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Former President Barack Obama’s speech Wednesday in Arizona focused heavily on Trump-backed disinformation in a state where similar disinformation about him festered for years.
He had to be feeling some déjà vu.
A decade ago, then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio opened a yearslong pseudo-investigation into baseless allegations — spun by Donald Trump — claiming Obama’s birth certificate was fabricated. The crux of the right-wing conspiracy theory remains the same today: An illegitimate president was elevated into the White House by a cabal of non-Americans and ne’er-do-wells looking to destroy the country.
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Then, Arizona Republicans targeted President Obama with the ludicrous allegations. Now, they’ve targeted President Joe Biden.
And although the state has trended toward Democrats since Obama left office — including in 2020, when it sent two Democratic senators to Washington for the first time since the 1950s — a stubborn sect of right-wing fanatics in Arizona is looking to fabricate, legislate and intimidate their way into indefinite rule.
Obama laid out the stakes during Wednesday’s campaign stop for Arizona candidates, including gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs, Senate candidate Mark Kelly, secretary of state candidate Adrian Fontes and attorney general candidate Kris Mayes. You can hear the exasperation in his voice, seemingly over the fact that right-wing conspiracy theorists in the state have somehow gotten more vocal, vicious and involved in politics since he left office.
Here he is discussing right-wing conspiracy theorist and GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake’s “qualifications” for office.
In some ways, Arizona bears a resemblance to how it was when Obama stumped there as a candidate nearly 15 years ago. For certain, the right-wing impulse to adopt whatever crazed theory they can use as a pretense to further their bigotry is alive and well today. But Arizonans have shown an ability to resist these theories — and the party backing them — in statewide races and, increasingly, local races, too.
Democrats are hoping that trend continues next week.
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