By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Sunday defended his state’s upcoming audit of 2020 presidential election results in four counties, action taken after former President Donald Trump demanded probes of the vote last week.

Trump sent an open letter on Thursday to Abbott, claiming that Trump lost the election to Joe Biden last November because of electoral fraud.

On Friday in Arizona, a review of results https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arizona-republicans-release-findings-widely-panned-election-audit-2021-09-24 by Trump allies in that state’s most populous county reaffirmed that he lost the 2020 election there.

Fox News’ Abbott stated that the audit wasn’t a waste of taxpayer funds, even though Trump won the state easily over Biden.

Abbott explained that there are audits for every area of government. Abbott said, “Why are we doing audits of everything around the globe, while people object when we audit elections which is vital to our democracy?”

‘HEAR THE TRUTH’

After Trump issued his letter on Thursday, Texas Secretary of State Ken Paxton ordered an audit of four of the most populous Texas counties – Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties. Biden was elected popular in Harris, Tarrant, and Tarrant counties. Trump took Collin.

Trump has already supported both Paxton and Abbott in reelection races next year. To fend against far-right competitors he will face in the primaries, Abbott has taken several steps to the right over the past months.

Trump demanded in a letter that Abbott support HB 16, a bill currently being debated during statewide legislative sessions.

It would give the ability for county chairs to request an examination of their respective counties’ 2020 general elections results. The bill will make it much easier for candidates and county heads of political parties in the future to request audits.

The Texas Tribune reported that officials in each of the targeted counties had told Texas Tribune they were not informed about the process or why the audits are being conducted.

Isabel Longoria, Harris County election administrator said that people will want to hear the truth over and over again. What point do you think people will be willing to listen to the truth that there was nothing wrong with the Nov 2020 elections?