Courtney Pedroza for the Washington Post via Getty Images
- Arizona's state Senate president defended One America News having full access to the Maricopa ballot recount.
- The pro-Trump network was accused of amplifying false election fraud claims.
- "Are you saying that OAN is not a credible news source?" Sen. Karen Fann asked CNN's Kyung Lah.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Arizona's Republican state Senate president Karen Fann on Tuesday defended the senate-commissioned Maricopa County ballot recount and insisted that One America News, a pro-Trump outlet that was given primary access to live stream the process, is "credible."
After not responding to multiple interview requests from the network, CNN's Kyung Lah interviewed Fann in the parking lot of the state Senate. With Fann at the helm, the Senate turned over 2 million ballots and hundreds of machines to a private firm, Cyber Ninjas, to conduct a full hand recount of the presidential race.
The controversy-plagued and tumultuous Maricopa recount resumed this week after being put on hiatus due to the site of the recount, the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, being booked for multiple high school graduations.
One America News was the only network given full access to air the process up close. Additionally, journalists like Lah and official observers have reported spotty access to the proceedings and complained about receiving conflicting information on who is in charge of coordinating with the press.
"First of all, when we talk about transparency, from day one, the entire process has been livestreaming-" Fann said when asked about transparency by Lah.
"On OAN, with cameras controlled by OAN," Lah pointed out.
"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.
-Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 26, 2021
The conservative OAN, which stands accused of giving a platform to lies and unfounded claims about mass voter fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 election, has also published several articles that portray the Maricopa recount in a positive light and suggest Democrats are covering up potential election misconduct.
And, as CNN noted, many of OAN's hosts and on-air personalities have openly solicited donations for the effort on social media.
Fann told Lah that the recounting exercise is necessary to "answer questions" and assuage voters' concerns, admitting that she's questioning "the integrity of the election system" itself.
But Maricopa County's election results were already verified as accurate twice by a post-election hand-count audit in November 2020 and a separate 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 hand-counting every single ballot is a process inherently prone to mistakes and not conducive to rooting out widescale fraud.
In the case of the Maricopa audit, employees are chasing conspiracies by examining ballots with UV rays 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 says she won't specify exactly where all the money for the recount is coming from until the process is over, telling Lah that Arizona taxpayers are footing the bill for the first $150,000 of expenses while the rest of the funds are coming from private donations.