US election: A press conference in the twilight zone

Analysis: The US presidential hopefuls are blitzing the battlegrounds in the final days of what’s being roundly described as the most important election in the country’s history, while their parties’ propaganda machines are in overdrive.
He broke it, she’ll fix it. She broke it, he’ll fix it (microphone at Milwaukee rally not included). He can’t be trusted, she can’t be trusted.
Neither side has the monopoly on ads, campaign slogans and messages that take a nugget of truth and stretch it to the extreme. They contort the issue, stoking fear and confusing voters in the process.
But it’s quite something else to watch a long-time member of the Republican machine do this across the full spectrum of topics, during a press briefing that stretches more than an hour.
Lisa Everett is the chairwoman of Maricopa County legislative district 29, in Phoenix Arizona. A Republican from 20, Everett’s first vote was for Ronald Regan – “an easy vote for me,” she says.
When she was 30, the Texan who recently moved to Arizona, started working for the GOP (Grand Old Party). Since then she’s worked for a congressman, and on countless county, state and presidential campaigns.
Everett says she’s a “low woman on the totem pole”, but there’s a slickness to her performance. She can take any policy; any comment and turn it on its head with the help of a well-placed personal anecdote, before casting doubt on democratic systems – a masterclass in responding to difficult questions, without letting facts get in the way.
When the grandmother of five spoke to a group of foreign journalists three days from election day, it felt like attending a press conference taking place in the twilight zone. 
Reporter: What happens if Trump doesn’t win on Tuesday? Will you accept the results … will it be a repeat of 2020?
Everett: Let me tell you what happened to me in 2022 … We were told to drop that ballot into drawer C, which means the tabulator doesn’t read it. It goes into a special drawer, the county picks those up, and you’re supposed to trust the county to count that vote?
In 2022, I didn’t get to vote … my ballot was not counted.
So, when you say: ‘you guys are accusing Maricopa County of not counting all the ballots; of cheating’ it happened to me. So if it happened to me, who else did it happen to?
Is there something nefarious? I don’t know. Do I look at people who, even now, are dropping five and six ballots in the drop box at a time? … That’s a problem.
R: If Trump wins, will you accept the results, despite seeing people drop multiple ballots in the box?
E: If Trump wins I believe it will be fine. Actually, I don’t believe it will be fine, no matter who wins this election.
I will be honest, it would not surprise me if the FBI didn’t knock on my door to, if Harris wins … to teach me not to open my mouth. The First Amendment is this close to being gone in my country.
(Note: It is legal to drop off a mail-in ballot, in a sealed and signed envelope, on someone else’s behalf. While Republicans alleged widespread election fraud in 2020, Maricopa County successfully defended all allegations of election tampering, fraud and manipulation.)
R: Women are the key to this election – how do you convince women to vote Republican?
E: OK, I’m going to go ahead and address the elephant in the room. I think what you’re saying is women are a single-issue voter, and they only care about aborting their babies … Or you’re getting at Trump is not exactly the most eloquent and so he may have offended women?
Here’s the reality: the economy is a woman’s issue. Health care, not aborting babies, but healthcare is a woman’s issue. The border is a woman’s issue. School choice is a woman’s issue. All these issues that are on the ballot right now affect women just as much as men.
And one thing that I do find hysterical is the left, who claim they protect women, want to put men in the locker room with girls.
I was in a movie theatre. A man in a dress tried to go into the women’s room, and I had just seen a little girl walk in there. I walked right over and stood at the door … Guess what? I wasn’t going to let him in. There were children in there. I was not going to let him in.
They want to be able to have an abortion up until the eighth month, the third week and the sixth day. So you give an inch, they want a mile.
(Note: Late-term abortions are rare and are done to preserve the life of the mother. In the US in 2021, 0.9 percent of abortions happened after 21 weeks, or four months.)
R: It’s easy for rhetoric to become policy, so when you have well-documented racist comments – for example when Trump said Haitians eat dogs –
E: – they were. I can pull the police reports.
(Note: Police in Springfield, Ohio say there have been no credible reports of Haitian immigrants stealing pets to eat them.)
R: What does peace in the Middle East mean for Republicans?
E: When I said Middle East, I was referring to Israel and it being a tiny, little country surrounded by a lot of other countries that want them to disappear.
Do I think Israel is perfect? No. Do I think America is perfect? No. Do I want to do everything I can to support Israel for their right to exist? Yes, I do.
I don’t know how many of you are Christian in this room, but Israel has existed way before America, way before a lot of these countries, and Palestine is a fairly new thing in the grand scheme of things. So Palestine – ‘from the river to the sea’ – is a real problem … Why does Israel not have the right to exist in so many minds right now, they’ve existed for a very long time?
R: You have mentioned wrong information. Historically, Palestine is not something new. Israel is not something old.
E: It’s in a book; it’s been around for 2000 years.
(Note: The state of Israel was founded in May 1948. Jewish people lived on the land prior to that, as did those of other religions and ethnicities.)
R: What do you think about the war in Ukraine, and how Trump can help the situation there
E: I feel it’s wrong for the United States to be funding money and have money on either side.
I think the advancement from Putin was planned, and it was planned for a very long time, not by Putin, but by the United States. I feel that well, I’ve read and heard stories about discussions from [former vice president] Dick Cheney, even about this whole Ukraine in Russia situation from way back when, and the plan was set in motion.
So, in walks our presidential nominee Kamala Harris – I believe it was 2021 – and she made a statement in an international forum, telling Ukraine that we will help you get into NATO within a month. Two months: we have a war. 
Did Kamala do that intentionally to fund the war machine that funds all of their bank accounts? I don’t know. Do I suspect it? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. 100 percent.
R: So it’s the fault of Kamala Harris?
E: I can’t put it all on Kamala Harris. But was it something that was in the works, and did she push the final straw? Yes.
(Note: The previous day, during an event in Arizona, Trump called Liz Cheney a “radical war hawk”. He said the ex-lawmaker should have guns “trained on her face”. He is now being investigated by the Arizona Attorney-General.)
R: What do you think about the episode with the Puerto Rico comments?
E: Who made the comment? A random comedian. This is not a story. The comedian doesn’t speak for Trump, Trump didn’t hire the comedian, Trump doesn’t know the comedian’s name.
It’s really sad that people who do not like Trump, all they have is name calling.
According to Joe Biden, I’m garbage. Now I just want to ask y’all, do I look like garbage? Do I smell like garbage? No. All they have is name calling. We’re racist, we’re garbage, we’re deplorables. Oh yeah, don’t forget Hitler. We’ve got to somehow work in Hitler … Give me a break.
Trump supporters are frequently called racist. What colour do you think my husband is? He’s black.
R: Historically, Arizona has been Republican up until 2020. Went from red to blue. Do you think that Donald Trump has lost touch with diehard Republican voters?
E: No, quite the opposite. There’s a huge grassroots effort here in Arizona. Donald Trump has filled arenas here in Arizona with his rallies.
Now, there are some signs that say ‘Republicans for Harris’, and it’s quite comical, because we have names for those Republicans, it’s called RINO: Republican in name only. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Dick Cheney.
I don’t see it as fallout. And I’m going to use a word from Joe Biden – and be sure and write that before you quote me – I see it as taking out the trash.
(Note: Following the 1hr 19min press briefing, Everett tells Newsroom she believes both sides need to dial down the rhetoric, and work across party lines to achieve enduring policy solutions. The next day, Trump laughs when a supporter at a rally yells: Kamala Harris “worked on a corner”.)