OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Outgoing Arizona Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich used a quote from former President John F. Kennedy after Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs certified her own gubernatorial election victory earlier this week.
Alongside outgoing Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and the state’s chief justice, Hobbs pushed back on what she described as “false narratives” following the results of her closely-watched election against Republican Kari Lake.
For his part, Brnovich offered what some perceived as veiled remarks at the event.
“I didn’t know we were giving speeches today, but the governor and I merely serve as witnesses to the certification. We do not actually certify the election,” Brnovich said.
He added a quote from President JFK: “I am reminded of what John F. Kennedy often said: ‘Those who ride the tiger to seek power often end up inside.'”
Brnovich, who lost the GOP primary earlier this year to eventual nominee Kari Lake, was paraphrasing from JFK’s 1961 inaugural address, in which he said, “Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.”
WATCH:
Arizona Attorney @GeneralBrnovich response to @katiehobbs speech on fighting election disinfo:
"I didn't know we were giving speeches today, but the governor and I are merely witnesses to the certification. […] Those who ride the tiger to seek power often end up inside." pic.twitter.com/tqn1LduxmR— Corinne Murdock (@CorinneMurdock) December 6, 2022
Separately, calls are intensifying for a federal investigation into Hobbs after internal Twitter emails were recently released.
The emails, which were released as part of the “Twitter files” by new CEO Elon Musk, appear to indicate that Hobbs, who served as the state’s secretary of state at the time, emailed Twitter staffers in Jan. 2021 to have accounts blocked that she claimed contained so-called election misinformation.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “The SOS of AZ and Gov candidate, Katie Hobbs, used the power of the AZ SOS to collude w/ Twitter to unconstitutionally violate 1st Amendment rights of Americans for her own political gain. This is communism and Hobbs can not be governor. I’m calling for a Federal investigation.”
Christina Bobb, a former attorney for President Donald Trump, tweeted a screenshot of the document from Schmitt’s discovery file.
The Republican Party of Arizona tweeted: “@GeneralBrnovich we hope you are taking a serious look into
@SecretaryHobbs At a minimum, Arizonans deserve to know what accounts/tweets were censored. The First Amendment was created to protect citizens against the government, Not the other way around.”
BREAKING: Email leaks reveal Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was in regular communication with Twitter telling them who to censor pic.twitter.com/j7OsWpxoso
— George (@BehizyTweets) December 4, 2022
According to reports, the internal Twitter emails reveal that Hobbs’ team allegedly spoke with former Twitter staffers and executives to flag certain users and accounts.
The bombshell revelation comes on the heels of Twitter boss Elon Musk, via journalist Matt Taibbi last week, revealed internal company communications showing the platform worked with the Democratic Party to censor conservatives.
The Daily Wire reports:
According to an email on January 7, 2021, the communications director for Hobbs’ Secretary of State office emailed the Center for Internet Security (CIS), a 501 nonprofit cybersecurity organization, saying they are “flagging” an unidentified Twitter profile for review under the subject line titled “Election Related Misinformation.” The email also included an unknown employee at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a branch under the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security.
A CIS representative forwarded the message to a Twitter staffer saying, “Please see this report below from the Arizona SOS office. Please let me know if you have any questions.”
The Twitter employee then responded in another email: “Thank you … both tweets have been removed from the service.”
It does appear that Twitter worked with both Republicans and Democrats at the time on looking into tweets that may have been an issue on the platform.
Hobbs was recently declared the winner over GOP opponent Kari Lake by less than one point.
Current GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, the state attorney general, and the chief justice certified Hobbs as the winner on Monday. So far, no one has produced any direct evidence of vote fraud, tampering, or disenfranchisement.
Following Taibbi’s revelations and the latest involving Hobbs, some GOP lawmakers are calling for federal probes into what they allege is election interference
On Friday, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) called on Musk to release the names of any federal officials involved in alleged censorship requests at Twitter.
“Investigations are coming,” Nehls said.
Release the names of government officials.
Investigations are coming. https://t.co/1FfKVe1uQc
— Congressman Troy Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) December 3, 2022
To that end, a member of the Republican leadership is set to take action against the executives that were in charge of Twitter when the Hunter Biden laptop story was squashed.
Kentucky Rep. James Comer of the House Oversight Committee said he is going to bring in staffers who were responsible for burying the story to testify before Congress.