Arizona Senate president says the messy Maricopa County ballot recount is transparent because it's being broadcast on One America News
- Arizona's Senate president defended One America News' access to the Maricopa County ballot recount.
- The pro-Trump network has been accused of amplifying false election-fraud claims.
- "Are you saying that OAN is not a credible news source?" state Sen. Karen Fann asked CNN's Kyung Lah.
The Republican president of Arizona's Senate, Karen Fann, on Tuesday defended the Senate-commissioned election audit in Maricopa County and insisted that One America News, a pro-Trump outlet that was given primary access to livestream the process, was "credible."
CNN's Kyung Lah interviewed Fann in the Senate parking lot after Fann didn't respond to interview requests from the network. With Fann at the helm, the Senate has turned over 2 million ballots and hundreds of machines to a private firm, Cyber Ninjas, to conduct an audit of the presidential election results.
The controversy-plagued and tumultuous recount resumed this week after a hiatus for high-school graduations at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
One America News was the only network given full access to air the process up close. Journalists like Lah and official observers have reported spotty access to the proceedings and complained about receiving conflicting information on who's in charge of coordinating with journalists.
"First of all, when we talk about transparency, from day one the entire process has been livestreaming, so anybody-" Fann told Lah.
"On OAN, with cameras controlled by OAN," Lah said.
"Are you saying that OAN is not a credible news source? Are you saying that?" Fann asked.
"Yes," Lah responded.
"OK, I'll remember that: CNN is saying that OAN is not a credible one," Fann replied.
"Yes," Lah repeated.
"OK, very good," Fann said.
OAN, which has been accused of giving a platform to lies and unfounded claims about mass voter fraud, has published articles portraying the audit in a positive light and suggesting Democrats were covering up election misconduct.
And as CNN noted, many of OAN's hosts and on-air personalities have solicited donations for the effort on social media.
Fann told Lah that the recounting exercise was necessary to "answer questions" and assuage voters' concerns, adding that she was questioning "the integrity of the election system."
But Maricopa County's election results have twice been verified as accurate, by a hand-count audit in November and by a forensic audit of the county's voting machines by two federally certified test labs in January.
Furthermore, as election-security experts have noted, untrained volunteers counting every ballot is a process inherently prone to mistakes and not conducive to rooting out widespread fraud.
In the case of Maricopa, auditors have chased conspiracy theories by examining ballots with UV lights to search for nonexistent watermarks and looking for bamboo fibers in ballots based on an unfounded theory that fake ballots were flown in from Asia.
Fann told Lah that Arizona taxpayers were footing the bill for the first $150,000 of audit expenses, while the rest of the funds were coming from private donations.