Cindy McCain 'pleased' Arizona flipped to Biden, says public should 'accept' election results

Cindy McCain, wife of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, said she is "pleased" that the state of Arizona turned blue and that the public should "accept the results" of the general election.

The Associated Press projected that Joe Biden won Arizona in the presidential race. A victory there would make him the first Democrat to win the state in 24 years. McCain endorsed Biden in September. 

"Our country needed a new direction to heal the wounds caused by the outgoing administration; Arizonans showed up in record numbers and I am pleased that many joined me supporting Joe Biden, who has won Arizona's 11 electoral votes," McCain said in a statement on Thursday. 

"Of all people, I know what it is like to lose an election, so I am sympathetic to those who wished the election had come out another way, but I remember John's example in 2008 of accepting the decision of the voters and moving on to the next challenge," she added.

McCain said that it's in "Arizona's interest" and America's national security interest for Biden to have access to intelligence briefings and "other crucial data on the threats" that America faces.

"And it's important the president-elect and his teambe able to meet with the government officials who are handling the pandemic response as COVID-19 is spiking across our country," she said.

She urged Arizonans not to "cast doubt" on the election results.

"The race in this state is not close enough to meet the legal standard for a recount, so we should accept the results and get on with the healing we need," she said. "Frivolous lawsuits and unfounded allegations that are intended only to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election benefit no one and harm our state."

McCain compared not accepting Biden as the winner to foreign governments interfering in American elections.

"Pretending that there is some doubt about this for the sake of politics is doing these thugs worldwide — doing their work for them," she said Thursday evening during a McCain Institute discussion on the election with 2008 McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, 2008 Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, and New York Times White House Correspondent Maggie Haberman. "I feel certain John, were he still here, would be making the same point emphatically, she added.

Davis said Trump should have campaigned more in the suburban areas of Arizona and Pennsylvania, in particular. 

"The suburbs would have listened to his economic arguments," Davis said.

Plouffe said the Trump campaign did a "remarkable job" on turnout in the election. 

"This was a race Donald Trump clearly could have won as close it was in some of these states had he campaigned more, I think, effectively during the closing weeks, had he had a better first debate," he said. "The original sin of course is not taking the pandemic as seriously as the American people would have liked but they drove strong turnout." 

Based on the results so far in the 2020 election, Biden has received the most votes in a general election and Trump received the second highest amount in U.S. history.