RIGHT WING EXTREMISM
Arizona ‘Audit’ Involved ‘Spiritual Warfare’ That Could Lead to ‘Revival’ Says Cyber Ninjas CEO
Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, hired by Arizona’s Senate Republican leaders to conduct an “audit” of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, was featured on a Thursday prayer call hosted by Intercessors for America, a network of “prayer warriors” that strongly backed former President Donald Trump. Logan described the “audit,” which was marred by incompetence but essentially reaffirmed that the state went for President Joe Biden, as something to which he was called by God.
Joining Logan on the call was hard-right Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase, who has created a national “election integrity caucus” of state legislators to push for “forensic audits” of election results in all 50 states. Republican legislators have used false stolen-election claims and questions raised by promoters of the Arizona “audit” to sow distrust of the election results and justify a wave of voter suppression bills designed to boost Republican election prospects in 2022 and 2024. Logan said on the call that officials from 22 states had reached out to get more information about the Cyber Ninjas’ efforts in Arizona.
In spite of continuing false claims by Trump and some of his supporters, the Arizona “audit” produced no evidence that the presidential election was stolen from Trump via election fraud, a fact that has led to dissent within MAGA world and the rise of new conspiracy theories. Logan has disavowed an apparently doctored version of the “audit” report published by the right-wing Gateway Pundit that included an assertion that the election should not be certified.
Logan’s claims on the IFA call were far less sweeping. Notably, he did not claim that he had evidence of fraud or a stolen election, only that the election was not carried out with “precision and accuracy.” When asked for the audit’s most significant findings, he claimed, “The numbers didn’t match,” citing as one example discrepancies between systems tracking how many mail-in ballots were sent and how many were received. He said their “most critical finding” was that “we had a little bit over 23,000 ballots that were mailed to individuals at addresses they were no longer at, and yet somehow they were returned and mail-in ballots are not supposed to be forwarded.” Logan claimed that Maricopa County officials made the “audit” more difficult to carry out by not cooperating with the effort.
Logan urged IFA’s activists to pray that Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich would have the “courage” to take the investigation to the “next step.” Logan prayed:
Pray for him to have courage. Because I can tell you that when you step into this, everybody’s out to get you. Everybody’s out to make you look bad. And there’s a lot of you know, there’s a lot of just spiritual warfare stuff that seems to happen in the middle of it. Like, I don’t fully understand why this audit is so pivotal in what’s happening in our country right now. But it is in the spiritual realm. It’s not just in the physical realm. It has a core impact of where our country is going. And I’m truly believing for revival. I don’t know how revival comes out of an audit, but that’s what I’ve been praying for.
Logan said that there was a “prayer wall” at the “audit” location and that “we had at least five people who gave their life to Christ while at the audit.” He said, “I am amazed at the high correlation between believers who are seeking truth and who want to be involved in election integrity stuff.” Logan may not have been so amazed if he had read journalist Sarah Posner’s recent story for Vox, “How the Christian right embraced voter suppression.”
IFA’s Kris Kubal told listeners to be encouraged, saying that if God were done with America, “there would be no battle,” adding that “We know that God still has plans and purposes because the enemy is trying his best to stop them.”
When Chase joined the call, she commended Logan, saying, “He has the mind of Christ,” adding that she knew that whatever the “audit” revealed, “it’s gonna be the truth.”
Chase complained about Democrats’ control of the Virginia statehouse and legislature, claiming, “I basically live in a Marxist state.” She complained about being censured for saying that the 2020 election was stolen and for having a plexiglass wall built around her desk when she refused to wear a mask. “You just would not even believe the amount of persecution” she said.
She charged that “there was complete maladministration by Maricopa County” and claimed, “They just obstructed justice.” Republican officials in Maricopa County and journalists have repeatedly discredited the “audit” as procedurally flawed and a partisan ploy.
Chase said that we are living in the End Times and that things written about in the biblical book of Revelation are being fulfilled, but that there is still work to do. “Virginia is not a lost cause,” she said, urging people to pray for the state’s elections and saying that “the best number one solution for Virginia to have better election integrity is to elect a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and replace all the members in the House so that we have Republican majority.” Having a Republican governor, she said, would mean a state election board with a Republican majority, “and that will change everything.”
Chase said that the “election integrity caucus” she started has had five or six phone calls. Caucus members are still reviewing and digesting the Cyber Ninjas’ final report, she said, before releasing a statement on behalf of the group.
Logan closed the session with a prayer for revival, asking, “May our nation remember its roots, its Christian roots, oh God, and may they turn away from their wicked ways.”
This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.
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