CBS News
Arizona election officials work to restore confidence in results | 60 Minutes
With Donald Trump pulling out of his “60 Minutes” interview tonight, we’ll turn to a different Republican who is paying the price for Trump’s claims of a stolen 2020 election. Stephen Richer helps administer voting in Maricopa County, Arizona. That’s Phoenix and home to 60% of Arizona voters. Maricopa is often decisive in a state which swings either way. Trump claimed Maricopa county was stolen in 2020. Republican Stephen Richer was determined to find the truth — to restore belief in the ballot. He discovered that truth wasn’t what many wanted to hear.
Stephen Richer: I’ve become much more cynical about politics. There are a lot of people who have no lines in the sand. A lot of politicians. A lot of politicians for whom it’s like oxygen, that if you told them they weren’t going to be reelected, it would be like unplugging them from oxygen. So whichever way the winds are blowing, even if it’s highly immoral, that they’re on– they’re on for the ride.
Scott Pelley: What are your fears for this coming Election Day?
Stephen Richer: That we’ll, we’ll be doing this again for another four years.
Nearly four years ago, Republican attorney Stephen Richer was the voter’s choice for Maricopa County recorder, the office that records voter registration and handles ballots by mail. Richer took office after the 2020 vote when his own party was up in arms over allegations of fraud. It was Richer’s first elected office and he knew what to do.
Stephen Richer: They just need answers. It– it– it’s not that complicated of an issue. It’s just people are uncertain. They expected Donald Trump to win. I expected Donald Trump to win in Maricopa County. He didn’t win. They have questions. As soon as we give them logical, factual answers, all will be well.
Scott Pelley: And that’s not what happened?
Stephen Richer: That is not what happened.
60 Minutes
The ‘logical, factual’ answers came after multiple investigations. A hand recount of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million paper ballots confirmed Joe Biden won. Statewide, prosecutions for illegal voting involved a total of 19 ballots. In Maricopa, 50 ballots had been counted twice for a typical reason.
Stephen Richer: Somebody made a mistake. A human being made a mistake. There were 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election. These 50 shouldn’t have been tabulated. By no means were the 50 all for one candidate or another, so it had a negligible impact on the actual contest.
Negligible too, because Trump lost Maricopa County by 45,109 votes.
Scott Pelley: What evidence of widespread fraud was found in Maricopa County in 2020?
Stephen Richer: Oh, none. And I would say Maricopa County’s 2020 election is the most scrutinized election in human history.
Scott Pelley: When you began to tell your fellow Republicans in Maricopa County that the election was fair and there was no fraud that would change the outcome, how did they react to you?
Stephen Richer: Not well. Yeah. Not well at all.
They included Trump, who said, “the entire database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been deleted.(!)” He called it an “unbelievable election crime.”
Stephen Richer: It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was in the office looking at the very thing that he was– saying we had deleted. And so just sort of the– like, the– the– the– the ludicrous nature of it, it just is– is– is offensive.
Scott Pelley: What did you say in response to what the president had written?
Stephen Richer: I said something like, “This is unhinged. I’m looking at the voter registration database right now. These lies have to stop. This is as disprovable as saying two plus two equals five.“
Scott Pelley: And the reaction was what?
Stephen Richer: The reaction was significant.
Three violent threats to Stephen Richer have been prosecuted. One man got three-and-a-half years. The others are awaiting trial.
Undaunted, Richer explained the facts. Here, in 2021, he was heckled and followed to his car.
Stephen Richer: People were banging on my windshield as I got into the car.
Scott Pelley: What were they shouting?
Stephen Richer: “Turncoat,” “You’re wrong,” “You’re an idiot,” “Don’t be a traitor,” “How could you?”
The fever has never broken. This was three months ago.
Stephen Richer: I do not believe the 2020 election was stolen.
Response: Boooooo!
Scott Pelley: So why do so many people remain passionately unconvinced?
Stephen Richer: I think it has become– the– the– the tattoo. I think it has become the tattoo to show that you’re a true believer of the movement.
60 Minutes
Scott Pelley: You believe the election was stolen.
Shelby Busch: I do.
Shelby Busch started a political action committee which investigates what she calls widespread fraud in Maricopa County—fraud no credible investigation has found. She’s taken in nearly a million dollars in donations for the work of her PAC. And the Arizona Republican Party awarded her the leadership of its delegation at last summer’s national convention.
Shelby Busch: …and that’s why I, Shelby Busch, the delegation chair and our wonderful state chairwoman Gina Swoboda and this entire delegation counts their 43 delegates to Donald J. Trump.
Scott Pelley: You are a rising star in the state party.
Shelby Busch: Well, I definitely have brought some attention onto myself, that is for sure.
Scott Pelley: What do you believe happened in the Maricopa vote in 2020?
Shelby Busch: I believe that fraudulent votes were put into the system. I also believe that a lot of– state statutes and regulations and policies were broke, which makes the election questionable at best.
Busch still questions whether signature verification was proper and whether some ballots were collected illegally. She’s an administrator in a medical practice.
Scott Pelley: You’re self-educated–
Shelby Busch: That’s correct–
Scott Pelley: –when it comes to elections.
Shelby Busch: That’s correct.
Scott Pelley: In a recent case a judge disqualified you from testifying in the case because he said you were, quote, “Obviously unqualified… not even in the ballpark.”
Shelby Busch: That’s one judge’s opinion. who is a radical leftist who is legislating from the bench and I don’t believe that it had any merit in my credibility whatsoever.
Scott Pelley: Is there a danger in undermining people’s faith in the election system by persisting with these conspiracy theories that no one has been able to validate?
Shelby Busch: Again, I’m going to disagree with you, sir, respectfully– it has been validated. And because–
Scott Pelley: Where? By whom?
Shelby Busch: The election officials–
Scott Pelley: Give me– give me a court case. Give me something.
Shelby Busch: I don’t need a government official with a vested interest in disproving information to tell me whether what I have is valid. It’s up to each individual citizen, as a member of this society, to review the evidence, to think for themselves and make those decisions.
Scott Pelley: It’s valid ’cause you say it is.
Shelby Busch: I say it’s valid because I say it is. And if somebody looks at it, they can determine whether it’s valid. The evidence speaks for itself. Data does not lie. Data doesn’t lie. Election officials do.
Ben Ginsberg: The election was not stolen, it was lost.
Attorney Ben Ginsberg has represented the Republican Party in many of its most important election cases. In 2022, he joined conservative judges and senators in “Lost, Not Stolen,” an investigation that exposes election fraud lies. Part of it centers on Trump’s swing state lawsuits.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Ben Ginsberg: Donald Trump and his supporters brought 64 cases. They lost 63 of them outright. There was one that was a partial victory involving 200 votes, far from outcome determinative.
Scott Pelley: And all of that told you what?
Ben Ginsberg: The evidence to back up the allegations of fraud and elections being unreliable simply does not exist.
Scott Pelley: The election deniers in Arizona will say, “We did lose all those cases, but the judges weren’t fair.”
Ben Ginsberg: Under the rule of law, you have every right to submit your litigation. But under the rule of law, a conservative principle, a Republican principle for as long as I’ve been practicing election law, you have to accept the rulings of the court.
Shelby Busch: I don’t have time, frankly, to worry about whether people believe me or question my integrity. I have what I believe is the mission that I am on, and that mission is for my children and my grandchildren. I’m not here to make friends. I am here to do a job.
Scott Pelley: Where does that mandate for that mission come from?
Shelby Busch: It comes from my own personal drive, and it also comes from, I believe, a calling from God.
It has been a calling for many, over nearly four years, in meetings of the Republican-led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which certifies the vote.
Scott Pelley: Have you been accused of treason?
Clint Hickman: Oh yeah. treason– murdering fellow officials that would talk.
Republican Clint Hickman has been a county supervisor 11 years. In 2020 he was among Trump’s most loyal supporters.
Clint Hickman: Still proud that he took the time to call me out and thank me for the work that I was trying to accomplish
But Hickman saw no evidence of fraud and said so when he voted to certify the election.
Scott Pelley: You’ve received a number of death threats.
Clint Hickman: I’ve lost count. I have lost count. And so have my colleagues. And so have– so have election workers.
Scott Pelley: Well, you’ve lost count, but here’s one.
Voicemail: Hello Mr. Hickman, I am glad that you are standing up for democracy and want to place your hand on the Bible and say that the election was honest and fair. I really appreciate that. When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie ass, you’ll remember that you lied on the f***ing Bible, you piece of s**t. You’re gonna die, you piece of s**t. We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.
That man is in prison for two-and-a-half years. But there were others.
60 Minutes
Clint Hickman: But the chilling one that you didn’t play is one of the guys said, “We know the restaurants that you are in. And we know where your kids go to school.”
Menace grew in the shadows and emerged on the stage.
Shelby Busch: I hear the word “unity” and I get sick to my stomach. Because there is a lot of earthly, fake and vile unity talk going around in our state.
This is Shelby Busch, the Maricopa County Republican Party vice-chair, talking about fellow Republican Stephen Richer this past March.
Shelby Busch: So what does unity mean to me? It means unifying with those that share the core biblical, Christian—Judeo principles that we share. That’s unity. But if Stephen Richer walked in this room, I would lynch him. I don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.
Scott Pelley: When you heard Shelby Busch say that she would lynch you–
Stephen Richer: Yeah.
Scott Pelley:–you thought what?
Stephen Richer: I first thought like, “Why is that word in your vocabulary?” Lynch is a weirdly historically loaded and oddly specific term.
Busch offered a modified definition of lynching.
Shelby Busch: I think many people are familiar with a political lynching. It’s– it’s referred to as– destroying someone’s career. It was not ever meant physically in any way, shape, or form. Probably a poor choice of words.
Scott Pelley: You have seen the unrest in this county. The civil disorder in this county. You’re contributing to that.
Shelby Busch: What I am doing is I am shining a big bright light on the disdain and the arrogance of some of the elected officials. They are elected to represent the interests of the people. And until they are ready to step up and do that, then there will be unrest.
Scott Pelley: Is election denialism a swindle?
Stephen Richer: Oh, 100% so for some people. It’s a swindle emotionally for some. It’s a swindle politically for some. It’s a swindle economically for some.
This past July, Stephen Richer ran in the primary for reelection. He lost to a fellow Republican who said Maricopa elections are a “laughing stock.” Richer moves on after this election, leaving behind his enduring contribution — the fortress defenses around the center where the votes are counted—a wall to defend America from Americans.
Stephen Richer: I have seen some ugliness in the character of human beings. It has given me great insight into horrific moments of human history. I would look at some of these historical moments and say, like, “Well, that– that–that couldn’t happen here.” But moments like these begin to give you insight on how stuff like that can build up, how the animal passions, how going along with the crowd, how the emotions of just being your side versus their side. It’s just to say that some of the same human impulses– that I didn’t understand, I now do understand.
Scott Pelley: You understand how things can go wrong?
Stephen Richer: I understand how a society of educated people can do something truly horrible.
Produced by Aaron Weisz and Ian Flickinger. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Sean Kelly.
CBS News
Almost 10 million pounds of meat and poultry dishes recalled due to possible listeria contamination
A company is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of meat and poultry products made at an Oklahoma plant because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria, which can cause illness and death.
BrucePac of Woodburn, Oregon, recalled the roughly 5,000 tons of ready-to-eat foods this week after U.S. Agriculture Department officials detected listeria in samples of poultry during routine testing. Further tests identified BrucePac chicken as the source. The recall includes 75 meat and chicken products.
The foods include products like grilled chicken breast strips that were made at the company’s facility in Durant, Oklahoma. They were produced between June 19 and Oct. 8 and shipped to restaurants, food service vendors and other sites nationwide, government officials said.
The products have a best-by date of June 19, 2025 to Oct. 8, 2025. Officials said they’re concerned that the foods may still be available for use or stored in refrigerators or freezers. The products should be thrown away, they stressed.
There are no confirmed reports of illness linked to the recall.
Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.
CBS News
Human remains found on Mount Everest apparently belong to famed climber who vanished 100 years ago
A documentary team discovered human remains on Mount Everest apparently belonging to a man who went missing while trying to summit the peak 100 years ago, National Geographic magazine reported Friday.
Climate change is thinning snow and ice around the Himalayas, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died chasing their dream of scaling the world’s highest mountain.
Briton Andrew Irvine went missing in 1924 alongside climbing partner George Mallory as the pair attempted to be the first to reach Everest’s summit, 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level.
Mallory’s body was found in 1999 but clues about Irvine’s fate were elusive until a National Geographic team discovered a boot, still clothing the remains of a foot, on the peak’s Central Rongbuk Glacier.
On closer inspection, they found a sock with “a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it,” the magazine reported.
/ AP
The discovery could give further clues as to the location of the team’s personal effects and may help resolve one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever managed to reach the summit.
That could confirm Irvine and Mallory as the first to successfully scale the peak, nearly three decades before the first currently recognized summit in 1953 by climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
“It tells the whole story about what probably happened,” Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic.
The first documented ascent of Everest came nearly three decades later when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay scaled the mountain on May 29, 1953. In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to reach the summit.
Hundreds of climbers have died on Everest
Members of the Irvine family reportedly offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of the remains.
Irvine was 22 when he went missing.
He, along with Mallory, was last spotted by one of the members of their expedition on the afternoon of June 8, 1924, after beginning their final ascent to the summit that morning.
Earlier this year, Mallory’s final letter to his wife was digitized for the first time and published online by Cambridge University. In the letter, he wrote that his chances of reaching the world’s highest peak were “50 to 1 against us.”
Irvine is believed to have been carrying a vest camera — the discovery of which could rewrite mountaineering history.
Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the National Geographic team, believes the discovery “certainly reduces the search area” for the elusive camera.
More than 300 people have perished on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s.
Some are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses.
Others, still in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks en route to the summit and bestowed with gallows humor nicknames, including “Green Boots” and “Sleeping Beauty.”
In June, five frozen bodies were retrieved from Mount Everest — including one that was just skeletal remains — as part of Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign on Everest and adjoining peaks Lhotse and Nuptse.
Washington — Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.
The review concluded that the drownings of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented.
But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by heavy equipment they were carrying and not knowing or disregarding concerns that their flotation devices couldn’t compensate for the additional weight. Both were lost at sea.
U.S. Navy
The highly critical and heavily redacted report – written by a Navy officer from outside Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs – concluded there were “deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies” in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as “conflicting guidance” on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive.
The Associated Press obtained the report upon request before its public release.
The mission’s goal was to intercept weapons headed to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began a year ago. U.S. retaliatory strikes haven’t deterred their assaults.
Chambers and Ingram, members of SEAL Team 3, died during a nighttime mission to board an unflagged ship in the Arabian Sea. Their names were redacted in the report, but officials have confirmed Chambers slipped and fell as he was climbing onto the ship’s deck and Ingram jumped in to try to save him.
“Encumbered by the weight of each individual’s gear, neither their physical capability nor emergency supplemental flotations devices, if activated, were sufficient to keep them at the surface,” Rear Adm. Michael DeVore wrote in the report.
The report said Chambers was “intermittently” at the surface for 26 seconds after his fall and Ingram was at the surface for about 32 seconds.
“The entire tragic event elapsed in just 47 seconds and two NSW warriors were lost to the sea,” DeVore wrote, referring to the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Flotation equipment that was properly maintained, working well and used correctly would have been able to keep them afloat until they were rescued, the report said. Other team members told investigators that while they knew the importance of their tactical flotation system – which includes two inflatable floats that attach to a belt and foam inserts that can be added – few had ever operated one in training and there is little instruction on how to wear it.
How Chambers and Ingram died
The report said the team was operating in 6- to 8-foot seas and, while the vessel they were boarding was rolling in the waves, the conditions were well within their abilities.
As time went on, however, the rolling increased, and Chambers tried to board by jumping from his combat craft’s engine compartment to the top rail of the ship they were boarding, the report said. Some of the commandos used an attachable ladder but because of the waves, others jumped to the top rail, which they said was within reach but slippery.
Chambers’ hands slipped off the rail and he fell 9 feet into the water. Based on video of the mission, he was able to grab the lower rung of the ladder but when he turned to try to get back to the combat craft, he was swept under by a wave.
Eleven seconds after he fell, Ingram jumped in. For at least 10 seconds, video shows they were above water intermittently and at times were able to grab a ladder extension that was submerged. But both were knocked about by waves. The last sighting of Chambers was about 26 seconds after he fell.
At one point, Ingram tried to climb back on the ladder but was overcome by a wave. He appeared to try to deploy his flotation device, but within two seconds, an unattached water wing was seen about a foot away from him. He also seemed to try to remove some of his equipment, but he slipped underwater and wasn’t seen again. The sea depth was about 12,000 feet.
Both were wearing body armor and Ingram was also carrying radio equipment that added as much as 40 more pounds. Each of the inflatable floats can lift a minimum of 40 pounds in seawater, the report said.
It said members of the SEAL team expressed “shock and disbelief” that Chambers, their strongest swimmer, couldn’t stay at the surface. The report concluded that the conflicting and meager guidance on the flotation devices may have left it to individuals to configure their buoyancy needs, potentially leading to mistakes.
While SEALs routinely conduct pre-mission “buddy checks” to review each other’s gear, it said Ingram’s flotation equipment may have been incorrectly attached and a more thorough buddy exam could have discovered that.
SEAL team members also told investigators that adding the foam inserts makes the flotation device more bulky and it becomes more difficult to climb or crawl.
The report said SEAL Team 3 members began prompt and appropriate man-overboard procedures “within seconds,” and there were two helicopters and two drones overhead providing surveillance, light and video for the mission.
After 10 days, the search was called off because of the water depth and low probability of finding the two.
“The Navy respects the sanctity of human remains and recognized the sea as a fit and final resting place,” the report said.
Chambers, 37, of Maryland, enlisted in the Navy in 2012 and graduated from SEAL training in 2014. Ingram, 27, of Texas, enlisted in 2019 and graduated from SEAL training in 2021.
Losses prompt training changes
In response to the investigation, Naval Special Warfare Command said changes are already being made to training and guidance.
It said the command is considering developing a force-wide policy to address water safety during maritime operations and is setting standard procedures for buoyancy requirements.
Other changes would refine man-overboard procedures, pre-mission checks and maintenance of flotation devices. It also said it’s looking into “fail safe” buoyancy equipment and plans to review safety processes.
Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who headed the command at the time of the mission, said it would learn from the tragic deaths and “doggedly pursue” recommended changes. Davids left the job in August in a routine change of command and is in the process of retiring.
The report recommends that Ingram receive a commendation for heroism for giving his life while trying to save his teammate. That recommendation is under review. Both were posthumously promoted one rank.
According to a separate Defense Intelligence Agency report, the Jan. 11 mission seized Iranian “propulsion, guidance systems and warheads” for medium-range ballistic missiles and antiship cruise missiles destined for the Houthis.
Almost 10 million pounds of meat and poultry dishes recalled due to possible listeria contamination
Human remains found on Mount Everest apparently belong to famed climber who vanished 100 years ago
Drownings of 2 Navy SEALS were preventable, military probe finds
Almost 10 million pounds of meat and poultry dishes recalled due to possible listeria contamination
Human remains found on Mount Everest apparently belong to famed climber who vanished 100 years ago
Drownings of 2 Navy SEALS were preventable, military probe finds
CBS News
Arizona election officials work to restore confidence in results | 60 Minutes
With Donald Trump pulling out of his “60 Minutes” interview tonight, we’ll turn to a different Republican who is paying the price for Trump’s claims of a stolen 2020 election. Stephen Richer helps administer voting in Maricopa County, Arizona. That’s Phoenix and home to 60% of Arizona voters. Maricopa is often decisive in a state which swings either way. Trump claimed Maricopa county was stolen in 2020. Republican Stephen Richer was determined to find the truth — to restore belief in the ballot. He discovered that truth wasn’t what many wanted to hear.
Stephen Richer: I’ve become much more cynical about politics. There are a lot of people who have no lines in the sand. A lot of politicians. A lot of politicians for whom it’s like oxygen, that if you told them they weren’t going to be reelected, it would be like unplugging them from oxygen. So whichever way the winds are blowing, even if it’s highly immoral, that they’re on– they’re on for the ride.
Scott Pelley: What are your fears for this coming Election Day?
Stephen Richer: That we’ll, we’ll be doing this again for another four years.
Nearly four years ago, Republican attorney Stephen Richer was the voter’s choice for Maricopa County recorder, the office that records voter registration and handles ballots by mail. Richer took office after the 2020 vote when his own party was up in arms over allegations of fraud. It was Richer’s first elected office and he knew what to do.
Stephen Richer: They just need answers. It– it– it’s not that complicated of an issue. It’s just people are uncertain. They expected Donald Trump to win. I expected Donald Trump to win in Maricopa County. He didn’t win. They have questions. As soon as we give them logical, factual answers, all will be well.
Scott Pelley: And that’s not what happened?
Stephen Richer: That is not what happened.
60 Minutes
The ‘logical, factual’ answers came after multiple investigations. A hand recount of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million paper ballots confirmed Joe Biden won. Statewide, prosecutions for illegal voting involved a total of 19 ballots. In Maricopa, 50 ballots had been counted twice for a typical reason.
Stephen Richer: Somebody made a mistake. A human being made a mistake. There were 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election. These 50 shouldn’t have been tabulated. By no means were the 50 all for one candidate or another, so it had a negligible impact on the actual contest.
Negligible too, because Trump lost Maricopa County by 45,109 votes.
Scott Pelley: What evidence of widespread fraud was found in Maricopa County in 2020?
Stephen Richer: Oh, none. And I would say Maricopa County’s 2020 election is the most scrutinized election in human history.
Scott Pelley: When you began to tell your fellow Republicans in Maricopa County that the election was fair and there was no fraud that would change the outcome, how did they react to you?
Stephen Richer: Not well. Yeah. Not well at all.
They included Trump, who said, “the entire database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been deleted.(!)” He called it an “unbelievable election crime.”
Stephen Richer: It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was in the office looking at the very thing that he was– saying we had deleted. And so just sort of the– like, the– the– the– the ludicrous nature of it, it just is– is– is offensive.
Scott Pelley: What did you say in response to what the president had written?
Stephen Richer: I said something like, “This is unhinged. I’m looking at the voter registration database right now. These lies have to stop. This is as disprovable as saying two plus two equals five.“
Scott Pelley: And the reaction was what?
Stephen Richer: The reaction was significant.
Three violent threats to Stephen Richer have been prosecuted. One man got three-and-a-half years. The others are awaiting trial.
Undaunted, Richer explained the facts. Here, in 2021, he was heckled and followed to his car.
Stephen Richer: People were banging on my windshield as I got into the car.
Scott Pelley: What were they shouting?
Stephen Richer: “Turncoat,” “You’re wrong,” “You’re an idiot,” “Don’t be a traitor,” “How could you?”
The fever has never broken. This was three months ago.
Stephen Richer: I do not believe the 2020 election was stolen.
Response: Boooooo!
Scott Pelley: So why do so many people remain passionately unconvinced?
Stephen Richer: I think it has become– the– the– the tattoo. I think it has become the tattoo to show that you’re a true believer of the movement.
60 Minutes
Scott Pelley: You believe the election was stolen.
Shelby Busch: I do.
Shelby Busch started a political action committee which investigates what she calls widespread fraud in Maricopa County—fraud no credible investigation has found. She’s taken in nearly a million dollars in donations for the work of her PAC. And the Arizona Republican Party awarded her the leadership of its delegation at last summer’s national convention.
Shelby Busch: …and that’s why I, Shelby Busch, the delegation chair and our wonderful state chairwoman Gina Swoboda and this entire delegation counts their 43 delegates to Donald J. Trump.
Scott Pelley: You are a rising star in the state party.
Shelby Busch: Well, I definitely have brought some attention onto myself, that is for sure.
Scott Pelley: What do you believe happened in the Maricopa vote in 2020?
Shelby Busch: I believe that fraudulent votes were put into the system. I also believe that a lot of– state statutes and regulations and policies were broke, which makes the election questionable at best.
Busch still questions whether signature verification was proper and whether some ballots were collected illegally. She’s an administrator in a medical practice.
Scott Pelley: You’re self-educated–
Shelby Busch: That’s correct–
Scott Pelley: –when it comes to elections.
Shelby Busch: That’s correct.
Scott Pelley: In a recent case a judge disqualified you from testifying in the case because he said you were, quote, “Obviously unqualified… not even in the ballpark.”
Shelby Busch: That’s one judge’s opinion. who is a radical leftist who is legislating from the bench and I don’t believe that it had any merit in my credibility whatsoever.
Scott Pelley: Is there a danger in undermining people’s faith in the election system by persisting with these conspiracy theories that no one has been able to validate?
Shelby Busch: Again, I’m going to disagree with you, sir, respectfully– it has been validated. And because–
Scott Pelley: Where? By whom?
Shelby Busch: The election officials–
Scott Pelley: Give me– give me a court case. Give me something.
Shelby Busch: I don’t need a government official with a vested interest in disproving information to tell me whether what I have is valid. It’s up to each individual citizen, as a member of this society, to review the evidence, to think for themselves and make those decisions.
Scott Pelley: It’s valid ’cause you say it is.
Shelby Busch: I say it’s valid because I say it is. And if somebody looks at it, they can determine whether it’s valid. The evidence speaks for itself. Data does not lie. Data doesn’t lie. Election officials do.
Ben Ginsberg: The election was not stolen, it was lost.
Attorney Ben Ginsberg has represented the Republican Party in many of its most important election cases. In 2022, he joined conservative judges and senators in “Lost, Not Stolen,” an investigation that exposes election fraud lies. Part of it centers on Trump’s swing state lawsuits.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Ben Ginsberg: Donald Trump and his supporters brought 64 cases. They lost 63 of them outright. There was one that was a partial victory involving 200 votes, far from outcome determinative.
Scott Pelley: And all of that told you what?
Ben Ginsberg: The evidence to back up the allegations of fraud and elections being unreliable simply does not exist.
Scott Pelley: The election deniers in Arizona will say, “We did lose all those cases, but the judges weren’t fair.”
Ben Ginsberg: Under the rule of law, you have every right to submit your litigation. But under the rule of law, a conservative principle, a Republican principle for as long as I’ve been practicing election law, you have to accept the rulings of the court.
Shelby Busch: I don’t have time, frankly, to worry about whether people believe me or question my integrity. I have what I believe is the mission that I am on, and that mission is for my children and my grandchildren. I’m not here to make friends. I am here to do a job.
Scott Pelley: Where does that mandate for that mission come from?
Shelby Busch: It comes from my own personal drive, and it also comes from, I believe, a calling from God.
It has been a calling for many, over nearly four years, in meetings of the Republican-led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which certifies the vote.
Scott Pelley: Have you been accused of treason?
Clint Hickman: Oh yeah. treason– murdering fellow officials that would talk.
Republican Clint Hickman has been a county supervisor 11 years. In 2020 he was among Trump’s most loyal supporters.
Clint Hickman: Still proud that he took the time to call me out and thank me for the work that I was trying to accomplish
But Hickman saw no evidence of fraud and said so when he voted to certify the election.
Scott Pelley: You’ve received a number of death threats.
Clint Hickman: I’ve lost count. I have lost count. And so have my colleagues. And so have– so have election workers.
Scott Pelley: Well, you’ve lost count, but here’s one.
Voicemail: Hello Mr. Hickman, I am glad that you are standing up for democracy and want to place your hand on the Bible and say that the election was honest and fair. I really appreciate that. When we come to lynch your stupid lying Commie ass, you’ll remember that you lied on the f***ing Bible, you piece of s**t. You’re gonna die, you piece of s**t. We’re going to hang you. We’re going to hang you.
That man is in prison for two-and-a-half years. But there were others.
60 Minutes
Clint Hickman: But the chilling one that you didn’t play is one of the guys said, “We know the restaurants that you are in. And we know where your kids go to school.”
Menace grew in the shadows and emerged on the stage.
Shelby Busch: I hear the word “unity” and I get sick to my stomach. Because there is a lot of earthly, fake and vile unity talk going around in our state.
This is Shelby Busch, the Maricopa County Republican Party vice-chair, talking about fellow Republican Stephen Richer this past March.
Shelby Busch: So what does unity mean to me? It means unifying with those that share the core biblical, Christian—Judeo principles that we share. That’s unity. But if Stephen Richer walked in this room, I would lynch him. I don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.
Scott Pelley: When you heard Shelby Busch say that she would lynch you–
Stephen Richer: Yeah.
Scott Pelley:–you thought what?
Stephen Richer: I first thought like, “Why is that word in your vocabulary?” Lynch is a weirdly historically loaded and oddly specific term.
Busch offered a modified definition of lynching.
Shelby Busch: I think many people are familiar with a political lynching. It’s– it’s referred to as– destroying someone’s career. It was not ever meant physically in any way, shape, or form. Probably a poor choice of words.
Scott Pelley: You have seen the unrest in this county. The civil disorder in this county. You’re contributing to that.
Shelby Busch: What I am doing is I am shining a big bright light on the disdain and the arrogance of some of the elected officials. They are elected to represent the interests of the people. And until they are ready to step up and do that, then there will be unrest.
Scott Pelley: Is election denialism a swindle?
Stephen Richer: Oh, 100% so for some people. It’s a swindle emotionally for some. It’s a swindle politically for some. It’s a swindle economically for some.
This past July, Stephen Richer ran in the primary for reelection. He lost to a fellow Republican who said Maricopa elections are a “laughing stock.” Richer moves on after this election, leaving behind his enduring contribution — the fortress defenses around the center where the votes are counted—a wall to defend America from Americans.
Stephen Richer: I have seen some ugliness in the character of human beings. It has given me great insight into horrific moments of human history. I would look at some of these historical moments and say, like, “Well, that– that–that couldn’t happen here.” But moments like these begin to give you insight on how stuff like that can build up, how the animal passions, how going along with the crowd, how the emotions of just being your side versus their side. It’s just to say that some of the same human impulses– that I didn’t understand, I now do understand.
Scott Pelley: You understand how things can go wrong?
Stephen Richer: I understand how a society of educated people can do something truly horrible.
Produced by Aaron Weisz and Ian Flickinger. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Sean Kelly.
CBS News
Almost 10 million pounds of meat and poultry dishes recalled due to possible listeria contamination
A company is recalling nearly 10 million pounds of meat and poultry products made at an Oklahoma plant because they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria, which can cause illness and death.
BrucePac of Woodburn, Oregon, recalled the roughly 5,000 tons of ready-to-eat foods this week after U.S. Agriculture Department officials detected listeria in samples of poultry during routine testing. Further tests identified BrucePac chicken as the source. The recall includes 75 meat and chicken products.
The foods include products like grilled chicken breast strips that were made at the company’s facility in Durant, Oklahoma. They were produced between June 19 and Oct. 8 and shipped to restaurants, food service vendors and other sites nationwide, government officials said.
The products have a best-by date of June 19, 2025 to Oct. 8, 2025. Officials said they’re concerned that the foods may still be available for use or stored in refrigerators or freezers. The products should be thrown away, they stressed.
There are no confirmed reports of illness linked to the recall.
Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.
CBS News
Human remains found on Mount Everest apparently belong to famed climber who vanished 100 years ago
A documentary team discovered human remains on Mount Everest apparently belonging to a man who went missing while trying to summit the peak 100 years ago, National Geographic magazine reported Friday.
Climate change is thinning snow and ice around the Himalayas, increasingly exposing the bodies of mountaineers who died chasing their dream of scaling the world’s highest mountain.
Briton Andrew Irvine went missing in 1924 alongside climbing partner George Mallory as the pair attempted to be the first to reach Everest’s summit, 8,848 meters (29,029 feet) above sea level.
Mallory’s body was found in 1999 but clues about Irvine’s fate were elusive until a National Geographic team discovered a boot, still clothing the remains of a foot, on the peak’s Central Rongbuk Glacier.
On closer inspection, they found a sock with “a red label that has A.C. IRVINE stitched into it,” the magazine reported.
/ AP
The discovery could give further clues as to the location of the team’s personal effects and may help resolve one of mountaineering’s most enduring mysteries: whether Irvine and Mallory ever managed to reach the summit.
That could confirm Irvine and Mallory as the first to successfully scale the peak, nearly three decades before the first currently recognized summit in 1953 by climbers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
“It tells the whole story about what probably happened,” Irvine’s great-niece Julie Summers told National Geographic.
The first documented ascent of Everest came nearly three decades later when New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay scaled the mountain on May 29, 1953. In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to reach the summit.
Hundreds of climbers have died on Everest
Members of the Irvine family reportedly offered to share DNA samples to confirm the identity of the remains.
Irvine was 22 when he went missing.
He, along with Mallory, was last spotted by one of the members of their expedition on the afternoon of June 8, 1924, after beginning their final ascent to the summit that morning.
Earlier this year, Mallory’s final letter to his wife was digitized for the first time and published online by Cambridge University. In the letter, he wrote that his chances of reaching the world’s highest peak were “50 to 1 against us.”
Irvine is believed to have been carrying a vest camera — the discovery of which could rewrite mountaineering history.
Photographer and director Jimmy Chin, who was part of the National Geographic team, believes the discovery “certainly reduces the search area” for the elusive camera.
More than 300 people have perished on the mountain since expeditions started in the 1920s.
Some are hidden by snow or swallowed down deep crevasses.
Others, still in their colorful climbing gear, have become landmarks en route to the summit and bestowed with gallows humor nicknames, including “Green Boots” and “Sleeping Beauty.”
In June, five frozen bodies were retrieved from Mount Everest — including one that was just skeletal remains — as part of Nepal’s mountain clean-up campaign on Everest and adjoining peaks Lhotse and Nuptse.
Washington — Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January deaths.
The review concluded that the drownings of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented.
But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by heavy equipment they were carrying and not knowing or disregarding concerns that their flotation devices couldn’t compensate for the additional weight. Both were lost at sea.
U.S. Navy
The highly critical and heavily redacted report – written by a Navy officer from outside Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs – concluded there were “deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies” in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as “conflicting guidance” on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive.
The Associated Press obtained the report upon request before its public release.
The mission’s goal was to intercept weapons headed to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began a year ago. U.S. retaliatory strikes haven’t deterred their assaults.
Chambers and Ingram, members of SEAL Team 3, died during a nighttime mission to board an unflagged ship in the Arabian Sea. Their names were redacted in the report, but officials have confirmed Chambers slipped and fell as he was climbing onto the ship’s deck and Ingram jumped in to try to save him.
“Encumbered by the weight of each individual’s gear, neither their physical capability nor emergency supplemental flotations devices, if activated, were sufficient to keep them at the surface,” Rear Adm. Michael DeVore wrote in the report.
The report said Chambers was “intermittently” at the surface for 26 seconds after his fall and Ingram was at the surface for about 32 seconds.
“The entire tragic event elapsed in just 47 seconds and two NSW warriors were lost to the sea,” DeVore wrote, referring to the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Flotation equipment that was properly maintained, working well and used correctly would have been able to keep them afloat until they were rescued, the report said. Other team members told investigators that while they knew the importance of their tactical flotation system – which includes two inflatable floats that attach to a belt and foam inserts that can be added – few had ever operated one in training and there is little instruction on how to wear it.
How Chambers and Ingram died
The report said the team was operating in 6- to 8-foot seas and, while the vessel they were boarding was rolling in the waves, the conditions were well within their abilities.
As time went on, however, the rolling increased, and Chambers tried to board by jumping from his combat craft’s engine compartment to the top rail of the ship they were boarding, the report said. Some of the commandos used an attachable ladder but because of the waves, others jumped to the top rail, which they said was within reach but slippery.
Chambers’ hands slipped off the rail and he fell 9 feet into the water. Based on video of the mission, he was able to grab the lower rung of the ladder but when he turned to try to get back to the combat craft, he was swept under by a wave.
Eleven seconds after he fell, Ingram jumped in. For at least 10 seconds, video shows they were above water intermittently and at times were able to grab a ladder extension that was submerged. But both were knocked about by waves. The last sighting of Chambers was about 26 seconds after he fell.
At one point, Ingram tried to climb back on the ladder but was overcome by a wave. He appeared to try to deploy his flotation device, but within two seconds, an unattached water wing was seen about a foot away from him. He also seemed to try to remove some of his equipment, but he slipped underwater and wasn’t seen again. The sea depth was about 12,000 feet.
Both were wearing body armor and Ingram was also carrying radio equipment that added as much as 40 more pounds. Each of the inflatable floats can lift a minimum of 40 pounds in seawater, the report said.
It said members of the SEAL team expressed “shock and disbelief” that Chambers, their strongest swimmer, couldn’t stay at the surface. The report concluded that the conflicting and meager guidance on the flotation devices may have left it to individuals to configure their buoyancy needs, potentially leading to mistakes.
While SEALs routinely conduct pre-mission “buddy checks” to review each other’s gear, it said Ingram’s flotation equipment may have been incorrectly attached and a more thorough buddy exam could have discovered that.
SEAL team members also told investigators that adding the foam inserts makes the flotation device more bulky and it becomes more difficult to climb or crawl.
The report said SEAL Team 3 members began prompt and appropriate man-overboard procedures “within seconds,” and there were two helicopters and two drones overhead providing surveillance, light and video for the mission.
After 10 days, the search was called off because of the water depth and low probability of finding the two.
“The Navy respects the sanctity of human remains and recognized the sea as a fit and final resting place,” the report said.
Chambers, 37, of Maryland, enlisted in the Navy in 2012 and graduated from SEAL training in 2014. Ingram, 27, of Texas, enlisted in 2019 and graduated from SEAL training in 2021.
Losses prompt training changes
In response to the investigation, Naval Special Warfare Command said changes are already being made to training and guidance.
It said the command is considering developing a force-wide policy to address water safety during maritime operations and is setting standard procedures for buoyancy requirements.
Other changes would refine man-overboard procedures, pre-mission checks and maintenance of flotation devices. It also said it’s looking into “fail safe” buoyancy equipment and plans to review safety processes.
Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who headed the command at the time of the mission, said it would learn from the tragic deaths and “doggedly pursue” recommended changes. Davids left the job in August in a routine change of command and is in the process of retiring.
The report recommends that Ingram receive a commendation for heroism for giving his life while trying to save his teammate. That recommendation is under review. Both were posthumously promoted one rank.
According to a separate Defense Intelligence Agency report, the Jan. 11 mission seized Iranian “propulsion, guidance systems and warheads” for medium-range ballistic missiles and antiship cruise missiles destined for the Houthis.