Giuliani’s 2020 pitch to Arizona: We have ‘lots of theories’ but no ‘evidence’

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani made a striking pitch while trying to convince Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers to decertify the 2020 election, the state lawmaker alleged.

The former New York City mayor conceded the Trump campaign did not have evidence to back its claims of widespread voter fraud, instead offering only “lots of theories” in support of its position, Bowers said in Tuesday’s testimony before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

“We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence,” Giuliani said when the speaker pressed him for evidence to justify his decertification requests, according to Bowers.

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“I don’t know if that was a gaffe, or maybe he didn’t think through what he said, but both myself and others in my group, the three in my group, and my counsel, both remember that specifically, and afterwards, we kind of laughed about,” he told the committee while recounting the exchange.

Bowers said he was stunned by the remark and felt that former President Donald Trump’s allies wanted him to undertake unprecedented action to thwart the election without sufficient proof of malfeasance.

Trump appealed to Bowers as a fellow Republican, asking him, “Aren’t we all Republicans here?”, Bowers said. But Bowers did not “want to be used as a pawn” and felt Trump and his allies failed to show the evidence needed.

Trump had castigated Bowers as a “RINO,” short for “Republican in name only,” prior to the hearing and alleged that he had a conversation with Bowers in which he professed his belief that the election was “rigged,” adding that Bowers “should hope there’s not a tape of the conversation.” Bowers denied making those remarks during the hearing.

“[If] anywhere, anyone, anytime has said that I said the election was rigged, that would not be true,” he added.

In February, Bowers bucked members of his own party in Arizona by blocking legislation that would have given the state legislature the power to overrule election results.

A self-described conservative and supporter of the former president, Bowers was adamant that he was not going to undertake an illegal action on his behalf. He felt carrying out the requests would amount to violating his oath of office and told the Trump team to battle out its electoral challenges in court instead.

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Bowers said he faced harassment from Trump supporters for resisting efforts to challenge the 2020 election at a time when his daughter was “gravely ill.” He also said both his daughter and wife were deeply disturbed by the harassment, which included paneled trucks blaring claims that he was a pedophile and a corrupt politician.

Trump and his allies, such as Giuliani, tried to squeeze key state and local officials across the country, according to committee members, who made claims of a pressure campaign the focus of their fourth day of public hearings this summer.