Trump Is Said to Have Called Arizona Official
After Election Loss
Donald Trump tried to reach the top Republican in
metropolitan Phoenix as his allies were trying to overturn the state’s 2020
results, according to the official, who said he did not pick up the calls.
By Michael
Wines and Reid J. Epstein
July 2,
2021
President
Donald J. Trump twice sought to talk on the phone with the Republican leader of
Arizona’s most populous county last winter as the Trump campaign and its allies
tried unsuccessfully to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s narrow victory in the
state’s presidential contest, according to the Republican official and records
obtained by The Arizona Republic, a Phoenix newspaper.
But the
leader, Clint Hickman, then the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of
Supervisors, said in an interview on Friday that he let the calls — made in
late December and early January — go to voice mail and did not return them. “I
told people, ‘Please don’t have the president call me,’” he said.
At the
time, Mr. Hickman was being pressed by the state Republican Party chairwoman
and Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to investigate claims of fraud in
the county’s election, which Mr. Biden had won by about 45,000 votes.
Liz
Harrington, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement that “it’s no
surprise Maricopa County election officials had no desire to look into
significant irregularities during the election,” though there is no evidence of
widespread problems with Arizona’s election. She did not directly address the
calls reportedly made by Mr. Trump. Two former campaign aides said they knew
nothing about the outreach to the Maricopa County official.
The Arizona
Republic obtained the records of the phone calls from Mr. Trump and Mr.
Giuliani after a Freedom of Information Act request.
Mr. Hickman
and the county’s four other supervisors certified the election results and have
repeatedly called the vote free and fair. But the Republican-controlled State
Senate began its own review of all 2.1 million votes cast in the county, which
has been widely criticized by state officials from both parties and is still
underway.
The Arizona
Republic reported that the calls came as the state Republican chairwoman, Kelli
Ward, sought to connect Mr. Hickman and other county officials to Mr. Trump and
his allies so they could discuss purported irregularities in the county’s
election.
Ms. Ward
first told Mr. Hickman on Nov. 13, the day after the Maricopa vote count sealed
Mr. Biden’s victory in Arizona, that the president would probably call him. But
the first call did not come until New Year’s Eve, when Mr. Hickman said the
White House operator dialed him as he was dining with his wife.
Mr. Hickman
said the switchboard operator left a voice mail message saying Mr. Trump wished
to speak with him and asking him to call back. He didn’t.
Four nights
later, the White House switchboard operator called Mr. Hickman again, he said.
By then, Mr. Hickman recalled, he had read a transcript of Mr. Trump’s call
with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state whom Mr. Trump
pressured to “find more votes” to reverse his defeat in the state.
“I had seen
what occurred in Georgia and I was like, ‘I want no part of this madness and
the only way I enter into this is I call the president back,’” Mr. Hickman
said.
He sent the
call to voice mail and did not return it because, he said, the county was in
litigation over the election results at that point.
In November
and December, Mr. Giuliani also called Mr. Hickman and the three other
Republicans on the Board of Supervisors, The Republic reported. That call to
Mr. Hickman also went to his voice mail, he said, and he did not return it
either.
Among those
he consulted with while considering whether to return Mr. Trump’s calls, Mr.
Hickman said, was Thomas Liddy, the litigation chief of Maricopa County. Mr.
Liddy is a son of G. Gordon Liddy, the key figure in the Watergate
burglary.
“History
collides,” Mr. Hickman said. “It’s a small world.”
Annie Karni
contributed reporting.
Michael
Wines writes about voting and other election-related issues. Since joining The
Times in 1988, he has covered the Justice Department, the White House,
Congress, Russia, southern Africa, China and various other topics. @miwine
Reid J.
Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The
Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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