Murphy is one of four Wisconsin GOP lawmakers who recently traveled to observe the audit in Arizona. The audit has been widely criticized by both Democrats and Republicans over its alleged biases, lack of transparency and a lack of previous election auditing experience from the firms and individuals conducting it.
During a Monday interview on WTAQ’s conservative talk radio show The Regular Joe Show, Murphy said that Vos had been wrong to take criticisms about the audit seriously, dismissing the concerns as “fake news,” while admitting that he would have preferred if leading firm Cyber Ninjas had chosen a different name.
“Robin Vos has seen enough fake news about himself,” Murphy said. “That he would read reports on this operation and then just take them as fact was, I think, very foolish on his part. I think he should have been able to see that this was just fake news that was coming out of Arizona.”
Murphy indicated that he was impressed after meeting for more than an hour with Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, who previously expressed support for former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of massive election fraud on social media.
“I wish they had picked a different name because it doesn’t really, to me, fit what they do,” said Murphy. “They’re a security firm and the security that they had was impressive… Just a very impressive operation.”
Although Vos announced last month that he was hiring three retired police officers and an attorney to investigate President Joe Biden’s win in the state, Murphy said that the speaker needed to be convinced to allow him and his GOP colleagues to make the trip to Maricopa County.
“We had to do a bit of convincing to get the approval from the speaker to go on the trip. His question was ‘what do you expect to accomplish,’” said Murphy. “And then he made fun a little bit of the whole bamboo ballot issue, which I think at the end of the day was just really a non-issue and this is what is being used by the other side to discredit this type of thing.”
The audit’s effort to screen ballots for bamboo fibers from Asia has been denounced by critics. Many have noted that an evidence-free conspiracy theory claims that fake ballots were shipped in from Asia and used to fraudulently deliver victory to Biden.
Murphy did give Vos “credit” for launching a new investigation into Trump’s Wisconsin loss, while expressing frustration that he is not personally part of the group investigating the results.
Audits and recounts in multiple states including Wisconsin and Arizona have repeatedly confirmed that Biden won the election, while there does not appear to be any credible evidence to support claims of widespread fraud.
Newsweek reached out to the office of Vos for comment.
