KTAR News Radio: Time to ‘pull back from brink of election denialism’

KTAR Radio | June 18, 2024

“Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos”

Following placement of her op-ed in the Arizona Republic, fmr Arizona Governor and RightCount State Co-Chair Jan Brewer joined “Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos” on KTAR News Talk Radio to discuss the launch of RightCount’s operations in Arizona.

What follows is a rush transcript of the interview:

Larry Gaydos: Arizona Republic, Jan Brewer, Republicans have a responsibility to restore faith in elections.

Bruce St. James: Ooh.

Larry Gaydos: Opinion piece from the former governor of the great state of Arizona saying it’s time for Arizona Republicans to pull back from the brink of election denialism and win over voters with conservative ideals. Let’s chat with the former governor of the great state of Arizona, Jan Brewer. Governor is great to have you back on the show. How are ya?

Governor Brewer: Thank you, I’m doing just fine.

Larry Gaydos: It’s great to hear your voice. So, has MAGA ruined your Republican Party?

Governor Brewer: You know, I don’t want to just lay it all on MAGA. But I believe that we’ve got some deniers out there that are creating havoc, and that it hasn’t brought civility to that to our democracy, and it needs to be addressed. And it’s all this misinformation that’s really killing our electoral system. We have to have faith in that we have nothing. And it’s just gotten to the point where I had to stand up and speak out. Hear ye! Hear ye!

Larry Gaydos: There ya go!

[Crosstalk]

Larry Gaydos: Bruce, did you hear the hear ye, hear ye?

[Crosstalk]

Bruce St. James: The city square crier outstanding. Governor Brewer, I think one of the concerns and I certainly echo your concerns. But others have stood up and said this and it’s fallen on deaf ears. Why should the Republican Party listen to you today?

Governor Brewer: Well, you know, I don’t know why they should. I would like them to listen to me. I think that I’ve been a straight shooter the entirety of my career. I think that they know me enough to know that I’m a I’m a truth teller. I tried to be a truth teller, and not sort of spoof over on everybody. But I think everybody in their heart, they know that you can’t get continue down this path. It’s killing us as Republicans. It’s killing us. It’s back and forth. We got people running, you know, for election at one point there. They didn’t want any early balloting because you know, it’s fraud, and then they realize that they don’t have the early balloting, then they can’t get their votes on time, or they can’t get them quick enough, or people just aren’t available to vote. You can’t have it both ways. You’ve got to decide what it is. We got hiccups in our election, but not enough to make a difference in the vote count. I mean, that’s how many court cases have we had? How many investigations have we had?

Bruce St. James: A lot.

Larry Gaydos: Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is joining us, op-ed in the Arizona Republic. So I’ll read a line here. You say, “I’ve spoken to countless Republicans and GOP leaning independents, and unfortunately, very few of them have expressed supreme confidence that their votes will be accurately counted this November.” So when you say countless Republicans and and Independents, are you talking about voters?

Governor Brewer: Yes.

Larry Gaydos: You are. Okay. So what are they telling you? What are the voters saying? So they’re buying this crap?

Governor Brewer: Well, I think they’re, some of them are gun shy, they don’t know what to believe. They don’t want to believe that, you know, they’re out there. They’ve got people that they use, this just keeps coming and filling their head full of all this, this rhetoric and this nonsense, that then they begin to doubt themselves, they begin to doubt the system, not really wanting to believe it, but they say, you know, well, they said the paper wasn’t the right size. Well, that’s a fact. It was. It wasn’t the right size at a couple of voting places. You know, that wasn’t enough. And it was corrected, it was corrected. I mean, and that’s what we have to get out there. And we’ve got to put this behind us and move on or we won’t have a democracy at all. We won’t have a democracy at all.

Larry Gaydos: Yeah, the former governor of Arizona standing up trying to say, “hey, listen, let’s put some of this doubt. Let’s get back to integrity in our electoral process. You know, Arizona has been putting a negative light with the rest of the nation for a while.” So I like that you’re leading on this governor, you know, that. Have you spoken to election deniers like Lake or Abe Froman? Who was it, Mohammed Abe? Sorry, my bad.

Bruce St. James: Close enough.

Larry Gaydos: Have you talked to some of these? You know, who continue.

Governor Brewer: No.

Bruce St. James: Tell them knock it off.

Larry Gaydos: Tell them to knock it off governor.

Governor Brewer: Yeah. You know, I think it may be a couple of them are, well, you know, they vacillate back and forth. They they first say, you know, they want to be seen, and then they don’t want to be seen anymore. Bottom line is, is no, I haven’t talked to them. But I have talked to some people that are not as high profile as the ones that you mentioned. And they just that, you know, they gotta stay in the they gotta stay in that frame because they believe in their heart that people are believing it and it’s gonna help them get elected.

[Crosstalk]

Governor Brewer: Some of them really believe that, but it’s not. It’s killing our party, and it’s going to turn our party, the Republican Party into nothing. Well, we’ve already lost how many seats?

Bruce St. James: Yeah, yeah it’s a party of crackpots at this point. We were talking to Governor Brewer. But you said something there and I think this is important because it’s it’s something I think a lot of us have a sneaking suspicion about without saying names. There are people out there that claim voter fraud, voter fraud, voter irregularities, sue this sue this sue this, but they know, they know there’s nothing there. But they’re feeding red meat to people that buy into this crap.

Governor Brewer: Absolutely. You’re right, Bruce. Absolutely and that’s so wrong. But they don’t have the courage to stand up and say something that’s right, because they don’t want to lose the right wing vote, the MAGA vote. They don’t want to lose that. But even Donald Trump, even Donald Trump says vote early now. He got he got that he got the plan. You know, he understands how that works.

Bruce St. James: That’s how you win.

Governor Brewer: Yeah.

Larry Gaydos: Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has written an op-ed in the Arizona Republic. It says “Republicans have a responsibility to restore faith in elections.” Governor, you know, we spoke when you were really one of the first people to jump on the Trump train.

Governor Brewer: Yup.

Larry Gaydos: And so I’m wondering all these all these years later, I mean, it’s really Trump, who was put this thing out, oh, it was rigged. And, you know, I got screwed in in 2020. And all this kind of crap. Do you regret backing Trump?

Governor Brewer: Not when I did. No, I really didn’t, you know, because at the time, I thought that we needed, he was a breath of fresh air, actually. And he was very nice to me. And he was very polite to me. And it was exciting. And I thought he could win. And we worked. I worked hard. I went to every one of his debates. I traveled with him. I mean, I worked hard. And you know, and I think he did a lot of good things. But this election denial stuff has got to stop, or we won’t have any candidate running under the Republican flag.

Larry Gaydos: If he loses, if he loses in 2024. Do you think?

Governor Brewer: The alternative is worse too. I mean, it’s bad.

Larry Gaydos: What’s that?

Governor Brewer: The alternate

Larry Gaydos: Oh, I get that. Yeah, I get that.

Bruce St. James: Not a lot of good choices here.

Larry Gaydos: But if Trump does lose…

Governor Brewer: I think I put you in a state of shock Gaydos.

Larry Gaydos: If Trump does lose, he’s gonna pull this out. It’s gonna be like, listen, it was rigged again. Right?

Governor Brewer: I hope not. I hope that maybe…I think I finally said to myself, I just had to stand up. I had to say something. I had to weigh in, I’ve been kind of quiet in all of it. I’ve been to meetings and I’ve talked with people privately but I think I shocked people today when the editorial came out because I took a strong stand out here.

Larry Gaydos/Bruce St. James: Here, here. Good for you. Thank you.

Governor Brewer: Yes. Hear ye, hear ye.

Bruce St. James: Hear ye, hear ye.

Governor Brewer: I think this coming from me Gaydos. 24 and 0. It’s a state record of elections.

Larry Gaydos: Jan Brewer does not lose elections, that’s for sure.

Bruce St. James: She knows how to win.

Larry Gaydos: Hey, a governor come to the war room with us one of these days. We’d love to have you.

Governor Brewer: I would love to. I would love to do that. A whole week. Thanks guys.

Larry Gaydos: Thanks for joining us. Take care.

Governor Brewer: Buh Bye.

Larry Gaydos: Governor Brewer taking a stand love it.

Bruce St. James: Standing up for what’s right.

Larry Gaydos: I think it’s great.

Bruce St. James: Standing up for sanity.

Larry Gaydos: Yeah.

Bruce St. James: The Republican Party could use some sanity.

Larry Gaydos: It’s time for Arizona Republicans to pull back from the brink of election denialism and win over voters with conservative ideals. That is from Jan Brewer and we thank her for joining us.

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To learn more about RightCount’s operations in Arizona, visit www.RightCount.org/arizona.