Trump pressures Texas into launching election audit after $6m Arizona recount proves decisive Biden win

Gustaf Kilander

September 24, 2021 at 11:10 AM·2 min read

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses former President Donald Trump during a border security briefing to discuss further plans in securing the southern border wall on June 30, 2021 in Weslaco, Texas (Getty Images)

Texas officials have said that they are auditing the 2020 election results in four large urban counties. The announcement came just hours after former President Donald Trump, who has spread false conspiracy theories about the election being stolen from him, urged Governor Greg Abbott to look into the results in a state that Mr Trump won.

Mr Trump won the state of Texas by 5.5 per cent, the smallest margin of victory for a Republican since Kansas Senator Bob Dole beat President Bill Clinton in the state by 4.9 per cent in 1996. President Jimmy Carter is the last Democratic presidential candidate to have won Texas after beating President Gerald Ford in the state in 1976.

The office of the Texas secretary of state didn’t say in a Thursday night statement what had led to the decision to audit the four counties. Texas elections administrator Keith Ingram said earlier this year that the 2020 elections in the state were “safe and secure”.

The counties selected for audit include heavily Democratic areas in Houston and Dallas. The results in Tarrant County will also be reviewed after being the largest county continually won by Republicans but changing course and voting for President Joe Biden in 2020.

“Under existing Texas laws, the Secretary of State has the authority to conduct a full and comprehensive forensic audit of any election and has already begun the process in Texas’ two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties,” the statement from the office of the secretary of state said. The statement also said that the office expects that the legislature will grant funding for the auditing process, but it was not specified who would perform it.

The office of the secretary of state has been vacant since Ruth Hughs left the post in May of this year.

In a statement earlier on Thursday, Mr Trump called on Mr Abbott to give the audit a green light because “your citizens don’t trust the election system”.

Mr Trump has falsely claimed that voter fraud made him lose the election in Arizona, where an audit of the results in Maricopa County led by Trump loyalists found that Mr Biden win was larger than initially thought.

Another area to be reviewed is Collin County in the suburbs of Dallas, which voted for Mr Trump in 2020.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, tweeted: “Donald Trump ordered Gov Abbott to audit the 2020 Texas election and, like clockwork, TX just initiated an audit of Harris County voters. Democracy isn’t a game.”

“These fake audits are an affront to all voters, and pure pandering to the kinds of extremists that stormed our Capitol,” she added.

The Independent has reached out to the office of the Texas secretary of state for comment.

Trump’s Arizona election audit only furthers Biden’s lead: ‘You can’t make it up’

Texas abortion providers ask Supreme Court to act fast

Top Trump aides including Mark Meadows and Steve Bannon subpoenaed by Capitol riot committee

Biden praises alliances with UK and Australia amid new pact

Blinken dismisses GOP claim ‘White House insiders’ control Biden’s mic

Biden says Democrats’ climate plans could create 800,000 new jobs

Yahoo Finance
Meta Q1 earnings preview: Ad growth and AI are front and center
Social media giant Meta will report its Q1 earnings after the bell Wednesday.
5m ago
USA TODAY
As Israel protests engulf campuses, Columbia says students will scale down: Live updates
Police in Brooklyn made scores of arrests after a standoff on the streets, days after hundreds of arrests were made at Columbia University and NYU.
10m ago
Reuters
US ban on worker noncompete agreements faces lawsuit from major business group
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest business lobby, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to strike down a federal agency's near-total ban on employers requiring workers to sign agreements not to join rivals or launch competing businesses. The Chamber's lawsuit in federal court in Tyler, Texas, alleges that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission lacks the power to adopt sweeping rules such as the ban on so-called noncompete agreements released on Tuesday, which is set to take effect in August. The FTC is empowered by federal law to enforce existing antitrust laws passed by Congress, but not to enact rules determining what other type of conduct by businesses is anticompetitive, the Chamber said in the lawsuit.
10m ago
Yahoo Finance
Boeing Q1 results better than expected after tumultuous quarter headlined by 737 Max crisis
Boeing (BA) on Wednesday reported results that beat Wall Street expectations after a tumultuous first quarter.
12m ago
Yahoo Finance
Tesla stock surges as EV maker will 'accelerate' the launch of cheaper cars
Tesla said it would "accelerate" the launch of new models next year, including lower-cost cars, countering reports earlier this month it had scraped those plans.
21m ago
Reuters
Wildfire razes pinelands near top Cuba tourist town of Viñales
A wildfire blazed early on Wednesday outside the picturesque western Cuba valley town of Vinales, state-run media said, threatening a region considered to be among the island's most important tourist destinations. Local media said the fire was 90% controlled by early Wednesday but that the blaze, which began Monday afternoon, had yet to be snuffed out completely as strong winds fanned flames in a remote and mountainous region of pine forest. The 51-square-mile (13,210-hectare) Vinales valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site and among Cuba's top and best known tourist destinations.
22m ago
CBS News
Louisiana man sentenced to prison, physical castration for raping teen
Glenn Sullivan Sr., 54, pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree rape on April 17.
23m ago
AFP
Chinese spying claims deepen German far right's woes
Germany's far-right AfD fought Wednesday to draw a line under Chinese spying allegations, the latest in a slew of scandals to hit the anti-immigration party in a key election year.- 'Descending into chaos' - The spying claims come on top of other recent allegations that Krah has links to Russia, piling pressure on the party seven weeks before the EU elections and ahead of key regional polls in Germany in September.
23m ago
Yahoo Finance
Stock market today: Nasdaq pops, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
Tesla's surge is putting Big Tech earnings center stage as investors look to megacaps to lift stocks.
23m ago
AFP
Vaccines save at least 154 million lives in 50 years: WHO
Global immunisation efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, adding that most of those to benefit were infants.The study said infants accounted for 101 million of the lives saved through immunisation over the five decades.
24m ago
AFP
US Supreme Court to hear high-stakes case on Idaho abortion ban
The US Supreme Court was set to hear a crucial case Wednesday weighing whether Idaho's near-total ban on abortion violates federal law requiring hospitals to stabilize patients needing emergency care.The Biden administration sued Idaho arguing that its law conflicts with a federal law that requires hospitals that receive government Medicare funding to provide emergency room care, including abortion, in situations that are serious but not necessarily life-threatening.
31m ago
Associated Press
Microsoft and Amazon face scrutiny from UK competition watchdog over recent AI deals
British competition regulators said Wednesday they'll scrutinize recent artificial intelligence deals by Microsoft and Amazon over concerns that the moves could thwart competition in the AI industry. The Competition and Markets Authority said it's looking into Microsoft's partnership with France's Mistral AI and the company's hiring of key staff from another startup, Inflection AI. The watchdog also separately announced that it's investigating Amazon's $4 billion investment in San Francisco-based Anthropic.
35m ago
Reuters
Venezuelan candidate Gonzalez touts return of exiles, freeing political prisoners
Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said on Wednesday he is committed to carrying out a transition that will allow exiled people to return to the country and political prisoners to be freed. Gonzalez was named on Friday by the Unitary Platform opposition coalition as its candidate in the July 28 presidential election after primary winner Maria Corina Machado was banned from office and her alternate was unable to register. The 74-year-old former diplomat will appear on the ballot in three opposition party slots, while President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power for more than a decade, will appear for 13 different parties.
36m ago
NBC News
Senate passes aid for Ukraine and Trump witness details salacious stories: Morning Rundown
The Senate passes crucial aid for Ukraine in a $95 billion package.
37m ago
CNN
Parents are feeling lonely. Here’s why it matters
Overwhelming responsibilities during and after the pandemic is causing two-thirds of parents to feel isolated and lonely which can lead to burnout, experts say.
41m ago
CNN
UN demands investigation after mass graves found at Gaza hospitals raided by Israel
The United Nations has called for an “independent, effective and transparent investigation” into the discovery of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals that were besieged and raided by Israeli troops this year, a UN statement said on Tuesday.
43m ago
AFP
UN launches fund to shield displaced people from climate shocks
The United Nations said Wednesday it was launching a new Climate Resilience Fund aimed at boosting protections for "refugees and displaced communities" threatened by climate change.But, he warned, "funding available to address the impacts of climate change is not reaching those forcibly displaced, nor the communities hosting them".
43m ago
AFP
Germany nudges up growth forecast, ailing economy at 'turning point'
The German government slightly increased its 2024 growth forecast Wednesday, saying there were signs Europe's beleaguered top economy was at a "turning point" after battling through a period of weakness.But releasing its latest projections, the economy ministry said in a statement there were growing indications of a "turning point".
45m ago
Time
Minnesota Sen. Nicole Mitchell Charged With Burglary
Minnesota state senator Nicole Mitchell was charged with first-degree burglary Tuesday morning, one day after being arrested.
45m ago
AFP
Spain PM under pressure as wife faces graft probe
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was under pressure to give answers Wednesday after a court said it had opened an investigation into his wife Begona Gomez on suspicion of graft."His family is being investigated by the court... it is important enough that the prime minister explains himself to the Spanish people."
46m ago

Latest Stories