Trump attacks Arizona GOP Senate candidate for not pursuing the ‘Big Lie’ enough

Mr Trump said he would ‘soon’ release an endorsement in the Arizona Senate race

Former President Donald Trump is lashing out at an Arizona Republican Senate candidate because he is not sufficiently supporting his lies that the 2020 election was stolen.

Mr Trump criticised Arizona's attorney general and Senate hopeful Mark Brnovich on Monday, claiming he had received "massive information on the fraud and so-called 'irregularities’" of the 2020 election, but that he "seems to be doing nothing about it."

The former president claimed that the attorney general's report “recites some of the many horrible things that happened in that very dark period of American history but, rather than go after the people that committed these election crimes, it looks like he is just going to ‘kick the can down the road’ and stay in that middle path of non-controversy.“

He called the developments a "shame" for Arizona.

The report Mr Trump was referring to found that Maricopa County's 2020 election had "serious vulnerabilities," but it did not find any evidence of the widespread voter fraud that Mr Trump alleges.

It did cite “instances of election fraud by individuals who have been or will be prosecuted for various election crimes" though it is unclear how many instances of fraud those instances represent.

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Election result-denying Republicans helmed an audit of Maricopa County's election results, which was roundly criticised by both Democrats and Republicans as farcical and mismanaged. The audit - run by a company owned by an election sceptical Trump supporter - ultimately found that Joe Biden won.

Mr Trump teased that he would soon be releasing his endorsement for the Arizona Senate race, making it clear it would not be Mr Brnovich.

“The good news is Arizona has some very good people running for election to the U.S. Senate. I will be making an Endorsement in the not too distant future!” he wrote.

This isn't the first time Mr Trump has railed against a Republican who insufficiently supported his election fraud lies.

Last month, Mr Trump withdrew his endorsement of Alabama Republican Mo Brook's Senate campaign for the same reason.

Mr Brooks has said he believes the election was stolen, but told Republican voters to put it behind them and focus on the future.

"Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went 'woke' and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, 'Put that behind you, put that behind you,' despite the fact that the Election was rife with fraud and irregularities," the former president said in a statement in March.

Political analysts noted that Mr Trump only rescinded his endorsement of Mr Brooks after the candidate began lagging in the polls.