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Arizona, Wisconsin certify election results for Biden, closing off another path for Trump

While President Trump continues his increasingly desperate efforts to overturn the November election, Arizona and Wisconsin certified results Monday showing Joe Biden won both states.

That means that results in all of the battleground states where Trump has pursued legal action and pressured lawmakers to ignore the results of the popular vote — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin and Arizona — have now been certified in favor of Biden.

“We do elections well here in Arizona,” Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, a staunch Trump ally, said Monday as he certified the results of the election. “The system is strong.”

Hours later, Trump made it clear what he thought of Ducey’s decision to certify the election for Biden.

Like his lawyers, who have suffered lopsided courtroom defeats as they pursue a strategy of attempting to overturn Biden’s victory by tossing out votes, Trump has failed to convince Republican officials who might intervene on his behalf.

On Sunday, he turned his anger on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

“The governor’s done nothing,” Trump said in a Sunday interview on Fox News. “He’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him.”

On Monday, Trump continued to lash out at Kemp, and suggested that the governor could “overrule his obstinate Secretary of State,” Republican Brad Raffensperger, who has repeatedly vouched for the integrity of Georgia’s elections.

Recounts in several states have also failed to help Trump. His campaign paid $3 million for a partial recount in Wisconsin that ended up increasing Biden’s lead in the state by 87 votes. A recount in Georgia yielded just over 1,200 votes for Trump, well shy of the more than 12,000 needed to overtake Biden.

According to state law in Arizona, Trump now has five days to contest the results. He has already promised that he will bring a lawsuit in Wisconsin. So far, however, the courts have not been receptive to the challenges brought by his team under the guidance of Rudy Giuliani. Most have been dismissed in definitive, sometimes scathing, rulings by judges, including some whom Trump himself appointed.

Trump’s backup strategy relies on convincing Republican legislators in battleground states to ignore their states’ votes and appoint electors loyal to him. It’s difficult to determine which of those strategies is more of a long shot.

“I do not see, short of finding some type of fraud — which I haven’t heard of anything — I don’t see us in any serious way addressing a change in electors,” Rusty Bowers, Arizona’s Republican House speaker, told the Associated Press. “They are mandated by statute to choose according to the vote of the people.”

President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Nov. 29, 2020, after stepping off Marine One. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Nov. 29, 2020, after stepping off Marine One. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

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