>> Ted: Coming up in the next hour on Arizona PBS, on Arizona horizon, the journalist's round dozen table look at the week's top stories including Donald Trump endorsing a republican candidate for U.S. senate and later in the hour on break it down, is an obesity epidemic leading to chronic disease among Millennials.

That's ahead on Arizona PBS.

>> It's Friday and time for the journalist's roundtable and Howie Fischer and Rachel Leingang and Camryn Sanchez of the Arizona capitol times and good to have you and howie, Donald Trump made his endorsement and who is Blake masters?

>> Well, let's see, he's decided he is the most conservative and most trump oriented and guess what?

Former president said, you're my man.

What's interesting, of course, virtually everyone in the race insisted they with the trump people.

I mean, look at Jim lamen and ballot harvesting laws and no way Mr. Brnovich would get this because nobody trusted him on either side and it left, you know, this guy who is, of course, backed by a lot of money by billionaire Peter Theil and can wipe the board in terms of the primary.

>> Ted: Founder of payp arc lal and monetary effort and we do know that Mr. masters is one of five candidates running on the republican side and how many?

>> It's very crowded and no clear frontrunner and it's been speculated the whole time whoever trump endorsed will break away because they've all been the three major candidates, you know, layman, Brnovich and masters have been at the same level and they're very similar, they're not really, you know, I don't think, putting themselves in completely different paths there.

But masters has gained a lot of national attention for the way he's been presenting himself and they look different than a typical candidate.

It's very shivered straightforward.

Peter Thiel putting a lot of money behind JD Vance and if he wins, it could be another Thiel-backed candidate.

>> What's important, there isn't a lot of difference and they say let's secure the board and they have ads saying, here we are at the border and so what does separate him orn other than the trump endorsements.

>> Ted: What does the torn that say about his race?

>> I think he's been working so hard all of this time to get the trump endorsement and it must be disappointing for him because it was for nothing with the election.

>> Ted: Donald Trump said Brnovich was such a disappointment and doesn't support law and order, Brnovich doesn't and that he understands the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen.

It's all coming from Donald Trump.

>> Except for the fact Brnovich is trying to get back in the president's good graces and the plea gar bin in bargain and nothing to do with the whole broad conspiracy and something prior to the primary and was done in open and this wasn't somebody sneaking in and mark Brnovich said, look, I've gotten convictions.

>> Ted: How did Brnovich respond in.

>> It shows the perils that you will be the one held accountable and run for something, this is what I would do and having the benefit of not having to do it.

He said Biden run right away and not trump.

But he's trying to then put it back into the bottle here and if you're a prosecutor, you would need evidence and proof to take something to a court and he's had it on the lower-level cases which are the typical small-time fraud you would see in most elections.

>> Ted: That's a wonderful thing for mark Brnovich to say, but the endorsement came out for Blake Master's, he said the office looks forward to working with Donald Trump and has multiple ongoing investigations regarding the integrity of the 220 election.

2020 election and that he's at the dance saying, will you please dance with me now.

>> I think they have to be and a rabid sense of Maga, the biggest section of the republican party, even if in a state like Arizona, it's purple and Democrats can win.

You know, the party here is not centrist in any kind of way.

>> It raises the question of what happens after the August primary as we head to the November 8 general election?

When you have some people -- you have the Maga vote and whether that's Kari who emerges or whatever, but there are a bunch of people and more independents in the state than are Democrats and at what point do you listen to the Donald Trump constant barrage and this isn't what we want representing Arizona?

>> Ted: My question is how important?

We know it's important and a big deal in certain aspects of the republican party and for the republican party in general which could choose a mainstream republican like Karen Taylor-robson and is this a game changer, a deal break and does this change the entire nature of this race or is this an interesting now we'll see what happens later?

>> I think that's a good question because they've been working hard and there's value in a trump endorsement these days and for Kari lake it's the center of her whole campaign and the race is close enough that like he said Brnovich is not dropping out, doubling down and I'm still here and I look forward to destroying Mark Kelly, et cetera and not dropping out just because I don't have the endorsement and that close and those three are still in it.

We'll see if the Donald Trump endorsement will push masters to the forefront.

>> Ted: He said Kelly will eat masters up and referring to World War II of unjust war and the uni bomber unjust and coming out swinging and mark Brnovich, well, I'm still here.

>> They're all so similar, I don't know how to differentiate yourself.

You're all on the same boat and he still has to be in office and that office has helped him getting on fox news every night.

And so, I don't know, you look at other states, whether the trump endorsement was critical and it's mixer -RBGS muddled.

I don't know.

>> Ted: And going up against Mark Kelly.

>> That's where the money fits in and, you know, can fit in and Kelly has more money than God at this point and will continue and this is a race given the 50/50 senate, both sides are focusing in on it.

>> Ted: We had a 2000 mule event and sounds like a barnyard and what was this all about.

>> We had a presentation from this group based in Texas and they're called true the vote and showing their findings to some of the republican lawmakers that says that there was ballot harvesting and corruption at ballot drop boxes that affected the 2020 election.

And that the lawmakers need to pass more stringent laws and at that meeting, one of the more interesting highlights is senator towns endend wanting vigilantes.

>> She wants to follow the voters around and she didn't say anything violent, and it's been criticized as potentially voter intimidation.

>> Ted: That's troubling to hear.

>> What's fascinating a bill pending for final reading expanding the definition of harassment making illegal what she suggested and I think her point was that you have ballot boxes now and not talking in the polling places, that are uncommonuncommonuncommon torred.

Ifuncommon torredun-monitored and will they follow me to my car and take my picture and turn it in.

>> Or worse.

>> Or worse, or who knows and that is the question of intimidation.

What'sperson for folks to understand, this state has a long history of intimidation in 1963 they would hang around in south phoenix and intimidate and heroinandhang around and question black voters to keep certain people away and is that not part of the plan.

>> Ted: One of the reasons we were under scrutiny and had been for so long.

This mule thing keeps popping up and yet, there's so far, again, we've got filmmakers coming out with interesting antidotes or ideas and have shown a couple of folks to be family members and election workers picking up and how far does this film go when nothing comes of it?

>> Well, I could take you through the litany of things, doing every spaghetti at the wall and doesn't seem to matter and they have incredible sticking power and with 2000 mules, they filled in a lot of blanks or questions with innuendo and speculation with every element of conspiracy that's come up since then.

It sticks around longer and it's coming up now is election related.

We're in the middle of the 2022 election.

I mean, it's something a candidate can say on the trail and it kind kind of sparks a note of recognition for their space.

>> They showed videos with a backpack and the only thing from Arizona is a ballot box from Maricopa county that you can't see who came up to it.

And what they're relying on is this geofencing that we have the unique identifying numbers from each cell phone and we can track people and we don't know their names we can see where they've gone to nongovernmental organizations and passed these plot boxes andballot boxes and tens if not hundreds of thousands of fake ballots in the system.

Again, none of this -- they say they turned it over to the FBI and attorney general's office and still waiting for criminal charges.

>> Ted: Aside from vigilantism?

>> There was an overflow room and the presenters, Greg Philips would say things that make them say there were mules an average of 21 times and then as a journalist, it was frustrating because, you know, one of the representatives, can you gives us this information and, yeah, maybe if the FBI says it's OK because there's an investigation and we can't tell you.

But all of tease these nonprofits and we can't tell you what it is and it's great and OK, after the presentation, a bunch of us reporters, you know, went up to the presenters and one was like, call our company website which was done and too high call volume and there's to accountability and can't get any proof of what you're saying and that's just to me, outlandish.

>> It's proprietary information.

Wait a second, if you claim you have these dots that can identify the specific cell phone and you can trace that, fine, what is so freakin' proprietary about that?

>> It's not a crime everywhere.

It's here now relatively recently, but it's not everywhere.

It's a state-by-state patchwork of whether it is or not, but people -- the word harvesting is intentionally and moisture is mule is in essential and trafficking talking about ballots and made to sound as outlandish as possible.

>> Ted: And how many days were lawmakers at the capitol?

It dominated one of the how many days were they down there?

>> I think we had a two-day weekend?

>> They work Monday and Tuesday and they'll be back next Monday and what do you want from these poor people?

>> Ted: How about a bill regarding something in the neighborhood of gun violence?

I know that was addressed this week and Cameron?

I think.

>> We suspended rules to allow the senate to hear a bill and that failed and not the same thing.

>> Ted: I'm saying addressing the issue.

>> We didn't make it to the bill.

>> Ted: You have two days down there and do something.

>> It's a workweek we would all hope for, to be honest.

>> The problem becomes until they get a budget and a big piece of that is a whole water authority, no reason to bring that in until four or five votes a day because they know if they have people there, you have 90 people running around with nothing to do and oh, my God, the damage they could do is immeasurable.

>> Ted: Paul Boyer said he would vote against this critical race theory ban and Rachel, talk to us about this.

Is this a Boyer senate now?

Robert's court, a Boyer senate?

>> Politicians are the best when they're about to retire and give up on the pretenses of, you know, horse trading and all of that and is this is Boyer, leaving at the end of the year and holding out for several things and they need him and he doesn't care.

He's going to stick around, same as the governor to try to get what he wants.

>> Ted: This ban would go after teachers?

>> No, he has concerns part of the problem is the breadth and discussion in the house.

If you cannot talk about race and ethnicity in terms of history and current events, the question came up, how do you discuss the buffalo massacre which was a racist incident?

I'm not sure it would be appropriate to be talking about that and talk about that.

You start out with the fact that this would allow the teachers to have their licenses suspended or revoked entirely if they broke the law.

Plus $5,000 penalties against the schools and the other part, I don't -- the odds and ends and I don't find teachers are teaching critical race theory.

What we're talking about, can talk about the role of race?

Can you talk about the role of ethnicity and history?

Misty Epstein said, look, we have a holocaust survivor that comes in and talks about the holocaust and what happened.

How do you talk about the holocaust without saying -- >> Ted: There's a part about the holocaust.

>> As an issue and how do you describe without saying, is it because the Germans considered the jews to be an enNickethnic inferior race.

So going back to Mr. Boyer, he may well hold out and may well hold out for expanded vouchers and I'll believe it when I see the deal.

>> Ted: As far as the budget is concerned, is anything being done?

>> Yes, I promise.

[ Laughter ] >> I spoke with Fann this morning and they're having their last meetings, finishing up this draft and have to possibly get a budget draft to their members next week and water should be coming out the same time as the budget draft and the sticking point is education and that's going to be a pain for them because of, well, in the senate, usually it's Boyer and I will say for the CRT bill, he's saying it's not that teachers are held accountable but he doesn't like the attorney general's office are involved in this bill and doesn't want them to be involved in the CRC RT punishment of schools.

>> Ted: We may get something along the lines of a budget soon.

>> They have less than a month or other parts of government could be shut down, so hopefully they do.

>> Ted: Does it feel that the grand bargain, the prop money is getting that in there, up there, education funding at that level, is that even a possibility?

>> I don't think that you can keep the republican caucus intact with the varying factions right now.

I also don't think they talk to him at all.

So I don't know huh how that all comes together.

The only way forward is some sort of coalition deal between the two parties.

>> Ted: Are you saying bipartisanship?

>> Here is the other piece which gets lost, going back to our friends at the 2000 mules.

Republicans who say we will not vote for a budget until all election bills are passed including no early voting and, you know, paper ballots, count the them employee the same day and threatening to hold out votes until they get what they want and I'm back to what Rachel is saying.

At some point one go to the Democrats and what do the Democrats want and how many republicans does that, lose them?

>> Ted: How many agree going across thual and thual the aisle and getting something done.

>> I think it's mostly talk.

For fillmore voting on 2099.

He was telling a press conference, we have to go on the board and you know this will fail and foy, but I want to see it fail and fine.

So there's no real point to that that except, look at them, they're not great.

>> Ted: The governor's first veto was this time last week or later and that involved an election bill.

>> It did and the idea is cleaning up the voter registration roles and some things the governors liked about if, if fact, you get a driver's license from another state and a resident and we should clean up the voter roles there and he didn't like any fool and underline fool can go in, file a complaint and force the recorders to investigate it.

They say we're in the investigator agencies and this isn't our job.

The type of mischief this could cause because I can see a lot of the folks including the folks at the 2000 mule's hearing, going in and saying, Oh, those people, they're not accidents citizens.

>> I see similarities between that and the teaching about race and a chilling effect and not that, you know, teachers can't teach, but they will not choose to teach about those things or people may be intimidated from going to the polls because they think someone will file a complaint and leads to a circus lead by vigilante.

>> Ted: This is not good and bring it back in a different way and maybe I'll do something about it.

>> I believe that can happen and that bill doesn't done because the governor is interested if having it with an amendment and so I have a feeling that they'll try to revive it and it will make its way through the legislature.

>> Ted: Howie, before we go, this is a disturbing site and we won't show it because we don't want to traumatize it, but the Supreme Court justice was dressed as a ras ras ras that tearan and singing Jamaican tunes.

>> And this is over a decade ago and I don't know it was sent to be black faced with the hair, a decade ago.

The real problem with this, sometimes you just say I did something stupid and I let it go.

>> Ted: There are other times that anyone opposed to this is being try strident and and part of humorless policy.

>> I'm looking anyone who shows up in black face to say it's all perfectly fine to me to be in black face.

Sorry, it doesn't work.

>> Ted: This happened over ten years ago, but a Supreme Court justice doing this, eh, what do we make of this?

>> It would have been great, I stepped in it and I'm sorry and pulling out the words, you learned in law school and it doesn't seem like an act of contrition in my kind of way.

If you've been on the Internet, you've done something embarrassing and showing humility, that shows your character.

>> Ted: He was showing homage, but can you do that without wearing the wig interest.

>> I found watching the video to be uncomfortable and I wonder if maybe the more -- I don't want to see the more disturbing part but another disturbing part is what he was singing about bashing the Democrats and he's a Supreme Court justice.

I wonder if that is the better argument.

>> Ted: We'll stop the conversation because it's very uncomfortable and we have to go.

Thank you all very much and that's it for now.

I'm Ted Simons thank you for joining us and you have a great evening.

Coming up later in the next half hour on Arizona PBS, is an obesity epidemic in Millennials.