Nevada AG: Trump's election lawsuits 'are speculative'

Aaron Ford, Attorney General of Nevada, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down the latest on the Trump campagin's election lawsuits in his state.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Well, let's talk now about Nevada because that is one state that the Trump campaign had sued. We are joined now by Nevada's attorney general, Aaron Ford. Attorney General, so the lawsuit in Nevada was tossed out by a judge. And I think a lot of people out there are pretty confused by the back and forth that's going on in the lawsuits. You called one of them-- you said, in a word, it's garbage, about one of the lawsuits that had been filed.

I'm hoping you can do some myth busting here. I know that Jess Smith just said that, frankly, there's been no evidence presented by the Trump campaign. In regards to these lawsuits in your state, is that what the judges have been seeing, that the lawsuits essentially have no evidence and therefore have to be thrown out?

AARON FORD: Hey, Kristin, great to see you again and thanks for having me back. You said the lawsuit's been thrown out. Let me clarify, all four of the lawsuits that the Trump administration has filed in our state have been thrown out that I have been participating in. They continue to come with frivolous, baseless claims of speculation about voter fraud that's widespread, that ostensibly is changing the results of the election. And we continue to get them tossed out of court. Because in fact, they are speculative.

And for example, they continue to complain about dead people and/or people who have signed affidavits. But they've not filed a complaint with my office. They continue to operate through the media as a PR stunt to blow up my timeline on Twitter to make it appear as though we're not doing our job, when the fact is, they have not presented a complaint with us that we can even verify, let alone investigate.

So, you know, we're confident in the results of our election. We have a Republican Secretary of State. We have 17 counties in our state, most of which are probably Republican leaning. And none of them do I have concern about relative to the way they've run this election.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now the Associated Press already called the state of Nevada for President-elect Biden, but votes are still being counted in the state. Do you see any more room for the Trump campaign to come up with lawsuits about the vote count itself or any of the ballots? Or is that pretty much done now?

AARON FORD: Well, let me back up and give you what their run of show is, if you will. They began all of this by first saying they want to limit who could even register to vote. Then they tried to limit those who registered from voting. And then they tried to keep those from voting-- those who had voted from having their votes counted.

And so they have, at every step of the way, attempted to undermine this sacrosanct franchise of voting. We have defeated them at every single turn. And if they have any other tricks up their sleeves, we are prepared. We stay ready so we don't have to get ready, as I have said several times before.

And if they have evidence that they want to bring forward, we will investigate it. In fact, I'm prosecuting someone from the last election cycle who voted twice in an election, one in a different state and then one here. So if they have credible threats or credible proof, we will look into it. And it will be taken care of. But they have not brought any forward thus far in any of this litigation.

KRISTIN MYERS: Have you heard of any warnings, or are you anticipating any post-election litigation?

AARON FORD: We have heard them say they're going to file post-election litigation. And again, we are ready to address whatever it is that they want to contend or that they want to claim. You know, I have said since the beginning that this election only has one result, and it's after every single lawful vote has been counted. And I believe that, and I mean that.

And to the extent they're able to demonstrate that some fraud has occurred, which is very minimal if it has occurred, and we have a history of being able to put on fair, free, safe, and secure elections in our state, then we will investigate it. But absent that, their PR stunts on Twitter and on social media and on regular media notwithstanding, we're going to stand by our election results.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now I'm not at all an expert on the Supreme Court or how lawsuits work their way through the system there, so I do want to ask you this. If the case about the election does go to the Supreme Court-- I know that there's still lawsuits pending in other states like Pennsylvania-- wouldn't Nevada at all participate in that?

AARON FORD: Well, it depends. If they sue us and it ends up going to the US Supreme Court, I mean, I guess it would depend on what their arguments are. But there are absolutely some distinctions that make a difference with the way we've done our elections here. Our legislature in its infinite wisdom decided to allow people to exercise this important franchise to vote and to do so free from COVID. And that's by doing it by mail.

And most folks took-- maybe not most, but quite a few folks took advantage of that opportunity. And it's because our legislature provided this and laid out the terms under which it was supposed to operate, we feel entirely confident in any legal challenge, which is, again, why we've won every single lawsuit that the Trump administration or any of their surrogates have brought against us. And I'm confident that we will win any others that come forward in the future.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now I know that you said that the Trump campaign is using the media right now to essentially motivate folks to attack you on Twitter. We saw protests in Nevada over the weekend. I'm wondering if you think that based on what he's been saying on Twitter, in his press conferences, if the president has undermined this election. Do you think that he's caused mistrust in the political process for us moving forward?

AARON FORD: Well, it's absolutely been his intent from sabotaging the United States Postal Service to, right now, trying to undermine the election of President-elect Biden and president-- the Vice President-elect Harris. That's his effort. That's his intent.

And, you know, I will leave the hysteria and the hyperbole to those who want to undermine this process and do my job, which is to defend the lawful process to ensure that every lawful vote that has been cast is going to be counted. There's only one result, and it comes after that has occurred. We're doing that here in our state.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, thank you so much for joining us again.

AARON FORD: Thanks, Kristin. Great to be here.