edell@post.com wrote

> Donald Trump has set a pretty high bar for himself when it comes to wild
> rants. And yet, over the weekend in a speech to Turning Point USA in
> Arizona, he managed to outdo himself.
>
> Words -- or at least my words -- can't do it justice. So, here's the
> former President of the United States:
>
> "The county has, for whatever reason, also refused to produce the
> network routers. We want the routers, Sonny, Wendy, we got to get those
> routers, please. The routers. Come on, Kelly, we can get those routers.
> Those routers. You know what? We're so beyond the routers, there's so
> many fraudulent votes without the routers. But if you got those routers,
> what that will show, and they don't want to give up the routers. They
> don't want to give them. They are fighting like hell. Why are these
> commissioners fighting not to give the routers?"
>
> Yup. Literally unhinged. I mean, he says the word "routers" 11 times in
> that rant.
>
> What, you ask, is he talking about?
>
> Well, as part of the ongoing audit of the vote in Maricopa County
> (Arizona), there has been an attempt by Trump-aligned forces to subpoena
> the network routers used by the county's election division.
>
> Why the routers? Oh because the state Senate Republicans leading the
> audit -- as well as the questionable firm they have hired to run said
> audit -- want to know whether the Maricopa County voting machines were
> connected to the Internet on Election Day. Why? Because of a debunked
> conspiracy theory that votes were somehow electronically transferred
> from Trump to Biden. (This is all part of a broader conspiracy theory
> that Italian satellites were used to change votes. And no, I am not
> kidding.)
>
> As the Arizona Republic wrote back in May:
>
> "Senate liaison Ken Bennett has said [the routers] are needed to check
> whether the county's voting machines were connected to the internet
> during the election. But a county spokesperson said that the auditors
> already have the information and machines to perform that check, and a
> previous independent audit commissioned by the county proved they were
> not." Why won't the county just turn over the routers to appease Trump?
> Three reasons actually:
>
> 1. Money. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has estimated the
> cost of replacing routers, which would need to be done if the current
> ones were handed over for this "audit,"at $6 million. (If you're
> wondering the board has a 4-1 Republican majority.)
>
> 2. Disruption: Handing over the routers would "severely disrupt the
> operations of county government because other agencies outside of the
> recorder's office and elections department use them," according to the
> board.
>
> 3. Safety: "Given access to the mail carriers' -- or routers' --
> information, it would be easier for a bad actor to get access to a
> person's mail, or to target the information inside the network," wrote
> the Arizona Republic.
>
> Trump, of course, cares about none of that. It makes a good talking
> point to say that these routers hold some super-secret information (they
> do not) and suggest that the county's unwillingness to turn them over is
> proof that there is something nefarious on them. (It is not).
>
> And so, we get the router rant. Which would be funny except that, as
> January 6 proved, lots and lots of people believe -- sight unseen --
> whatever the former president says. And that fact makes what Trump is
> doing actually dangerous.
>
> https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/26/politics/donald-trump-2020-election-
router
> s/index.html
>