Arizona Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Katie Hobbs said Tuesday that “if other people" had been in key state offices during the post-election period of the 2020 election, "we may not be in this position today” — a warning to lawmakers to shore up election laws before this fall's midterms.
Hobbs appeared on Meet the Press Now to discuss the fourth hearing of the Congressional committee investigating events leading up to and during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Arizona House speaker, Rusty Bowers was one of the GOP officials appearing at Tuesday's hearing.
Bowers certified the 2020 election results in Arizona despite, as he testified, growing pressure from Former President Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to find fake electors and ultimately decertify the results.
Legal scholar, Rick Hasen, also warned that those who stood up to the former president in 2020 may not be in power in the next election, calling for more legislative actions to be implemented like updating the Electoral Count Act and protecting election workers from violent threats. “We can’t have a system that depends on personal heroism as a way of protecting our democracy,” Hasen said, “we need stronger rules in place.”
Hobbs, who is leading her Democratic opponents ahead of the August 2nd gubernatorial primary, says the threat of January 6 continues beyond that day, “this is not about one day, these attacks on America happened on January 6th, they were happening before, leading up to it, and they’re continuing to happen.”