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Aug. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
16:38
Auditors Finish Counting Ballots in Arizona’s Maricopa County; Twitter Responds | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
Over in Arizona, the state Senate has just completed their third counting of the ballots, meaning that they are now just one step away from completing the final audit report.
Meanwhile, over by Florida, Cuban refugees are being intercepted by the Coast Guard and being sent back to Cuba.
And this is happening, by the way, at the very same time that record numbers of illegal aliens are crossing the U.S. southern border.
And according to new data, there is a 900% increase in the number of these border crossers who are testing positive for COVID.
Let's go through it all together.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
Now let's begin today's discussion over in Arizona.
But actually, just before we do, as a super quick aside, right there at the very top of the description box is a link to Epic TV, which is our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times content, like The Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, China in Focus, Life and Times, as well as our show Facts Matter.
And on there, we publish exclusive episodes that, due to the censorship, we just don't post here on YouTube.
Again, that link will be right there at the top of the description box.
And now let's really head on over to Arizona.
Yesterday, we already discussed how Twitter suspended the official account of the Arizona election audit that the Arizona State Senate was using to communicate with the public.
And as of today, there has been a small development.
Because although Twitter did not get back to us with a comment, they did respond to BuzzFeed News.
And they confirmed to BuzzFeed that the ban on this account is actually permanent.
They permanently banned the account.
Now, as to why they exactly made this decision, well, Twitter claimed that it was because the account violated their rules on platform manipulation as well as spam.
Here's specifically what a Twitter spokesperson said.
The accounts were permanently suspended for violating the Twitter rules on platform manipulation and spam.
Although, if you log in and actually go through that particular policy over on Twitter, it's fairly long, it has many different provisions, and it's not exactly clear how Twitter is accusing the Arizona State Senate of engaging in either manipulation or in spam.
And this all ties into a larger discussion centered around criticism that these big tech giants like Twitter are receiving and have been receiving for a while now.
Because very often, the way that they conduct these suspensions, or rather the reasoning that they give for these suspensions, is very broad, it's non-specific, and it's vague.
To the point that now discussing constitutional court-approved election audits is not allowed on the platform.
However, I also think it's worth noting that this ban on Twitter came one day right after PayPal announced that it would be working with law enforcement to monitor what they're calling extremists, and it came a single day after an online counterterrorism organization, which, by the way, Twitter is a member of, announced that it would be shifting their focus away from combating Islamic extremism to instead combating what they called the far right.
Regardless, if we get back with any clarification as to why specifically Twitter banned the Arizona election audit account, I'll let you know right away.
However, meanwhile, the audit is still continuing on as planned.
Just yesterday, the audit team announced that they finished their counting of the ballots and will now shift their focus to compiling a draft report on the audit results.
According to Karen Phan, who is the Arizona Senate president, workers completed the third count yesterday over at the Wesley Bolin Building, which is in Phoenix, Arizona.
Here's specifically what she said.
The physical tabulation of the ballots are complete and are being returned to Maricopa County tomorrow.
The data gathered by the audit team, which includes this third count, will now be taken back to their labs, which are located in Washington State and in Florida, and they will be analyzed.
Just for your reference, by the way, this third count, this third set of numbers, it was needed because the initial recount and the numbers that Maricopa County initially provided didn't match.
And so they needed a third number to compare them both to.
And now that the third recount is completed, the ballots are heading back.
Just earlier today, officials from Maricopa County, they came to the Wesley Bolin building, and they picked up the ballots, as well as the other subpoenaed items, and they took them back to Maricopa County, to specifically the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, where they will all be stored in a vault.
Now, this completion of the third count came just a few days after serious tension developed between the Cyber Ninjas, which is the firm that's leading the audit, and Ken Bennett, who is the audit liaison.
That's because back on Monday, Ken Bennett told local media that he was considering stepping down as the liaison since the audit team was refusing to let him into the building.
Now, the reasoning for him being locked out was because he shared confidential information with outside analysts, which was eventually leaked to the press.
And for your reference, by the way, those outside analysts that he leaked his information to had on previous occasions disparaged the election audit.
Here's how Ken Bennett explained what happened.
He further said that the cyber ninjas were actually keeping certain data from him, and he added that he can only endorse the final report if he was given access to the source data from which it was built upon.
Here's specifically what he said.
I can't just come in at the last minute and be asked to endorse something that I can't be a part of really building the way it needs to be built.
And then, in regards to whether he was going to continue on as liaison, he said this, I do remain locked out of the audit, and as such, it's impossible for me to really function as the liaison.
However, he later told a local Arizona newspaper that he had actually come to reach a deal with Arizona Senate President, Karen Phan, and he is going to remain on as the liaison.
In regards to the criticism lobbied by Ken Bennett, here's what Ms.
Karen Phan had to say.
We should not be looking over their shoulder, telling them how to do their job or asking for premature information.
When the audit is complete, then they will need to provide us with all their proof and documentation of their results.
She further added that it was irresponsible of Ken Bennett to disclose how many ballots were in some of the boxes to outside analysts, specifically to analysts who have repeatedly disparaged the audit.
However, she further added that Ken Bennett would be involved in a vital part of the draft and final reports to ensure their accuracy with his knowledge and contributions throughout the audit process.
For your reference, by the way, the final audit report is still scheduled to be released sometime in August, which is now just a few weeks away.
If you would like to read more about anything that we discussed over in Arizona, I'll throw all those links down into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And now let's move on over to the southern border and discuss how there has been a 900% increase in the COVID infections among the illegal border crossers.
Oh, sorry.
What's this?
Well, that's a great question, Roman.
And the answer is that it's today's sponsor, which is an awesome messaging company called Secure.
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And largely, that's because they have their servers and their data center over in Switzerland.
Now, why is that important?
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Now Roman in the studio, back to you.
And now let's talk a bit about Cuba.
The U.S. Coast Guard just made an amazing announcement.
They said that over the past week, they intercepted 27 Cuban migrants who were fleeing to Florida, and then they sent them back to Cuba.
Let me just repeat that.
Over the past week, the Coast Guard intercepted 27 Cubans who were fleeing their country, and instead of accepting them as refugees, they were sent back to their communist-ruled home country.
Now, just for your reference, in case you weren't following it, these people fleeing Cuba comes at a time when the island is facing massive unrest.
That was following the protests that sprung up around the entire country two weeks ago.
Those protests, by the way, saw thousands of people marching through the streets of Cuba, calling for an end to the communist regime and demanding freedom.
And as you can imagine, the communist regime wasn't too fond of people who want freedom, and so they cracked down extremely hard.
The Cuban Communist Party's paramilitary, they went out, they arrested people en masse, and they began to monitor dissidents in cities and towns across the entire country, which understandably led some people to flee Cuba in the hopes of reaching Florida.
And then, according to this news release here that was released by the U.S. Coast Guard just earlier this week, what happened was that last Friday, 22 people were intercepted on a boat about seven miles south of Key West.
And then on Saturday, five more people were intercepted on a makeshift raft about 50 miles off of the Florida Keys.
But don't worry.
All of these people were given food, they were given water, and they were given basic medical attention.
Before being sent right back to Cuba.
In fact, here's what the local commander of the U.S. Coast Guard down there in Key West, here's what he said in a statement following these extraditions.
I just hope those people don't experience loss of life when they're repatriated back home to Cuba.
And by the way, just for your reference, this move by the Coast Guard isn't outside of the scope of current policy.
Because following the Cuban protests two weeks ago, here's what the Secretary of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The time is never right to attempt migration by sea.
To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking.
Allow me to be clear.
If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.
Now the irony of all this, at least to me, is that as Cubans are fleeing communism and being turned away, people who are crossing the southern border are coming in droves.
In June, which was just last month, 188,000 illegal aliens were counted by Border Patrol.
188,000 in a single month.
That's, by the way, in addition to the thousands of people who slipped by undetected.
The 188,000 people were the ones who were actually caught.
In fact, if this trend continues, if the current monthly numbers hold on pace, then it's predicted that by the end of this year, by the end of 2021, over 1.8 million migrants will have crossed the border.
That would, by the way, be the most illegal entries into this country recorded in American history.
Furthermore, as the CDC is telling Americans to once again wear masks and vaccine mandates are going into effect around the country, there seems to be a bit of a blind spot in the national conversation with regards to these border crossers.
How so?
Well, according to Brian Hastings, who is the Border Patrol chief down in the Rio Grande Valley, he said that last week, his agent saw a 900% increase in border crossers testing positive for the coronavirus.
Let me just repeat that.
Last week, this Border Patrol chief, who is in charge of one of the busiest sections of the border, he said that he saw a 900% increase in the number of illegal aliens testing positive for the virus.
Here's specifically what he said in a statement.
Even with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, human smugglers continue to try these brazen attempts with zero regard for the lives they endanger, nor to the health of the citizens of our great nation.
Furthermore, the same Border Patrol chief, he told a local radio station that during this fiscal year, 40 of his agents have already tested positive for the virus.
Now, this reality is even leading some Democrat lawmakers down in Texas to challenge the federal government's policy.
For example, Mr.
Henry Quaylar, who is a congressman from Texas, he's a Democrat, he suggested that the Biden administration should pause accepting and or releasing illegal border crossers into local communities.
Here's specifically what he said during an interview with Fox News.
It's not fair to local communities.
People being released there that might have COVID-19.
What I'm asking of the Biden administration is to do a pause.
Do a pause.
They need to prioritize border communities.
They need to prioritize the men and women of DHS. Now his comments, by the way, came on the heels of a new report which found that Border Patrol officers were releasing illegal aliens who test positive for COVID to a non-profit organization.
According to a police chief cited in that report, what's happening is that immigrants are being handed over to the Catholic charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which then arranges them to stay in a local hotel, which they rented out entirely.
Here's specifically how that police chief explained the situation at a press conference just two days ago.
We did not know this.
No one told the city of La Gioia.
No one told the police department that these people were here.
And no one told us that these people were possibly ill.
Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to this charity for comment on this matter, but we have yet to hear back.
However, we did also reach out to the Border Protection Agency, and they responded to us by saying that they are still encountering historic numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
And secondly, they told us that they are still actually expelling people under Title 42.
And in case you don't know what that is, back in March of last year, so back in March of 2020, President Trump implemented what is known as Title 42, which is the emergency health provision, and it essentially closed the border to non-essential travel.
That was, of course, when the pandemic first began, and Title 42 was what President Trump used to close the border.
It essentially allowed for Border Patrol agents to turn back and expel illegal border crossers almost immediately, rather than have them be placed in custody and then go through a longer deportation process.
However, the Biden administration recently introduced an exemption to Title 42, which allowed for unaccompanied children, as well as most family units, to stay in the country once they hit American soil.
And so what's been happening is that it's mostly family units and children who are not getting deported.
And then, once they're accepted into America, These individuals are released into the interior of the United States, and then they are given one of two things.
They are given either a notice to report, meaning that they are obliged to report to a local ICE office once they get settled, or they are given a notice to appear, meaning that they have to appear in immigration court at a certain date.
Now, the question is, do these people actually report to the local ICE office, or do they show up to court?
Well, according to ICE, the reality is that they are just not able to track all of these thousands of illegal immigrants who are being released into the United States every single week.
Which then leads to problems in the interior of the U.S., like this one here, where you have a town in Michigan being set up with a resettlement facility.
Now, things might or might not change very dramatically in the next few days.
That's because the Biden administration had previously planned to phase out Title 42 entirely on July 31st, which is just two days from now.
If that happens, then Border Patrol agents will be forced to deal with more people since their ability to kick people out of the country will be greatly diminished.
However, there was a report released just yesterday in The Washington Post, which cited anonymous officials who are allegedly working on border policy within the White House.
And they said that the plan to phase out Title 42 has been put on hold.
But again, those are anonymous sources, and there hasn't been any official announcement as of yet.
We here at the Epoch Times, we in fact reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to get confirmation on whether Title 42 will be phased out or not, but we have yet to hear back.
Regardless, Mr.
Henry Quellier, who is again the Democrat lawmaker from Texas, he said that given the current situation, he not only supports Title 42, but also wishes that the Biden administration would actually be more vocal about it.
Here's specifically what he said.
I support Title 42, especially right now.
They need to publicize and show images of people being deported.
Because I ask you, have you seen one single picture of somebody being deported?
No, I haven't seen one.
I see people coming in, but we're not showing people being deported.
These numbers are not stopping, and with all due respect to the administration, they need to put a pause on this now for the sake of our border communities.
Now, if you'd like to read more about what's happening over at the southern border or about the Cubans that are fleeing communism but then being turned back, the links to all those articles will be down in the description box for you to check out.
And now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while YouTube still allows it.
If you have an Instagram account, follow me at EpicTimesRoman where I post spicy memes and behind-the-scenes research.
And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times.
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