her name in katie hobbs, the elected secretary of state.hs of the cyberninja republican exercise sme has basically been doing her best to contain the damage. her office sent observers elections professionals to the random arena where the cyberninjas sifted through the ballots. her observers reported back all kinds of chaos and security breaches. chain of custody breaches that no real professional audit would allow. the secretary of state's office kept a running online list of all the concerns those observers had as the audit chugd along. it was in and out a short list. ultimately after consulting with real election securities and technology experts and federal department of homeland security secretary of state katie hobbs moved to decertify all the voting machines saying she had no choice. arizona republicans handed the machines over to the unaccredited cyber ninja company. nobody can say what they did to them. the security of the machines couldn't be guaranteed. maricopa county has to decommission all voting machines, having to spend milli

in the midst of all of this, secretary of state katie hobbs had to be assigned per -- extra personal because was getting so many death threats. she was actually chased down the street once by a man screaming at her accusing her of trying to shut down the cyber ninjas audit. today, with that audit finally over, secretary hobbs set her piece. she released the statement, quote -- the state senate and the separate ninjas dragged our state and county through months of partisan political theater. culminating in respect that reinforces but election experts have been saying all along, that this exercise was a scam. the participants -- it was a political stunt that creative massive security risks, cost millions of dollars, and has shaken faith and free and fair elections. joining us now is katie hobbs, secretary of state of the great state of arizona, she is also running for governor of the state of arizona. madam secretary, thank you for making time for us tonight, i know this has been a bewildering. day >> is good to be here rachel, thank you so much for having me. >> i say bewildering beca

joining me now is katie hobbs, the arizona secretary of state. katie, we've known all along this was a crazy conspiracy theory-driven audit that wasted a lot of taxpayer dollars, wasted everybody's time. but set the record straight about what the final report actually said contrary to what trump just said. >> right. i mean to be honest with you, i didn't really take time to read the final report because this whole thing was a colossal waste of everybody's time. but what we know is their results showed that biden actually got more votes in arizona than -- or in maricopa county than the official canvass. but the rest of the report was filled with a lot of inaccuracies that basically shows that the folks running this sham, which we already knew, don't understand election administration. they refer to all these things as anomalies, which they're all easily explained by election officials. but they're using this to continue to call for investigations and to spread the audit to the rest of the counties in the state. and this whole thing, i mean i apprec

let's talk now with arizona secretary of state katy hobbs.we don't know all the details, but it's clear that potential threats against elected officials are continuing here. something you know all too well, unfortunately. president trump is continuing to lie about the 2020 election and, you know, we have this other rally coming up this weekend which is something that you have officials worried about armed folks at. are you concerned about this lie leading to continuing violence? >> absolutely. you know, election officials around the country did our jobs in 2020 overseeing a secure election, saw historic participation. and time and time again the results have proven accurate. so these continued allegations of fraud, these conspiracy theories are dangerous because they're continuing to promulgate these threats against not just elected election officials like myself, but the workers that work in our offices. and it is, it is really dangerous. and despite that, we're going to keep doing our jobs and making sure that we're overseeing elections tha

joining me to discuss, katie hobbs, a democrat from w.h.o.e federal election commit. it is great to have you with us. secretary hobbs, we have some new cnn polling and the numbers give you pause. 78% of republicans in this poll say president biden did not legitimately win enough votes to be president. 54% of republicans say there is no solid evidence that president biden didn't win. there is no evidence to support that. i think the question at this point so many months in is how do you combat that? >> well, and that is a majority of the republican party. but certainly not a majority of the voters in arizona. so i think that is the good news. that reasonable folks understand that the election was free and fair and the results we certified were accurate and that is the truth about the election. and we're going to continue to tell that truth to anyone who will listen. and i think there is more and more of those folks in arizona as this so-called audit continues to drag on. >> which is encouraging because we know that the big lie are incredibly v

quote, in arizona democratic secretary of state katie hobbs is running for governor, leaving her secretary of state seat open in an open race. she won by a single percentage point in 2018. both parties expect another extremely close race for secretary of state next year. trump last weaken endorsed mark finchum for arizona secretary of state, praising his, quote, powerful stance on the massive voter fraud. the state lawmakers now seen as a favorite in the republican primary for the secretary of state's race. quote, in addition to promoting voter fraud claims and calling for arizona to decertify biden's win, finchem has also expressed views linked to the qanon conspiracy theory which casts trump as a savior figure and elite democrats as a cabal of satan-worshipping pedophiles and cannibals. finchem was a featured speaker at the rally in washington before the capitol attack, a warm-up for the bigger gathering at which trump himself spoke. he said at that gathering, quote, when you steal something, that's not really a win. that's a fraud. one of finchem's competitors for the republican nominat

biden's victory in the state was certified by the arizona secretary of state katy hobbs and witnessed by state officials as required by law and yet, the republicans and maga cult members behind this fake arizona fraud-it felt compelled to offer nothing damming and nothing new and after that, after nearly $6 million and the corrupting voting equipment, the great search for bamboo from asia and a five-moment campaign with zero election expexperience, the curn closed with the republican party of arizona announcing president biden did indeed win the election. according to their tally, biden won by a wider margin than first thought by 360 more votes to which i hardly say. [ laughter ] >> i mean, come on. it funny. objectively funny. so yeah, we can laugh about how this entire ordeal ended with the cyber ninjas looking more like cyber fools. but in all seriousness, it's no laughing matter for our democracy. here is the rally happening right now outside the arizona state senate building where the sham review hearing is underway. a place where big lie slogans and militia men with semiautomati

now, i spoke to arizona secretary of state katie hobbs, watch. >> as we look ahead, this has done damage not just to people's confidence in the 2020 election, but as we head into the next election cycle, that it's going to continue to sew doubt, both here in arizona and around the country. >> think about it like this. it's kind of like a game of whack-a-mole. as soon as one phony audit disappears, another one pops up to take its place. on friday, texas announced it would begin its own review of the 2020 election. they did so just 8.5 hours after trump requested one in an open letter to the republican governor of texas, greg abbott. trump also sent a letter to georgia state asking him to decertify the election results in that state. folks, this is the play book and trump is still playing from it and so the big lie lives on. joining me to discuss this, co-founder of the lincoln project and author of running against the devil, a plot to save america and democrats from themselves. sounding alarm bells about trump's behavior long before january 6 and rick hasan at uc irvine, a new paper out t

katie hobbs is right, it's a fraud audit. i think it's a charade in a sham.ians to know is that these republican pennsylvania senators are using taxpayer dollars to undermine the faith in our democracy with a charade. i've been hearing for weeks, actually months, that this would be some kind of big blockbuster hearing today. instead, today's hearing was a complete and total doug. it produced zero evidence in their attempts to satisfy the very people that they have been lying to for the last ten months. >> let's show our viewers what we mean. let's play a little bit from this hearing. what you will hear from is the fulton county pennsylvania commissioner, stewart, a republican and the state senator, vincent hughes, a democrat. alsh was the first person to testify. let's hear a little of the exchange. >> was there any fraud found in the votes in the investigation? >> the -- nothing was found, everything was ran in fulton county, -- >> square, opened up, no fraudulent voting. >> that's with the report has yes. >> that's with the report says. >> well that's not a

joining us, katie hobbs. thouns.the end, the tally from the fraudit almost the same as the official results. how can the gop look at this and think it is a win? >> i don't know how anyone can look at this entire exercise and take iters isly. i mean we have seen all along how fraught it has been with problems from lack of transparency, huge security lapses, and just the fact that a lot of what they were trying to carry out was based on just unfounded conspiracy theories. and their report yesterday echoed a lot of these conspiracy theories and talked about anomalies which are easily explained by people who understand how elections run. so, you know, this whole thing has just been a sham. we knew that. and nobody should take it seriously. >> one of the most important clauses of the statement there by people who actually understand how elections are run. there were missteps as you said by cyber ninjas throughout the entire process. and at the hearing for the time release and the report the ceo blamed some of his firm's s

biden's victory in the state was certified by the arizona secretary of state katy hobbs and witnessednd yet, the republicans and maga cult members behind this