Stephen Collinson, CNN: “Ex-President Donald Trump’s big lie came full circle on Saturday as he traveled to Arizona to dangerously seize on the false fruits of a sham election ‘audit’ precipitated by his own discredited claims the 2020 election was stolen. On a late afternoon of delusion and incitement, Trump offered a preview of how he could exploit grievances of millions of supporters who buy his lies about voter fraud to power a possible new presidential run in the future. His speech underscored the nation’s split reality over last November’s election – the real one in which he lost and President Joe Biden was fairly elected and the nonsensical but powerful one that he sells to his supporters. The now self-sustaining myth that Trump was improperly ejected from power is at the center of a belief system that the ex-President is imposing on his party and is making a litmus test for 2022 GOP candidates seeking his endorsement, including in the Arizona Senate race, which is one of the GOP’s top targets as they try to take back the Senate.”

“In his latest return to campaign speeches, Trump showered praise on Arizona state senators who organized the non-scientific audit. He insisted he wasn’t involved, trying to create a false impression of independence and legitimacy in a politicized process inspired by his lies. ‘There is no way they win elections without cheating,’ the former President said of Democrats, at a packed event entitled – with Orwellian overtones – the ‘Rally to Protect Our Elections.’ The one-term, twice-impeached ex-commander-in-chief related prolonged and false stories of election fraud across the country. He also claimed that many more Republican-run states were seeking their own audits of election results, even though multiple judges have ruled that there was no election fraud. Trump’s appearance was full of the usual bluster, boasting, self-pity and too many falsehoods to count, and was in many ways a sideshow compared to the critical current challenges – including a pandemic that is quickly worsening again because millions of Republican voters will not get vaccinated. But his appearance was also a warning of one of the most dangerous problems haunting a divided nation’s deeply polarized politics – the fact that lies and conspiracy theories now represent sincerely held views of a large minority of the electorate thanks to Trump’s mastery of demagoguery and the endless flattery of a compliant right-wing propaganda machine.”