rightwing activist, as well as for his heavy use of federal resources for travel that has at times appeared to blur professional lines.”

The Times said that "over the summer, he flew on a government jet from the Washington area to Inverness, Scotland, for a getaway at the exclusive golf resort, the Carnegie Club, with friends ... He has also taken flights, at taxpayer expense, to a private hunting ranch in Texas and to a wrestling match in State College, Pa., to watch a performance by Ms. Wilkins.

The Times and others say Patel’s bad behavior comes in spite of “multiple, fast-developing crises.” These include Americans in Mexico being told to shelter in place after a drug cartel leader was killed by the military. Closer to home, police killed a Florida man who tried to enter Mar-a-Lago with a shotgun and a gas can. Scott MacFarlane added more context:

The FBI is being pushed by Epstein survivors to do more to investigate some of the people … that have come out in the released batch of Epstein files, which show the circle that surrounded Jeffrey Epstein as he prayed on girls and young women … All these things, not to mention crime nationwide, opioid crisis, gun crimes, child pornography, drug running, gun running, are happening as the FBI director is ... partying with his buddies.

But I think it’s the other way around. It’s not that Patel’s lawlessness is happening in light of these crimes. They are happening in light of his lawlessness. Why care about the law, or criminal consequences, when the country’s leading lawman shows so much contempt for it?

The Times reported that Patel was cheering Team USA when he tweeted that the FBI would dedicate “all necessary resources” to investigating the Mar-a-Lago incident. The implication is that he’s falling down on the job, as “all necessary resources” clearly didn’t include him.

But consider the message he's sending — that law enforcement is just empty talk. That's more consequential than falling down on the job. With his actions, Patel is saying that as long as you’re hooked up to the right people, you can do all the criming you want. Even if you’re not hooked up, just wait. When the cops are away, the criminals can come out to play.

This message was deepened by Patel’s (almost certainly fictional) claim that he was invited by the men’s hockey team to celebrate their victory with them. A different FBI director would have refused such an invitation out of concern that accepting it would not only compromise the bureau’s standing with the American people but also appear to encourage lawlessness. But public trust means little to a man who acts like he will never face public accountability.

Lawlessness isn’t harmless.

An FBI director who properly feared public accountability would never have let an Arizona sheriff investigate Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance without the FBI’s aid. He or she would have given Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos a choice: save yourself the humiliation of failure by accepting that the FBI is “the premier agency to deal with kidnappings,” as one expert described the bureau, or I will open my own investigation and guarantee your humiliation.

Instead, the FBI joined the investigation many days after Guthrie went missing, a debilitating loss of time, critics told the New York Post, that allowed for serious errors — for instance, surrendering the crime scene too soon, “with everyone from reporters to true-crime sleuths able to walk right up to Guthrie’s front door with no security or crime scene tape.”

As things stand, Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance is now approaching a month in duration. Her family seems increasingly desperate. Savannah Guthrie herself is forced to make public pleas to her mom’s kidnappers that yield no results. Nanos and Patel are both humiliated, but only Nanos, who faces future reelection as a sheriff, will be held accountable. Meanwhile, Patel jet-sets on the taxpayer dime, hastening the decline of public faith in law enforcement.

These states avoided ICE as Trump eyes a bigger prize

Last month it was Greenland. This month it’s Nevada’s election. Donald Trump’s always trying to grab something he has no right to grab.

One way Trump could help assure Republicans retain their grasp of both the House and Senate would be to do something about the cost of living.

But affordability obviously bores him.

So instead of focusing on that, Trump has been bloviating about how he wants to “nationalize the voting” and take charge of elections in multiple states.

“We should take over the voting in at least 15 places,” he said.

He hasn’t named all of them. But you know Nevada’s on his list.

It always is.

Trump began trying — by lying — to undermine democracy in Nevada and discredit the state’s election procedures (and workers) during the 2020 campaign, when it dawned on him that Joe Biden would beat him in Nevada, just as Hillary Clinton beat him in Nevada in 2016.

Trump’s been attacking Nevada voters and their elections ever since, most infamously by organizing an attempted smash and grab on Jan. 6, 2021. The criminal assault on the Capitol was an attack on democracy and the rights of voters in the entire nation. But the voters most directly violated by Trump’s insurrection were voters in Nevada and the six other states where Trump ordered fake electors to send fake certificates to Congress. It was the votes from those states that Trump tried to nullify.

Currently Nevada is one of the states Trump’s weaponized and paradoxically named Department of Justice is suing and badgering to obtain confidential data about voters. It’s part of Trump’s effort to intimidate officials into disenfranchising voters who might be deemed not reliably MAGA by Trump minions.

In the hands of the Trump administration, the data of course would also be bitterly twisted through lies and deceit into false allegations built around one of Trump’s favorite fictional characters, the mythical non-citizen voter.

In addition to whipping up fear and loathing among one part of America for the other, DOJ harassment of Nevada also is a malicious effort to throw more shade on an election system Trump has spent years trying — and lying —so hard to destroy.

In his bellowing this week about wanting to “nationalize” the elections, Trump is echoing a performance he gave for a few news cycles in August. Announcing he was going to get rid of mail ballots — a declaration he said was inspired by one of his flirty chats with Vladimir Putin, no less — Trump said on Truth Social:

“…the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”

Trump’s proclamation, rendered in his customary off-with-their-heads Queen-of-Hearts dramatics, prompted state election officials, including Nevada’s, to point out that the Constitution of the United States explicitly empowers states to administer elections.

You might expect a governor to be protective of rights authorized to states in the Constitution — as a former Nevada Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, was this week.

“Nevada has the capability and experience to conduct elections in every county, and I trust our state is best equipped to collect ballots, count votes and certify our elections,” Sandoval said, in his capacity as co-chair of Democracy Defense Project in Nevada.

Current Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, by contrast, said nothing.

To be fair, for Lombardo, when it comes to protecting his state from Trump, saying nothing might be an improvement.

During Trump’s holy war against mail ballots last summer, in which Trump was declaring states “must do” whatever he says, Lombardo gushed “I would — of course — support President Trump’s efforts to end universal mail-in voting.”

“Ooh, but Lombardo must be Trump-whispering and that’s the only reason ICE isn’t going bonkers in Nevada like it has been in Minnesota,” is a thing people seem to think.

Maybe so, maybe no.

It’s worth noting there has also been no Minnesota-style ICE “surge” in Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, or North Carolina. All are battleground states like Nevada, some with substantial immigrant populations, none with a Republican governor.

Also worth noting: though the first year of Trump’s second term seems to have been very, very long, he’s got three more.

And yet another thing worth noting is a statement Tuesday by Steve Bannon, a member of Trump’s shadow cabinet of right-wing media personalities who seem to have as much sway with the president as his official cabinet of, well, right-wing media personalities:

“You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”

Trump’s role models are not just autocratic kleptocrats (or kleptocratic autocrats) but mob bosses, so he threatened to take Greenland “the easy way” or “the hard way.”

Greenland, Denmark, and the other NATO nations stood up to him, and he declared a phony victory and backed off.

Standing up to Trump can work, as Europe, China, Brazil, the Wall Street Journal, Jerome Powell, Harvard, and Minnesota, to name a few, have demonstrated.

Sucking up to Trump is pointless, because he can’t be trusted.

Not only is there no guarantee that sucking up to Trump works. It’s also unforgivable public policy.

Whatever consideration Trump gives to international relations, tariffs, interest rates, snooty universities, or whatever other shiny object momentarily attracts his diminishing faculties, the central issue that has always been dearest in his heart — a priority both overriding and underlying the actions and edicts of His Malevolence — is democracy’s destruction.

If he’s allowed to accomplish that, then destroying other things — Congress, the courts, the Constitution, the press, your freedom, your rights, your savings, your safety — and attaining supreme authority over the U.S. (or what’s left of it) comes easy.

Hugh Jackson is editor of the Nevada Current, part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Blood found in Savannah Guthrie's mom's home as new details in missing case emerge

Investigators in Arizona discovered blood inside the Tucson home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" host Savannah Guthrie, according to reports Tuesday.

The finding suggested that the 84-year-old could be a victim of foul play, The Los Angeles Times reported. Authorities believe she could have been forced out of her home sometime in the middle of the night between Saturday and Sunday.

It's unclear whose blood was inside the house, according to The Times. Officials said there were signs that someone had forced entry inside the home.

“At this point, investigators believe she was taken from the home against her will, possibly [in the] middle of the night,” Kevin Adger, department spokesperson, told The Times. “Detectives are looking into a possible kidnapping or abduction.”

Sheriff's department homicide investigators were at the home Monday and said that a "crime scene" had been discovered at her residence in Pima County, Arizona.

Authorities called the circumstances involving the disappearance suspicious.

"We do in fact have a crime," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said during a press conference Monday.

She was last seen on Jan. 31, and her family was notified that something was wrong when she did not attend church on Sunday morning. More details about her disappearance were not immediately released.

Nanos said that authorities were relying on the community and technology to find Nancy. She has limited mobility and needs medication, which, if she doesn't have in 24 hours, could be fatal.

"She did not leave on her own, we know that," Nanos said.

Authorities found Guthrie's phone, and investigators were looking at cameras located at the home, asking community members to help provide any information.

Her family was cooperating with authorities to investigate her disappearance. The incident was not related to mental illness.

"This is not dementia-related. She is sharp as a tack," Nanos added.

Anyone with information was asked to contact the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900.

Eye-popping new theory behind disappearance of Savannah Guthrie's mom floated by expert

A law enforcement and intelligence expert on Monday revealed a new theory into the disappearance of journalist and "Today" host Savannah Guthrie's 84-year-old mother in Tucson, Arizona.

CNN law enforcement analyst John Miller suggested that the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie could have been "an abduction" that is potentially tied to "a well-known figure," her daughter. The theory could involve a "ransom," or something of that nature, Miller explained. Investigators have not released further information about any details tied to this suggestion.

Authorities called the circumstances involving Nancy's disappearance suspicious, and said that homicide investigators were examining a crime scene at her home.

"We do in fact have a crime," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said during a press conference Monday.

She was last seen on Jan. 31, and her family was notified that something was wrong when she did not attend church on Sunday morning. Further details about her disappearance and what cops found at the home were not released.

Nanos said that authorities were relying on the community and technology to find Nancy. She has limited mobility and needs medication, which, if she doesn't have in 24 hours, could be fatal.

"She did not leave on her own, we know that," Nanos said.

Authorities found Guthrie's phone, and investigators were looking at cameras located at the home, asking community members to help provide any information.

Her family was cooperating with authorities to investigate her disappearance. The incident was not related to mental illness.

"This is not dementia-related. She is sharp as a tack," Nanos added.

Anyone with information was asked to contact the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900.

Alarming new details revealed as Savannah Guthrie's mom missing: 'We have a crime scene'

Homicide investigators Monday were asking the public for help after Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today journalist Savannah Guthrie, went missing. Police said a "crime scene" had been discovered at her home in Pima County, Arizona.

Authorities called the circumstances involving the disappearance suspicious.

"We do in fact have a crime," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said during a press conference Monday.

The 84-year-old woman was last seen on Jan. 31. More details about her disappearance and what cops found at the home were not released.

Nanos said that authorities were relying on the community and technology to try and find Guthrie, who has limited mobility and needs medication.

"She did not leave on her own, we know that," Nanos said.

Her family was cooperating with authorities to investigate her disappearance. Officials were looking at cameras located at the home. The incident was not related to dementia.

"This is not dementia-related. She is sharp as a tack," Nanos added.

Border Patrol shooting leaves one in critical condition in Arizona: report

A person was in critical condition on Tuesday after a shooting involving U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona.

The incident happened in southern Pima County at around 7:30 a.m., NBC News reported.

The Pima County Sheriff and Santa Rita Fire District did not release the person's name or if they were a target of ICE action. It's unclear if any federal officers were injured.

"Patient care was transferred to a local medical helicopter for rapid transport to a regional trauma center," the fire department said in a statement. "The incident remains under active investigation by law enforcement agencies."

The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were investigating the shooting, according to KVOA.

Immigration agents are mired in controversy after two people were killed in separate shootings in Minneapolis this month.