Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs backtracked Tuesday after saying she supports the Grand Canyon State being the next in line to indict former President Donald Trump.
At an event in Phoenix, Hobbs was asked, “Would you like to see the Arizona attorney general follow suit with Georgia and Michigan and move forward on pressing charges against President Trump?”
“Absolutely. I have been an advocate for holding folks involved in trying to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election accountable and this is part of that process,” Hobbs responded.
“Accountability is critical. I don’t think we’re going to change direction until there’s accountability at the top level,” she continued. “And this is an important step forward that I think should move forward and play out in the legal process.”
Arizona was one of the swing states that went for Trump in the 2016 election, by approximately 91,000 votes, but President Joe Biden was able to flip that in 2020 carrying, the state by about 10,500 votes. This was Biden’s narrowest victory in any of the swing states that went for him.
Trump questioned the integrity of the election, particularly in Maricopa County (the Phoenix metro area), which was the only county in the state to flip from a Trump win in 2016 to Biden in 2020.
Arizona 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake called out Hobbs — who was secretary of state overseeing the 2020 election as well as the 2022 midterm elections — for saying that Arizona should indict Trump too.
“In 2020 @katiehobbs ran a sham election & gave @JoeBiden Arizona,” Lake posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“In 2022 Hobbs ran a sham election & gave herself a promotion. Now, she’s using her illegitimate office to order her illegitimate AG to INDICT @realDonaldTrump & Grassroots Arizonans. If the fake news is wondering THIS is what a threat to democracy looks like.”
Maricopa County experienced Election Day chaos in November when ballot printers malfunctioned in as many as 59 percent of polling locations.
Long lines formed, and because Republicans vote 3-to-1 over Democrats on Election Day, GOP candidates like Lake and Abe Hamadeh, the GOP nominee for attorney general, were most impacted by the chaos.
Hamadeh lost his race to Democrat Kris Mayes by 511 votes of the over 2.5 million ballots cast, while Hobbs’ margin of victory over Lake by was 17,117 votes, or about 0.6 percent.
Lake’s election challenge of Hobbs’ win is currently on appeal after losses at the trial court level.
Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law to former President Donald Trump, responded to Hobbs’ suggestion that Arizona should also indict Trump, saying on Newsmax this week, “Well, I guess cue Donald Trump’s next indictment.”
“If you look at the pattern of things and the ways they played out, every time there is some big, breaking news about Joe and Hunter Biden and their shady business dealings and the way they’ve been selling out this country for decades, all of a sudden you have another Donald Trump indictment,” she added.
Hobbs’ office put out a statement on Tuesday, seeking to clarify the governor’s remarks earlier in the day, according to KTAR News.
“Gov. Hobbs misheard the question. She was responding generally about her belief that anyone who breaks the law must be held accountable for working to overturn free and fair elections,”  communications director Christian Slater said.
“As she has consistently stated, she believes in allowing the legal process to proceed independently and without political interference.”
So far, Trump has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice and Fulton County, Georgia for questioning the integrity of the 2020 election. The DOJ also indicted Trump in June for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.
Further, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also charged the former president in April for allegedly falsifying business records during the 2016 presidential campaign.
via magatribute