We are at the halfway point, more or less, of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, and so far, there are just as many sets of Trump indictments as there have been named storms. Since the ocean is apparently on fire and boiling away, there will be more hurricanes coming. The experts have predicted it and doubled down. Science is never wrong. Yet a look at the satellite shows that there’s really not a lot of activity out there about which to be concerned.
While we await the coming storms, I’m taking a peek at the Southwest, where this time of year, some monsoonal weather begins to creep up from Mexico, affecting California, New Mexico, and Arizona. But I’m not spending the column as Joe Biden spends dinner with Ukrainian oligarchs talking about the weather. I’m talking about the political monsoon that is beginning to take shape in the Grand Canyon State.
For the better part of a year, the indictment season of former President Donald Trump looked to be above average, with the strong possibility of four named storms taking shape. Thanks to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the predictions, for once, came true. Trump now faces nearly 100 felony counts in four jurisdictions – New York, Florida, District of Columbia, and Georgia. That’s what was foretold – four sets of indictments. So if you’re on Team Trump, the waiting game is now over. You at least now have the peace of mind of knowing what’s out there against you so that you can tackle it head-on, right? Nah.
If she weren’t a newbie and actually had a track record of years of incompetence and fecklessness, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs would easily rank as the nuttiest governor in the country. But thanks to California’s Gavin Newsom, New York’s Kathy Hochul, and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Hobbs doesn’t even make the medal stand, yet. The result of what’s percolating in Arizona now could, however, put her in the game, as Arizona is now actively investigating whether they want to jump on the Indict Trump bandwagon.
Gov. Katie Hobbs said Tuesday that Arizona should press charges against former president Donald Trump over potential election interference in the 2020 election.
Hobbs told reporters at an event in Phoenix that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes should follow suit with Georgia, which indicted Trump on Monday.
“Absolutely. I have been an advocate for holding folks involved in trying to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election accountable and this is part of that process,” Hobbs, a Democrat, said.
Now that was followed in fairly short order by a statement from one of the hardest-working government officials at the state level – Christian Slater, Hobbs’ communications director. He’s the hardest-working because he spends a lot of time cleaning up on Aisle 9.
“Gov. Hobbs misheard the question. She was responding generally about her belief that anyone who breaks the law must be held accountable for working to overturn free and fair elections. As she has consistently stated, she believes in allowing the legal process to proceed independently and without political interference.”
Slater’s attempt to protect his boss from herself notwithstanding, is this the end of the story? Probably not. Hobbs is pretty powerless to do anything constructive in a state where the Republicans still control the state legislature, albeit with the narrowest of majorities. She can’t implement anything, policy-wise, unless it’s through executive orders and state agency regulations. But that’s just it, isn’t it? If you’re a Democrat, why not use the state’s resources the way you want if you’re in charge?
Former Republican Governor Jan Brewer sees trouble ahead in the form of another round of indictments.
“I do. I do believe our attorney general is going to move forward on some kind of disciplinary action.”
Doug Ducey, who concluded two very successful terms as governor until Hobbs’ took over, was more cautious in his rhetoric, but is concerned we’re entering into very murky waters here.
“I am concerned about continuing indictments. I think we’re on number four. I’m concerned about how this is going to affect the electorate, the respect for the rule of law, and equal justice.”
If there were to be a fifth round of indictments out of Arizona, it would originate in one of two places – either the Maricopa County District Attorney, Maricopa County being Ground Zero for voting irregularity claims in 2020, or the state’s Attorney General, Kris Mayes. Typically, District Attorneys and/or attorneys general do not talk about ongoing investigations, so you have to do a little reading of the tea leaves here.
In Maricopa County, Arizonans are very well-served by a tough as nails prosecutor named Rachel Mitchell, a Republican. Her office would not comment at all on what was transpiring in Fulton County with MItchell’s colleague, D.A. Willis. But her spokesman did say this when asked if there were requests to investigate Trump for election inference.
“No investigation of the type you mentioned has been submitted to my office.”
If there’s an investigation underway at the county level, this statement wouldn’t have been issued. Mitchell’s office is smartly staying out of the fray and dealing with their primary job – prosecuting bad guys. But what about Attorney General Mayes? Different story.
Mayes, you’ll recall, won a mandate by defeating her Republican opponent, Abraham Hamadeh, by 280 votes out of just over 2.5 million cast statewide. She has credentials of working for lots of progressive people in her career, including serving as press secretary for former Governor Janet Napolitano during her gubernatorial run in Arizona. You’d think with that narrow of a victory, she’d be somewhat cautious about what legal adventures to take, but that doesn’t look like the road she’s chosen to travel.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said, “The attorney general’s office cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. We do not have any updates to share or comments to make on the Georgia case at this time.”
By saying they cannot comment on an ongoing investigation, that means there’s an ongoing investigation. Go back to Katie Hobbs saying the quiet part out loud. She wants there to be an investigation. She wants Mayes to indict Trump. This is the way, if the Mandalorians happened to be elected Democrats.
Since we started this piece talking about the weather, seeing the activity currently taking place in Arizona, tied to the other four cases that will regrettably consume all the available oxygen in the primaries so long as the former President remains the frontrunner, I’ll leave it to Bill Murray to give you the political forecast for Republicans. It’s not pretty.
