MAGA Republicans push for more 2020 election audits: ‘Trump’s never going to admit that he lost’

After spending months auditing the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Arizona, the Florida-based firm Cyber Ninjas found that President Joe Biden won the state — which, of course, anyone with common sense already knew. But far-right MAGA Republicans haven't backed down from the Big Lie and, The Hill reports, are pushing for new audits in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas.

The Texas audit is especially silly, as former President Donald Trump won the state by 6% in 2020. But Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking reelection in 2022 and wants to remind Texas Republicans how MAGA he is, has said that he has "a responsibility to ensure the integrity of and confidence in the elections in the state of Texas."

Veteran GOP strategist Keith Naughton told The Hill, "There's still pressure from their primary voters who want to see this review. At the end of the day, everyone's in their own silos. If you're consuming that conservative media, you're not getting the message that (the Arizona audit) was this unambiguous endorsement of Biden's win. Plus, Trump's never going to admit that he lost."

Another Republican strategist, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Hill that many Republicans at the state level are pushing for audits because they are terrified of the possibility of offending Trump.

The strategist explained, "You see what happens when you criticize the election fraud stuff. Look at Brad Raffensperger. The grassroots is still with President Trump, and if he says the election was stolen, a lot of people are going to believe the election was stolen."

Raffensperger, Georgia's conservative Republican secretary of state, infuriated many Trump supporters when he maintained that Biden won the Peach State fairly and refused to go along with the Big Lie — Trump's false and thoroughly debunked claim that he was a victim of widespread voter fraud in 2020.

Another GOP strategist quoted anonymously in The Hill doesn't believe that all these audits will be helpful to Republicans going into the 2022 midterms.

That strategist told The Hill, "I think the whole audit effort is extremely counterproductive. We need to stop looking backwards and start looking forwards as a party."