Did Arizona governor ignore a call from White House while certifying election results?
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, seemingly ignored a phone call from the White House while certifying the state’s election results Monday, video shows.
The video, posted on Twitter by reporter Brahm Resnik, shows Ducey completing certification paperwork when his phone starts playing a “Hail to the Chief” ringtone in his jacket pocket. The governor pulls out his phone and glances at it before silencing it and setting it down next to him.
Some have pointed out it’s possible the call came from President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.
Ducey said during a July coronavirus news conference that he gets so many phone calls from Trump and Pence that he changed his ringtone for calls from them to “Hail to the Chief.”
“I didn’t want to miss another phone call directly from the White House,” he said during the news conference.
Trump later responded to another video of Ducey certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state, tweeting “Why is he rushing to put a Democrat in office?” and “What is going on with @dougducey?” Trump also pushed baseless claims of voter fraud.
Biden carried Arizona with 49.4% of the vote to Trump’s 49.1%, claiming its 11 Electoral College votes, according to The Associated Press. The AP and other major media outlets projected Biden the winner of the presidential election on Nov. 7. He has 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. A candidate needs 270 to win.
But Trump has refused to concede to Biden as the president and his campaign have attempted to overturn or challenge Biden’s victory in multiple battleground states — including Arizona — with lawsuits that have been largely unsuccessful in court.
As Arizona’s election was being certified Monday, Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis held a news conference in a Phoenix hotel and pushed claims of election irregularities in the state and elsewhere without providing evidence, the AP reports.
Elections officials representing both parties from across the country have repeatedly said there’s been no evidence of election fraud or irregularities that could have shifted the outcome of the election, The New York Times reports.
The vote certification Monday officially locked in Biden’s win in the state. His victory marks the first time a Democrat has carried Arizona since 1996, when former President Bill Clinton defeated Republican challenger Bob Dole.
Ducey defended the election process in Arizona following Trump’s attacks on Twitter.
“I’ve been pretty outspoken about Arizona’s election system, and bragged about it quite a bit, including in the Oval Office,” he tweeted. “And for good reason.”
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, also spoke out about the election process on Twitter.
“Like I’ve said from the beginning: We ran this election according to Arizona law, despite what the conspiracy theorists would tell you,” she tweeted. “Governor Ducey did his job today. Nobody deserves to be attacked for fulfilling their oath of office.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Did Arizona governor ignore a call from White House while certifying election results?."
