On June 11, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that “within the next 30 days,” the Justice Department “will double the division’s enforcement staff for protecting the right to vote” and described the GOP-led ballot “audits,” such as the one that is ongoing in Arizona, as “based on disinformation.” 

In response, Arizona Republican state Sen. Wendy Rogers, a supporter of the “audit” and self-proclaimed member of the militia group the Oath Keepers, tweeted, “You will not touch Arizona ballots or machines unless you want to spend time in an Arizona prison.” (The tweet was written up by right-wing blog The Gateway Pundit.)

The next day, former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon repeated and endorsed Rogers’ threat, delivering an unhinged rant on his podcast War Room: Pandemic, in which he called Garland a “little wimp” and challenged him to “take the 3:10 to Yuma, bubba.”

Bannon was a key player in fomenting the insurrection on January 6, which was fueled by the same lies that inspired the Arizona “audit.”