Tuesday began with former President Donald Trump’s entirely predictable pronouncement that the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers is a RHINO who owes his 2020 re-election to… wait… Donald Trump.
Continued with Bowers unsurprising testimony to the House committee that investigated on Jan. 6, in which the staunchly conservative Republican described repeated attempts by Trump and his accomplices to get him on board with a plot to overturn the results of the Arizona presidential election.
I say nothing surprising because in Arizona we already know the story of how bowers stood tall – and mostly alone in the state Capitol – as Trump, his lawyers, his cronies and even Rep. Andy Biggs conspired to throw the state’s election on Trump.
How the speaker asked for proof that the Arizona election was stolen and how the Trump team never provided an iota of it. How he was repeatedly pressured into agreeing to decertify the Arizona election anyway and asking Congress to accept the GOP’s pool of “alternate” voters.
How protesters descended on his neighborhood, using loudspeakers to call him a pedophile and a pervert while his daughter died inside.
“I don’t want to be a cheating winner,” Bowers told the House selection committee Tuesday. “I will not play by the laws to which I have sworn allegiance.”
These leaders were willing to cast aside their oaths
What remains absolutely amazing, amazing actually, is the sheer number of so-called Arizona leaders who were (are) willing to cast aside their oaths and overturn democracy. The plotters (see: Biggs, Rep. Mark Finchem, and GOP State Chairwoman Kelli Ward, among others), as well as the pawns (see: Senate President Karen Fann).
Many of them are now seeking re-election or election to higher office.
are they false voters who on December 14, 2020 signed legal documents affirming that they were duly chosen to cast Arizona’s vote for Trump. Those 11 fakers included jim lamondwho is now waiting for us to elect him to the US Senate, the state representative. jake hoffman of Queen Creek and former Rep. anthony kern of Glendale, who hopes to return to the Legislature after being unseated by voters in 2020.
The fake blackboard was led by kelli district (probably a future congressional candidate) who, like Finchem, refused to comply with a subpoena to explain to the House selection committee how the bogus voter scheme was concocted.
There is Sen. Kelly Townsend of Apache Junction. His first attempt to nullify the election came in December 2020, when he circulated a “54th Legislature Joint Resolution” calling on Vice President Mike Pence to accept the 11 “alternate” electoral votes for Trump.
Twenty-nine Republican legislators signed that document. Among them were the representatives. finchem brand of the Golden Valley and Shawna Bolick of Phoenix, who are now running for secretary of state, hoping to oversee the 2024 Arizona election.
Rep. walter blackman Snowflake, now a candidate for Congress, also signed the plan. So did the then state senator. David Farnsworth de Mesa, who retired in 2021 but is now running again, hoping to unseat Rusty Bowers for the unforgivable sin of allowing Arizona’s vote to stand.
And, of course, the Senator. Wendy Rogers of flagpole.
Bowers was pressured in Arizona and Washington
If the false voters plot didn’t work, Townsend had a Backup plan – a invoice asking the Legislature to decertify the vote and name the fake voters. His bill noted that the Legislature has a “constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that the state’s presidential electors truly represent the will of Arizona voters.”
Fortunately, it didn’t go anywhere.
Now Finchem is back this year with a similar bill to decertify the 2020 election, claiming there is “clear and convincing” evidence the election was stolen, and by the way, will you vote for him? (It doesn’t matter that there isn’t and you shouldn’t).
Meanwhile, in Washington, the representatives. Andy large, debbie lesko Y Paul Gossar they were doing everything they could to nullify Arizona’s vote. Even as the Trump mob stormed the Capitol, Gosar was on the House floor outright lying about the Arizona vote, claiming that “over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden, or erased entirely.” of President Trump’s total.” .”
Earlier in the day, Biggs had called Bowers, making a last-ditch effort to get him to sign the fake elector’s schema.
“I said I wouldn’t,” Bowers testified Tuesday.
Don’t forget what he (and they) did
Bowers, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, read a diary entry he wrote in December 2020 to the House selection committee, as pressure mounted on him to heed Trump’s call. and reject his oath.
“It is painful that friends who have been so helpful to me turn against me with such rancor…” he wrote.
“I don’t want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play by the laws to which I have sworn allegiance, with any artificial desire to sidetrack my deep fundamental desire to follow God’s will, as I believe he led my conscience to embrace. How else will I approach him in the desert of life knowing that I asked for his guidance only to be cowardly in defending the course he allowed me to take?
Bowers is not a coward. He stood firm for democracy, refusing to give in to the mass psychosis that has infected a depressingly large percentage of the Arizona Legislature and the majority of Republicans in our Congressional delegation.
For that, it must be remembered.
And they should too.
Contact Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.
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