AZ Secretary of State’s History of Disdain for Trump and His Supporters: ‘So Much Deplorable at Trump Rallies’

In this Jan. 6, 2017, file photo, Arizona Senate minority leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, s
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Hannah Knudsen

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), who recently rejected a request for an “independent analysis” of voting data, has a history of expressing disdain for President Trump and his supporters, explicitly accusing the president of standing on the side of “the freaking Nazis” and once asserting that there is “so much deplorable at Trump’s rallies.”

On Tuesday, Hobbs rejected a request from Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R), who asked for an “independent analysis” of voting data to restore confidence among Arizonians. Hobbs promptly dismissed the request, asserting that there is “no ‘current controversy’ regarding elections in Arizona, outside of theories floated by those seeking to undermine our democratic process for political gain.”

Hobbs wrote:

I respectfully decline your request to push aside the work that remains to be done to ensure an orderly completion of this election and instead launch and fund with taxpayer dollars a boundless “independent” evaluation of “all data related to the tabulation of votes in the 2020 General Election.”

Her rejection comes as the vote count in the Grand Canyon State continues, with Trump gradually reducing Joe Biden’s (D) lead. President Trump has said that he will “easily” win the state when an audit is completed. However, Hobbs is no ally of the president, and it remains unclear if her partisan disdain — which she openly displayed in the past — will have any bearing on her handling of the election in the state.

In September 2015, months after Trump announced his intention to run for president, she expressed disgust after witnessing individuals wearing Trump shirts at an airport.

“There are Trump t-shirts. And people not embarrassed to wear them. In airports,” she said:

In October 2016, prior to the presidential election, Hobbs insulted Trump and his supporters, stating that there is “so much deplorable at Trump’s rallies” in response to a sign featuring a bullseye over Hillary Clinton’s face with the words “Killary Rotten Clinton”:

In August 2017, Hobbs stated, unequivocally, that Trump “is on the side of the freaking Nazis.” Her tweet came around the time of the Charlottesville riots. Despite the Democrats’ continued narrative, Trump did, in fact, condemn neo-Nazis and the white nationalists:

Three days later, Hobbs insulted both Trump and his supporters by mischaracterizing them as neo-Nazis.

Trump “made it abundantly clear he’s more interested in pandering to his neo-nazi base than being @POTUS for all Americans,” she said.

“I mean, we already knew this, right?” she added:

However, the year prior, Hobbs repeated the “love trumps hate” mantra while admitting, “I don’t understand Trump voters”:

Other anti-Trump tweets include:

Trump had reduced Biden’s lead in Arizona to 11,635 votes as of Wednesday evening. However, he would need to take 74 percent of the remaining votes in order to take the lead and the state’s 11 electoral votes.

“If we can audit the total votes cast, we will easily win Arizona also!” Trump said on Thursday:

Hobbs, however, has continued to dismiss mounting questions over the integrity of the election, dismissing them as “baseless” conspiracy theories. State Sen. Fann clarified that she was not claiming fraud by requesting an “independent analysis,-” but stressed that they “must do everything we can to satisfy Arizonans that the count was lawfully done.”

“If there’s no factual basis on any of these things, then absolutely, let’s put that to rest and show them that’s not true,” she said on Wednesday. “If there’s something there that needs to be fixed, let’s fix it.”

Hobbs is hardly the only anti-Trump official to oversee tight races in key battleground states. Pennsylvania officials Gov. Tom Wolf (D), Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D), and Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) have all publicly expressed opposition to Trump in deeply partisan ways as well.

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