By Ray Hagar, Nevada Newsmakers
Nevada's Attorney General Aaron Ford called comments about him made by his Republican election opponent, Sigal Chattah, "racist" Thursday on Nevada Newsmakers and used Chattah's own salty language to explain it.
Chattah, in a private text to a blogger last year, wrote Ford “should be hanging from a (f*&king) crane. He’s like the leader of (H)amas — making tons of money while the People in Gaza are starving.”
Chattah was invoking a Middle Eastern curse from her Israeli background, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Thursday, Ford was blunt in his reaction:
"She wants to see me hanging from a f*&king crane," Ford told host Sam Shad. "And I'm sure you will bleep that out but that is her quote.
"She doesn't respect my dignity as a human, or my humanity and I don't believe I owe her, therefore, any time of the day, at the end of the day," Ford added.
Any future debate between the two candidates for Nevada's "top cop" is not going to happen, either, Ford said.
"I am not standing in the room with her," Ford said. ..."I will not endeavor to have a conversation with her and I will certainly not be debating her."
Ford said he did not want to talk much about it.
"I am not going to spend much more time on this, except to say where I'm from, threatening to lynch someone, especially a black person, is racist," Ford said. "At the end of the day, again, she doesn't respect my humanity, or my dignity and she doesn't deserve to be the attorney general of the great state of Nevada."
Ford, who defended Nevada's statutory protection for women seeking abortions, also repeated a previous accusation of Chattah, saying she wants to punish women who seek abortions.
"As we know, the individual that is running against me for this seat has indicated she will use penalty enhancements against women who are seeking abortions," Ford said. "She can explain to others how she is going to do that but the point is, she is unfriendly to this notion of pro-choice in this state and we need to be concerned about that."
Chattah has pushed back against this particular accusation before, tweeting to Ford: "Settle down Pinocchio - where did I say that? "
During a recent Republican AG candidate debate on Nevada Newsmakers, Chattah said:
"As someone who is definitely pro life, I would take the position that life begins at the time of fetal heartbeat. And really, the way I look at it, is the same way as we do sentencing enhancements on unborn children, victims of unborn children, I would marry it to that."
Ford said his campaign has been enhanced by the formation of a group of Republican voters and influencers that is backing his campaign, called Republicans for Ford.
It is not the first time some Republicans have formed a group to help a high-profile Democratic candidate. In 2010, "Republicans for Reid" help swing the U.S. Senate election to incumbent Harry Reid, at the expense of the GOP candidate, Sharron Angle.
"It was entirely organic," Ford said the the group's formation. "We heard from some Republicans in the community who recognized the important of this race, recognized the work that I have already done, as attorney general and frankly, who recognized the danger of the individual who is running against me, if she were to be the attorney general of this state.
"So they reached out and organically formed the Republicans for Ford committee," Ford added.
The group includes former Republican state Senate caucus leader, Michael Roberson, and former Nevada state GOP chairwoman Amy Tarkanian, now a highly-visible pundit on politically-conservative television networks.
Ford recalled he and Roberson were sometimes locked in political combat when Ford was the Democratic caucus leader in the state Senate and Roberson was the GOP leader.
"So I am delighted," Ford said. "Most folks know that Senate Majority and Minority Leader Michael Roberson and I had our fair share of disputes in the Legislature. But we both generally had the business of the state in mind and I think he recognizes that, for an example, and that's why he is on this list."
Ford gave a lengthy explanation on why he is against voter ID. He said at "first blush" it may sound good but ultimately it could negatively impact the right to vote for veterans, minorities, students, elderly and poor.
Shad countered voter ID laws may help renew people's faith in the voting system, helping people to regain trust that their vote counts.
Ford blamed any sense of voting insecurity on Republicans who claimed -- without substantial evidence -- that Nevada's 2020 presidential election was rigged. He singled out former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, Trump's 2020 Nevada campaign co-chair, who also unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018.
“A majority of Nevada voters know that we didn’t have a secure election,” Laxalt said after the 2020 election on One America News Network, a conservative outlet. “If we can’t have fair elections, then people are not going to turn out. They’re not going to believe in the system.”
Said Ford:
"I'm concerned about people losing faith in our election system right now because of what happened two years ago. Liars, big liars talking about widespread voter fraud that they would not present to my office for consideration.
"But they will get up on TV and hold up an affidavit but they wouldn't send the affidavit to my office because my office would have to call the person on the affidavit and actually get facts," Ford added.
When Shad asked about Ford's claim that nobody came to his office, Ford replied:
"They did not. And one of the individuals running for one of the higher offices in this state, my predecessor (Laxalt), in fact, never presented a complaint to my office, even though he complained about it on television all the time."
"And the point I'm raising here is this: That is what undermines the integrity of our election, not so much this notion of voter ID but people who are in high positions of power, who have influence, who are big liars and that is a problem. We should address that and they should not be given any countenance in this state at all."
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