The few Republicans who rejected Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen have since embraced the Big Lie in order to avoid Trump’s wrath
As Trump’s big lie of a stolen election began ricocheting across America in November 2020, Arizona’s Republican attorney general, Mark Brnovich (pronounced “Burn-o-vich”), spoke out forcefully on national television. He told the public that Donald Trump was projected to lose the swing state, and “no facts” suggested otherwise. (At the time I thought to myself, “Good for him. Maybe more Republican attorneys general will show some spine.”)
That was then. Recently, Brnovich – now running for US Senate from Arizona – came on to Steve Bannon’s far-right podcast with the opposite message: Brnovich said he was “investigating” the 2020 vote and had “serious concerns”. He went on: “It’s frustrating for all of us, because I think we all know what happened in 2020,” without explaining what he meant by “what happened.” (Bannon titled the podcast segment “AZ AG On Interim Report On Stealing The 2020 Election.”)
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
