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July 22, 2021 - Epoch Times

20:41

Official Reveals Contingency Plan if Arizona Audit Runs Beyond Deadline | Facts Matter

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	Good evening.
	According to newly released documents, which were just obtained by Judicial Watch, state officials out in Iowa, they allegedly worked with big tech companies in order to censor the social media posts of American citizens.
	Meanwhile, out in Arizona, as the audit of the 2020 election out in Maricopa County continues, we here at the Epoch Times, we had a chance to interview Arizona's former Secretary of State, who is also the audit liaison, and he told us that the audit might take a little longer than expected.
	Although he says that they have a contingency plan.
	Meanwhile, four days ago, the Canadian health minister said that Canada supports the idea of a vaccine passport.
	And so it looks like, in the very near future, if you would like to visit Canada, you will need to show proof of vaccination.
	And lastly, earlier today, the Facebook oversight board has upheld the permanent banning of President Trump.
	However, it looks like President Trump has launched his own social media platform.
	Let's go through these stories together.
	This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
	Now let's start today's discussion over in Arizona.
	And actually, just before we do, as a quick aside, at the very top of the description box, there is a link to Epoch TV. It's our awesome, brand-new, no-censorship platform where you can find all of the Epoch Times programming.
	Like the Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, Life and Times, as well as Facts Matter.
	And on there, we'll be posting exclusive episodes that you can only find on Epic TV. This week, likely on Saturday, we'll be posting an exclusive episode there.
	So I hope you click on that link.
	I hope you subscribe.
	And now, let's really talk about Arizona.
	Now the audit of the 2020 election over in Maricopa County has been underway for close to two weeks now.
	And that audit, as we've discussed in several other episodes, is being conducted by the Arizona State Senate, and it includes recounting by hand 2.1 million ballots, checking for any IT breaches that might have occurred, as well as forensically examining almost 400 tabulation machines.
	Now the venue where this audit is taking place is the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum over in Phoenix, and it was booked by the Arizona State Senate until May 14th.
	And previously, Ken Benet, who is both the former Arizona Secretary of State as well as the liaison for the audit, he told media that he was confident that the audit would be completed by May 14th, by that deadline.
	However, two days ago, we here at the Epoch Times, we got a chance to interview him, and he told us that it could actually run longer.
	Here's what he said.
	There's no deadline for the audit.
	The goal is not speed.
	The goal is accuracy and completeness.
	Furthermore, he told us that while the analysis of the equipment that was used in the 2020 election was actually completed over the weekend, the review of the ballots, as well as other paper materials, might actually need to be extended by a little bit.
	However, if that's the case, the audit will have to take a brief pause.
	That's because the Coliseum over in Phoenix has actually been booked by another group starting on May 15th.
	Starting on May 15th, the Coliseum over in Phoenix is set to host around 17 or 18 different high school graduations.
	Here's what the audit official told us: "We knew when we came in the building that beginning the 15th, for five days, there were 17 or 18 high school graduations to be held over a five-day period.
	And if we have to step aside and let that happen and then come back, we have as much time as we need." And he further told us that if this scenario were to occur, then the election materials, the ones that have yet to be audited, would be kept on-site, meaning at the Phoenix Coliseum, but just in a different place, although he said that this place would be totally secure.
	As with the audit itself, he said that they can set up a live 24-hour surveillance that people can actually watch online.
	Now, as of the time of our interview with him, which was about two days ago, he said that somewhere between 150,000 and 175,000 of the ballots have been counted.
	And so, we'll just have to wait and see how this all ultimately proceeds.
	In regards to the legal challenges from the Cyber Ninjas, the ones that we discussed in a previous episode, wherein the Arizona court, the Maricopa County Court, released security information to the public, well, no developments on that front have been made thus far.
	Perhaps in the next few days, we'll know what is happening on that front.
	And as always, if you would like to watch the audit for yourself, the Arizona State Senate set up a website called azaudit.org where you can watch the audit in real time from nine different camera angles.
	The link to both azaudit.org as well as our interview with this audit official will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And by the way, that is that same little description box that is right below that like button that I hope you take a quick moment to smash because you already know that videos that are like this talking honestly about what is happening in this world A routinely censored, throttled, or outright removed by big tech giants like YouTube.
	And in fact, when I was doing research for this story, I recognized that almost all of the news coverage of this Arizona audit are negative.
	They are discrediting the audit before it's even completed.
	However, when you talk about it honestly, a lot of times you are suppressed.
	However, if you smash that like button below this video, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people, letting the truth be known far and wide.
	And now let's move on over to Iowa.
	As we discussed in a previous episode, the watchdog group called Judicial Watch, they recently uncovered documents which revealed that California government officials might have coordinated with big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google in order to censor the social media posts of its users.
	And now, Judicial Watch released new documents which make it seem like a similar situation actually played out over in Iowa as well.
	According to 624 pages of records that they were able to obtain from the Iowa's Secretary of State after they sued for them, Judicial Watch said that they showed that last year, state officials in Iowa worked with big tech companies in order to censor posts about the 2020 election.
	Now Tom Fitton, who is the president of Judicial Watch, said that these documents reveal to us another example of state officials who conspired with big tech companies in order to deny Americans their First Amendment rights.
	Here's how he summarized the findings in a statement.
	These records further show that big tech censorship is a government scandal.
	Iowa government officials worked with Facebook to remove posts they didn't like.
	And Facebook bowed to this political pressure immediately.
	It should be disturbing to all Americans that government officials are working to censor speech they disagree with and that these behemoth companies often seem willing to roll over and censor free speech.
	Now, let's go through an example of how this social media censorship actually works in practice.
	On February 3rd of last year, of 2020, Kevin Hall, who is the communications director for the Iowa Secretary of State, he sent an email to a Facebook official named Rachel Holland.
	And in that email, Kevin asked this Facebook official for help with removing a post that Judicial Watch made on social media, on Facebook, which they deemed was false.
	And again, just to be clear, when I say they deemed, it means this person in the office of the Iowa Secretary of State.
	He said that this was false.
	And within an hour, Rachel Holland, the Facebook official, she responded to Kevin and said that Facebook had, quote, Then, a couple of hours later, Kevin contacts Rachel again, saying that they, meaning Judicial Watch, have new posts up, doubling down on the false claims.
	Rachel then responded by saying that Facebook had quote, Now, according to these recently released documents, Kevin did not only reach out to Facebook.
	He also filed a report with Twitter to try to censor the same post by Judicial Watch.
	However, after Twitter declined to do so, a woman named Maria Benson, who is the Director of Communications at the National Association of Secretaries of State, she's also essentially a government official, she joined this effort and she urged Kevin Kane, who is a Twitter official, to take the post down.
	However, Kevin, this Twitter official, he declined the request once again.
	However, this did not deter these government officials.
	That's because Maria Benson, she then emailed a man by the name of Brian Scully, who is an official over at the Department of Homeland Security, and she asked him to report this same issue to Twitter, just from a different angle.
	Brian Scully agreed, and responded by saying this, Sorry, been out of pocket a bit.
	We'll reach out to Twitter.
	Let me know if you get something.
	Now, that post on Twitter was ultimately not taken down, but these documents do shed an amazing light on what happens behind the scenes when these posts are censored.
	And it, in fact, also raises a very big question.
	Because when posts like these do get censored, a lot of people, a lot of Americans, defend social media companies by saying that they are private actors.
	They are private businesses, and so, if they censor people, that is not a violation of these people's First Amendment rights, because it is not the government that is censoring them.
	However, here's the question.
	What if, behind the scenes, the government, the American government, either at the federal or state level, is pressuring these social media companies to take down the posts of Americans?
	What if it's the government pushing for the censorship?
	Does that violate Americans' First Amendment rights?
	Well, now that these documents have officially been made public, that question will ultimately have to be decided by the courts.
	Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we actually reached out to the Iowa Secretary of State's office, we reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, and we reached out to the National Association for Secretaries of State for comment on this whole matter, but none of them have gotten back to us.
	If you would like to comb through these documents for yourself, the link to them will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And also, I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
	If what these documents reveal is true, is this actually a violation of Americans' First Amendment rights?
	I'd love to know your thoughts.
	Please leave a comment below and I will read through them tonight.
	And now, before we move on over and talk about big tech censorship as it relates to President Donald Trump, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth.
	The sponsor of today's episode is AMAC, that's A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
	Now, even though I consider myself a mature American citizen, I am about 20 years too young to join.
	But if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or older, you should consider joining AMAC. They are basically the conservative version of the AARP, And they have basically three main benefits to joining.
	The first one is the money-saving benefit.
	If you're a member, they will give you a ton of discounts to places like retail shops, restaurants, on insurance plans, on vitamins.
	It's actually a pretty long list of discounts you'll get.
	I'll throw the link in the description box below this video.
	You can check out the full list.
	The second benefit is that they will send you a magazine directly to your doorstep.
	And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's pretty good.
	It's filled with a lot of really good thought-provoking articles.
	And then the third benefit, and what people consider the best, is that they actually fight for conservative values on Capitol Hill.
	Basically, they're fighting against what they're calling the socialist storm that's brewing in America.
	And so if you are interested, it doesn't cost that much.
	It's only about $16 per year.
	Check out AMAC. The link will be in the description box below this video.
	Or you can go on over to amac.us forward slash facts matter.
	Again, that's amac.us forward slash facts matter.
	And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode.
	And now Roman in the studio, back to you.
	And now, while we're discussing the topic of big tech censorship, let's talk a bit about President Trump's social media.
	To start with, earlier this morning, Facebook's oversight board upheld a decision to permanently ban President Trump from the platform, from Facebook.
	Now, in case you don't remember, the Facebook oversight board was established last year, and it has fairly broad powers.
	They can even overrule Facebook's decisions.
	They are essentially set up as a social media court.
	This morning, this court ruled in favor of President Trump being permanently banned from the platform.
	In a statement, they explained their reasoning as follows.
	Trump's posts during the Capitol riot severely violated Facebook's rules and encouraged and legitimized violence.
	The posts violated Facebook's rules prohibiting praise or support of people engaged in violence.
	Now, after this ruling, Democrats in the federal government have largely been supportive of this move.
	As just one example, Congressman Ro Khanna, he is a Democrat from California, and he actually represents the district that Silicon Valley is in, he said this in a statement.
	I support the Facebook Oversight Board's nuanced decision to uphold the suspension, which is consistent with the principles I have articulated to balance ethical community standards with user speech.
	Now, on the flip side, Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee called the board's decision pathetic.
	And furthermore, the president of the Internet Accountability Project, which is a conservative nonprofit, he said this in a statement.
	Facebook is essentially acting as prosecutor, defender, judge, jury, appellate court, and executioner.
	No one company should have the power to effectively block a president from communicating with the American people.
	Now, of course, Facebook is not the only platform in question here, as Twitter also permanently banned President Trump as well, which actually might or might not be the reason that they just missed their target on acquiring new users, which then led to their stock price taking a 13% hit.
	Regardless, as a response to all of this, just yesterday, President Trump launched a new communications platform.
	If you go on over to his website right now, which is donaldjtrump.com, and click on the Desk tab, you will be taken to the new platform.
	At the moment, it does not allow people to post comments or other feedback, and so right now it's essentially a blog, but it does include the option to share President Trump's messages to Twitter and Facebook.
	Right now, it's not exactly clear whether this website will be further developed into a full-fledged social media platform, and as it's currently set up, it's not possible to either create user accounts or to reply to President Trump's posts.
	President Trump right now is currently the only one posting there.
	Now, if you'd like to check out this new website for yourself, the link to it will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And now let's move on over to Florida.
	The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, he has just taken two actions.
	He has just signed a bill which bans vaccine passports, and he has also announced an executive order which will suspend all pandemic emergency mandates in the state effective July the 1st.
	Now, in regards to that executive order, here's what the governor had to say.
	During that speech, he then described his actions as being the evidence-based thing to do.
	Now, it's worth noting that this order, which suspends local emergency mandates throughout the state, only affects the government, not businesses.
	Here's how Ron DeSantis described it.
	In terms of what a supermarket or some of them choose to do, a Disney theme park, this does not deal with that one way or another.
	Now, on the vaccine passport side, this new bill not only bans them altogether, but it also levies a $5,000 fine per violation, although it's not exactly clear how that will work yet.
	Now, Ron DeSantis himself has been a pretty vocal opponent of these so-called vaccine passports, saying that they would create essentially a two-tiered society, with different rights and privileges for the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated.
	Here's how he described it on Monday.
	You have a right to participate in society.
	Go to a restaurant, a movie, a ballgame, all these things without having to divulge this type of information.
	Now, what's interesting to note here is that while Florida, as well as several other states like Texas, are banning these kinds of passports, our neighbor to the north, Canada, is taking a very different approach.
	In fact, just four days ago, the Canadian health minister told reporters that her government actually supports the idea of a vaccine passport, and that they are actively working to come up with some form of vaccine certification for international travel.
	And what that seems to mean is that in the very near future, if you would like to visit Canada, you will likely need to show proof of vaccination.
	Here's what she told reporters.
	From our perspective, we have a bit of a head start in terms of entry into Canada in that we have ArriveCan, the app that allows for digital proof of testing, for example, now and a variety of other documents that people have to submit to enter Canada.
	And so, while states like Florida and Texas have banned vaccine passports, and even the Biden administration itself has stated that there will be no national-level passport, at least in America, it looks like in the very near future, if things continue down this trajectory, in order to travel internationally, we will need to show some kind of proof of vaccination.
	Now, if you'd like to read more about these new regulations out in Florida or about this new announcement over in Canada, those links will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And now let's talk a little bit about Bill Gates.
	As I'm sure you've already heard, after 27 years of marriage, Bill and Melinda Gates have announced that they are divorcing.
	Here's what part of a tweet that Bill Gates released two days ago said.
	After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.
	Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
	We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation.
	But we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.
	We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.
	Now, besides that statement, they did not provide any other details for the split.
	Now, given the fact that Bill Gates is currently the fourth richest person in the entire world, this divorce is said to have fairly large stakes.
	At least, it has a lot of wealth hanging in the balance.
	And what's interesting to note here is that this divorce announcement actually came two years after Jeff Bezos, who is currently the world's richest man in the world, announced his divorce with his longtime wife, Mackenzie Scott.
	Now, as to whether this has any deeper implications or meaning, thus far it's not clear.
	Nothing has really been made public besides what's known from that statement.
	If you would like to read that statement for yourself, it'll be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And now let's head on over to Pennsylvania.
	A district attorney out in Pennsylvania, he said that two women are slated to face voter fraud charges in two separate incidents.
	Now although these incidents are separate, both of these women allegedly tried to cast ballots on behalf of their deceased mothers.
	According to authorities over in Bucks County, which is in Pennsylvania, these two women filled out mail-in ballots with the names of their dead mothers during the 2020 election.
	Now both of these two women will be charged with violating provisions relating to mail-in ballots, which in Pennsylvania is a misdemeanor of the third degree.
	Now, the local district attorney told news outlets that these two incidents are isolated and added that...
	Now, this is not the first such case over in Pennsylvania.
	In fact, just last week, a man over in Delaware County, which is also in Pennsylvania, was sentenced to five years of probation after he admitted to casting an illegal ballot during the 2020 election.
	That man also cast a ballot for his dead mother.
	Just seems to be the thing to do over in Pennsylvania.
	Now, if you would like to read more about these cases, the links to them will be in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	And now lastly, as we already mentioned in several other episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, YouTube, they made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program.
	We can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after our episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
	They are essentially snuffing out our independent journalism through demonetization and it would be interesting to start combing through these documents by Judicial Watch and to see whether there's any connection between the federal government, state governments, and big tech giants like YouTube.
	I'm not saying there is, but it'd be interesting to at least examine the possibility.
	Now, regardless, we here at The Epoch Times have launched something very, very cool.
	It's called Epic TV. It's our brand new no-censorship platform where you can find all of our shows, including The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, Life and Times, Counterpunch with Trevor Loudon, China in Focus with Tiffany Meyer, as well as Facts Matter with me, myself, Roman Balmakov.
	And actually, in the very near future, we'll be uploading exclusive episodes that you can only find on Epic TV. Again, that link will be in the description box below this video.
	And I hope that you check it out because right now, in my opinion at least, there is nothing more important than honest, independent journalism that does not just push the established narratives.
	Because if you don't know what's happening in this world, and if you cannot get honest coverage on YouTube and platforms like YouTube because people need to self-censor in order to have their content available on here, then how can you make the decisions that are vitally important to you, your family, as well as the future of this country?
	And so again, that link will be in the description box below this video.
	I hope you click on it, I hope you subscribe, and I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this world through honest journalism that is based in truth and tradition.
	And now, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm, subscribe to this YouTube channel in order to get honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while you still can.
	And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.

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