paul gosar bak

bak 12 22

KAREN FANN FRAUDIT NINJA

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AM O

On Tuesday, in response to American Oversight’s public records lawsuit, the Arizona Senate released thousands of pages of records related to its partisan “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results. The document production comes on thecourt-ordered deadline of Aug. 31.

Included in the documents is information regarding audit payments as well as emails and text messages that audit officials and legislators exchanged with outside parties, including prominent Republicans, election conspiracy theorists and activists, members of Trump’s legal team, and others. American Oversight is still reviewing the contents of the records and will update this page with any additional findings. We are also still processing the documents, and will make them available on our website as soon as possible.

Prominent Republicans

According to an accompanying privilege log (which lists records that had been withheld because of legislative and other privileges), Senate President Karen Fann exchanged multiple texts with U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar in the spring regarding the investigation and its vendors. The new records also contain August emails between Fann and a member of Gosar’s staff regarding the release of the contractors’ final report. (Gosar appeared at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters seeking to prevent the certification of the election.)

Records previously obtained by American Oversight included an April 22 email from Bruce Ash, the former national committeeman of the Arizona Republican Party, to Tommy Hicks, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, in which Ash asked that the RNC help finance the defense against Democrats’ legal challenges to the “audit.” The latest records include more instances of audit allies attempting to get help from the national party: On July 17, audit spokesman Randy Pullen sent a text to Ash saying, “Need guns, lawyers, and money. Have any?”

The new records also indicate that Pullen was in touch with Reince Priebus, Trump’s first chief of staff and the former head of both the national and the Wisconsin Republican Party, as far back as December, before Pullen was officially involved in the “audit.” That month, Pullen texted Priebus to tell him about the potential for a “Forensic audit,” and in March asked Priebus for “suggestions on election audit firms.” (Priebus said he would check.) Another text from Pullen to Ash, sent on March 8, appears to reference Priebus: “I texted Reince and ask if he would like to help out on the audit,” Pullen said, then followed up to say they were speaking later that morning.

Conspiracy Theorists

The privilege log also indicates that top “audit” officials — including Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, Senate Liaison Ken Bennett, and spokesman Randy Pullen — exchanged a number of emails with Shiva Ayyadurai, an election conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist whose Twitter account was suspended back in February.

The records released by the Senate include a signed contract between Cyber Ninjas and a “Dr. Shiva,” a name Ayyadurai goes by among his followers. The contract is dated Aug. 3, 2021, and was sent to the United Liberty Coalition, a Phoenix-based group of supporters of former President Trump.

During a recent interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Reince Priebus reportedly said that the Wisconsin Assembly would be bringing in Ayyadurai to assist in its own partisan investigation of the 2020 election.

Another conspiracy theorist who appears in the Arizona Senate’s documents is Gail Golec, who has adopted the language of the QAnon conspiracy in her election-undermining activism. According to the records, Golec exchanged text messages with Senate President Karen Fann on Aug. 24 following the news that Logan and other members of the Cyber Ninjas team had contracted Covid-19. Golec recommended that Logan visit a site to purchase the livestock drug ivermectin. (Text messages indicate that upon hearing the news, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward also told Fann that she hoped Logan had “gotten some Ivermectin and Zithromax.”) Golec also exchanged texts with Bennett in April, in which Golec said that the National Guard needed to be deployed to protect the audit from Black Lives Matter and antifa.

The records also appear to reference conspiracy theorist Bobby Piton, who according to records previously obtained by American Oversight had emailed Arizona legislators in December, calling for a vote recount. Those previous records also contain emails in which both Bennett and Pullen responded to outside inquiries by saying that they didn’t know who Piton was or whether he was involved.

The new records contain texts exchanged by Pullen and Liz Harris, a former Republican state legislative candidate who has been organizing direct canvassing operations that experts warn could amount to voter intimidation. On Dec. 16, Harris forwarded to Pullen a Dec. 16 text from “Bobby” requesting multiple decades’ worth of detailed voter information from all 15 counties in Arizona, not just Maricopa. Harris’s canvassing operations have recently been in the news again, with Harris denying any formal connections to the audit.

Trump Lawyers and Allies

In December, according to records previously obtained by American Oversight, One America News reporter Christina Bobb — who later began raising money for the “audit” — provided Fann with purported “evidence” of voter fraud, writing that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had “asked me to send you these declarations.” The newly released records include a group text from March 31 involving Fann and Bobb, with Giuliani also included, in which Fann passes along a document with a title that began “Pres. Fann audit hiring.”

Another Trump lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, was also looped in on a number of communications, including an Aug. 2 email chain started by Scott Sigman, a Pennsylvania attorney who appears to be handling the issuing of checks related to the “audit.” Sigman emailed Mitchell, Logan, Pullen, and Thomas Datwyler (the treasurer of a group called the American Voting Rights Foundation) seeking signatures for payments.

Pullen also received a text on April 22 from Jeff DeWit, the former CFO of NASA who previously served as Arizona treasurer, in which DeWit said he was preparing to send $175,000 to Guardian Defense Fund, the organization set up as a legal defense fund for Gosar, state Rep. Mark Finchem, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern following their attendance at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. DeWit asked Pullen, who was the fund’s treasurer, where to send the money; Pullen responded that “200 would be better but take what I can get.”

The next week, DeWit asked Pullen about a group called Fund The Audit, which Pullen said was being funded by former Overstock CEO (and current election conspiracist) Patrick Byrne. DeWit asked whether the group was “ok to donate to,” adding, “Trump asking.” Pullen said yes, and that it had raised $1.2 million so far.

In May, Pullen asked whether DeWit was familiar with Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who had worked with Giuliani on Trump’s farfetched legal challenges to the election. And on July 19, Pullen asked DeWit to call him, saying that “arpaio has some information for 45” — likely a reference to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and further suggesting that DeWit was relaying messages to the former president.

Audit Costs

The Senate originally provided $150,000 for the election “audit,” but in the months since the total cost ballooned to at least $6 million thanks to outside donations. Records included in Tuesday’s document production reveal how quickly the price tag rose: Among other payments, more than $400,000 went to private security contractor Law Enforcement Specialists, and the American Voting Rights Foundation sent $500,000 went to contractor CyFIR and $250,000 to StratTech Solutions. Another email from early August involving Sigman, Mitchell, and representatives of Wake Technology Services Inc., which left the operation in May, shows that AVRF wired $250,000 to Sigman to cover costs.

Other Records

Cyber Ninjas was hired by the state Senate in the spring, and questions remain about how the firm was selected, given its lack of election experience and previous statements by Logan in which he advanced conspiracy theories about voting machines. The privilege log indicates that communication between Logan and Fann began as early as Feb. 5, and texts released by the Senate on Tuesday include one from March 17 between Fann and a lobbyist who refers to “Doug.”

The newly released records also reveal that the deference to conspiracy theories and false allegations of voter fraud evident in Fann’s post-election communications has continued into recent months: On Aug. 23, Fann forwarded to Bennett, Pullen, and Logan an article about a report on missing Wisconsin ballots.

Finally, the new records also suggest that audit officials were in touch with former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired to run the bogus election investigation initiated by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. On Aug. 7, Pullen texted a “Justice Michael G” with “Three big political points.” In response, the recipient wrote, “these are helpful fundings [sic].” The week before, Christina Bobb had asked Fann if she could share her contact information with Gableman; Fann replied, “Absolutely of course.”

Litigation

[LEGAL DOCS]

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an 4 24

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) have been subpoenaed by Arizona investigators to testify for a grand jury in connection to their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Politico exclusively reports.

Politico notes as far-right Freedom Caucus chair at the time, Biggs, along "with Gosar were among the most vocal congressional supporters of Trump’s efforts to overturn Biden’s victory in Arizona," and both GOP lawmakers sought "to challenge the state’s presidential electors on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress met to certify the results of the Electoral College."

The news outlet adds, "Gosar was mounting that challenge at the same moment a pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol and halted proceedings."

READ MORE:['We have to worry about physical violence': AZ elections chief preps for threats from MAGA

Although there's no proof Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes will bring criminal charges against the pair, "the subpoenas themselves — in conjunction with a series of other aggressive recent moves — show that Mayes, a Democrat, has cast a far wider net in her probe than previously understood," Politico notes.

"Getting a subpoena to testify in front of a grand jury is kind of rare," American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona Legal Director Jared Keenan said. "And that’s why I think no one has challenged the secrecy law."

Some of the Arizona lawmakers' attempt to overturn the election according to investigators, includes Gosar's ongoing "relationships with activists organizing 'Stop the Steal' protests targeting Congress’ Jan. 6 session."

Regarding Biggs' actions, Politico reports, "text messages obtained by the Jan. 6 committee" show that "Biggs quickly contacted Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, after Election Day 2020 to push for state legislatures to overrule the results in multiple states Biden won."

READ MORE:['Resigning as Lake requested': AZ GOP chair quits amid threat of more leaks from Kari Lake

Additionally, "Biggs also told Meadows that Trump should not concede the election and reportedly worked with other Arizona Republicans to advance the fake elector effort."

*Politico's full report is available here.

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an 4 24

although Democrats have been struggling in Florida, they have gained a lot of ground in Arizona, Georgia and Virginia — all of which were once deep red but have evolved into full-fledged swing states. Arizona was once synonymous with the conservatism of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, Sen. John McCain; now, it has a Democratic governor (Katie Hobbs), two non-GOP U.S. senators (Democrat Mark Kelly and ex-Democrat turned independent Kyrsten Sinema), and a Democratic state attorney general — who has been leading a thorough criminal investigation of MAGA efforts to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results.

One of 2020's political bombshells came when now-President Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Arizona. Although Trump falsely claimed that he won the state, meticulous recounts thoroughly debunked that claim.

According to Politico, Democratic Arizona AG Kris Mayes has subpoenaed two far-right MAGA congressmen who were major promoters of the Big Lie: Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar.

READ MORE:[CNN sues for recordings of President Biden’s interview in classified docs probe: report

Politico reporters Betsy Woodruff Swan and Kyle Cheney note that although "there is no indication that" Mayes "is considering bringing criminal charges against either lawmaker," the subpoenas "show that Mayes…. has cast a far wider net in her probe than previously understood."

"Mayes appears to be nearing a decision on whether to ask the grand jury to issue indictments in the case," Swan and Cheney report in an article published on April 4. "If she does, she will become the fourth state or local prosecutor to bring criminal charges over the efforts by Trump and his allies to submit fake electors in states that Joe Biden won."

The Politico journalists add, "In recent weeks, Mayes' office has sent out a wave of grand jury subpoenas. She also has required Arizona Republicans who falsely claimed to be the state's presidential electors to assert their Fifth Amendment rights in front of the grand jury — an unusual step that has generated criticism from some former prosecutors."

Swan and Cheney note that Arizona "was one of seven states won by Biden where Trump's allies organized slates of so-called alternate electors."

READ MORE:['Wrong!' AOC schools Ted Cruz on RICO laws

"Prosecutors in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada have brought criminal charges against false electors in those states, and special counsel Jack Smith has called the scheme a central element of Trump's bid to subvert the election," according to the Politico reporters. "Subpoenas to members of Congress in criminal investigations are rare, in part because lawmakers enjoy robust constitutional protections from criminal proceedings connected to their official business."

Swan and Cheney add, "But Biggs and Gosar are not the first lawmakers to face scrutiny from criminal investigators probing Trump's efforts to fight the 2020 election results. In 2022, the FBI seized the phone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) as part of the Justice Department's election-subversion probe."

Legal journalist Luke Johnson, in response to the subpoenas, notes the connection between them and far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander Akbar.

On X, formerly Twitter, Johnson posted, "More to the Story: Ali Alexander Akbar BRAGGED that Paul Gosar & Andy Biggs were his partners on the #StopTheSteal rallies that led to the #Jan6 violent riots. They all must be held accountable, they've laughed it off for years."

The Daily Beast notes that in 2022, the January 6 Select Committee "found that both Biggs and Gosar attended a White House meeting with Trump on December 21, 2020, to strategize on ways that then-Vice President Mike Pence could block the certification of the election results."

READ MORE:[Fani Willis fights back against House GOP efforts to derail Trump RICO case

*Read Politico's full report at this link

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IN a Sunday, January 21 op-ed, MSNBC Daily writer and editor Hayes Brown points to "an amicus (or friend of the court) brief filed on behalf of nearly 200 Republican members of Congress," which urges the US Supreme Court to determine whether Donald Trump can remain on the ballot in Colorado. Brown emphasizes "that there's a deeply self-serving element to their arguments."

He adds, "Under the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling," several GOP lawmakers "could also credibly be described as having 'engaged in insurrection' — and thus theoretically be disqualified from holding office," just as Donald Trump could.

Brown writes, "Dozens of other signatories voted against certifying Biden’s win even after the rioters had stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The goal of their brief isn’t just to keep their party’s standard-bearer on the ballot, but it’s also to absolve themselves of their own sins and to inoculate themselves from calls that they, too, face accountability for supporting Trump’s attempt to steal the election."

The MSNBC Daily writer notes:

*Section 3 states, in part, that if somebody has 'previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States … to support the Constitution of the United States' but then has 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,' that person can’t be allowed to 'be a Senator or Representative in Congress.'Section 3 also gives Congress the power to, 'by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.'

*The self-interested lawmakers give up the game with this line from the brief: 'Although not directly relevant to President Trump, the Colorado Supreme Court would give itself the power to judge the qualifications of those who would be elected to the House or Senate.' That would be especially troubling for Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona. The three of them were knee-deep in plotting to overturn the election, and, in a more just world, they would have faced expulsion for violating Section 3. It’s their inclusion as signatories on the amicus brief that makes this filing particularly odious.

*Read Brown's full op-ed here.

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wacko? troll provocateur?

see afpac am 1st conf

an 12 23

the New York Young Republican Club recently held its annual gala in New York's financial district, and former President Donald Trump gave the keynote address with some of the global far right's most notorious political figures in attendance.

According to Talking Points Memo (TPM), the gala's attendees included not just American far-right politicians like Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado), Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), but also European right-wing extremists like Austrian politician Gerald Grosz and European Parliament member Susanna Ceccardi, who is from Italy's far-right Lega party. German politician Maximilian Krah — whose party, Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) has been criticized as a "neo-Nazi party" — was also at the event.

"Donald Trump rubbing elbows with Nazi-linked groups might be surprising if Trump’s last month wasn’t defined by him parroting Hitler and Mussolini, and promising to rule as a dictator so he can rip away Americans’ freedoms and round up millions of Americans into detention camps," said Ammar Moussa, who is the rapid response director for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign.

"The American people rejected Trump and his MAGA attacks on democracy in 2020, and it’s why he’s going to lose again next November," Moussa added.

Gerald Grosz was initially a member of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, which was founded by Anton Reinthaller — a former Nazi Party leader and SS officer. Grosz and his colleague Jorg Haider, who was the son of a Nazi stormtrooper who praised Adolf Hitler's regime, eventually joined a Freedom Party offshoot. While they all come from different countries, TPM described Grosz, Ceccardi and Krah as comrades-in-arms in movements that are "staunchly nationalist and anti-immigrant" in nature.

Prior to Trump's speech, he was introduced as the "45th, 46th and 47th presidents of the United States," which alludes to Trump's baseless conspiracy theory that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election. Trump doubled down on his "dictator" comments during his speech, repeating that if elected to another term he would assume dictatorial powers on day one of his administration to build a border wall and "drill drill drill."

The New York Young Republican Club's flirting with global far-right figures is in line with how international political scholars have described the modern GOP. In 2019, Harvard University political scientist Pippa Norris surveyed roughly 2,000 political experts around the globe on the authoritarian leanings of various modern far-right parties. She found that the American Republican Party has more in common with authoritarian, fascist-adjacent parties like Turkey's AKP and Hungary's Fidesz than with their counterparts in G7 countries like the Tories in the UK and the conservatives in Canada.

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/rep-paul-gosar-promotes-another-antisemitic-site-praises-hitler-and-denies

rww --> 5 23

earlier this month, Talking Points Memo identified a chain of evidence that strongly suggested Rep. Paul Gosar’s (R-AZ) digital director, Wade Searle, was involved with an interlinked group of social media profiles that were deeply enmeshed with white nationalist Nicholas Fuentes’ viciously antisemitic “Groyper” movement. Details highlighted the accounts’ professed loyalty to the hierarchical hate group and their dedication to Fuentes, who referred to the accounts’ administrator as one of the “strongest soldiers” in his “movement.” The news had some impact: Gosar faced condemnation from President Joe Biden, Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), and multiple Jewish advocacy groups, including the Republican Jewish Coalition. Some have called for an investigation into the report, though Gosar remains, perhaps predictably, silent.

I was a source for TPM on the story, contributing research that I’ve independently collected over years of tracking the far-right in Arizona. And while the revelations in the story were significant, they weren’t necessarily surprising. The Groypers are deeply hateful and grotesque, but Gosar has never been shy in his flirtation with various factions of the fascist far-right, including the Groypers’ leader, Fuentes.

Or, as Gosar himself has bragged in the past: “I’m considered the most dangerous man in Congress.”

A large swath of the far-right has, in turn, taken notice, with Gosar becoming a sort of hero in some corners.

In 2011, the dentist-turned-legislator arrived in the House after a relatively narrow victory in his election amid the Tea Party wave. His win was partially thanks to a Sarah Palin**endorsement**— he was the only candidate she campaigned for — and the support of the American Dental Association (ADA), where he once served as the chairman of the Council on Government Affairs. Now, Gosar runs in a safe, very red district; his hateful antics over the years have left himwithout the support of the ADA, which in 2001 had dubbed him “dentist of the year.”

Over the last decade, Gosar has curated a national and international constituency that goes beyond the residents of his western Arizona district: the vanguard of the national and international far right. He has spent his time in office traversing the country and the globe, offering his support to fringe movements. In 2014, he caravaned down to Bunkerville, Nevada in support of Cliven Bundy and his armed militia wannabes as they took on the federal government for their “right” to illegally graze where they chose in a modern “war for the West.” In 2018, he flew out to London to**stand in solidarity**with Islamophobic bigot and English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon). In his speech, which was condemned by the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Gosar vilified Muslim immigrants as rapists and “disgusting and depraved individuals.”

Gosar speaks at Bunkerville (Dr. Kelli Ward’s Facebook)

Earlier this month, Gosar was a speaker at a CPAC Hungary event titled “Nations First,” appearing alongside the chairman of the **Freedom Party of Austria**:{, a party founded by Nazi SS officers. In his }:{, Gosar praised authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as a “beacon in the West”for its strict anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ laws. The nationalist rhetoric continues in Gosar’s own office as he calls for a }:total ban:{ on all immigration to the United States and }:demands:{ widespread militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.}:

Gosar has lent his support to a broad coalition of far-right bigots and Christian supremacists: from the shitposting Groyper neo-Nazis to the camo-clad LARPers and hate groups:{ to the suit-wearing, ultranationalist political elites at home and }:{. He’ll rile up the Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers, }:telling them:{ that the United States is already in a Civil War, “we just haven’t started shooting yet,” then repeat the }:same line:{ in an interview with }:a well-documented neo-Nazi:{. He’ll even associate with the conspiratorial (and often ridiculous) QAnon movement, }::{tweeting out references to Q-drops (Gosar later said the tweet was sarcastic, though the tweet remains up to this day) and appearing at Q-friendly rallies.}:

Paul Gosar posing with Ron Watkins, the alleged “mastermind” behind QAnon. (Ron Watkins’ Telegram)

This all reached a boiling point during the “Stop the Steal” era and leading up to the January 6 insurrection when the many factions of the paranoid, conspiratorial and violent far-right came together to rally around Donald Trump and against American democracy. Gosar was, of course, in the center of it all.

By the night after the 2020 election, Gosar was already rallying alongside armed Trump voters and Mike “Pizzagate” Cernovichto question the legitimacy of the votes. He’d continue to appear at Stop the Steal rallies throughout Arizona to prepare the angry base for what was coming. After the insurrection, he was among the very first elected officials to lie about “Antifa” causing the chaos of January 6, and soon joined insurrection apologists in lionizing Ashli Babbitt and J6 arrestees as martyrs.

It was not long after the insurrection that Gosar also began courting Nick Fuentes and the Groypers.

Fuentes and his following are particularly repulsive. He regularly streams his misogynistic, racist and antisemitic rants on his network, where parasocial Groypers toss out slurs in his live chat and donate to their dear leader. On occasion, Fuentes asks his followers to pledge their loyalty to the himself, “the white race,” and Jesus Christ while also asking them to “rape, kill, and die for Nick Fuentes.” He has denied the Holocaust while simultaneously calling Adolf Hitler “really fucking cool.” Only days after TPM’s report, in which Gosar’s digital director Searle was linked to the influential Groyper accounts, Fuentes made news again after openly fantasizing about marrying an underage bride.

In one recent, representative rant complaining about abortion, homosexuality, feminism, contraceptives, and sex, Fuentes explained that a lot of things he hates are “popular” and placed the blame (as usual) on “the Jewish media.”

“‘Popular’ means that people support it, which they do,” Fuentes said. “And it sucks, and it is what it is, but that’s why we need a dictatorship. That’s unironically why we need to get rid of all that. We need to take control of the media, take control of the government, and force the people to believe what we believe, or force them to play by our rules.”

There may have been a time when it would have been obscene for a politician to affiliate so openly with a predatory neo-Nazi like Fuentes, but Gosar has provided Fuentes’ Christofascist youth movement with more political credibility than any other elected official.

“As the Right continues to radicalize, figures like Gosar may calculate they have more to gain from keeping these movements like the Groypers at hand rather than pushing them aside,” explained Ben Lorber, a senior research analyst for Political Research Associates with a focus on Fuentes and the Groypers. “Doing so would alienate the Gen-Z white nationalist base that provides him ground support in Arizona, and loyal praise online.”

In February 2021, Gosar surprised Fuentes’ mostly young, mostly male audience as the keynote speaker at the second America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). The next year, Gosar would appear by video at the third AFPAC alongside his fellow far-right Arizonans, including former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio and state senator Wendy Rogers. Gosar’s Freedom Caucus colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, also made a surprise in-person appearance at the same white supremacist rally, where Fuentes praised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the January 6 insurrection, and Adolf Hilter.

Gosar speaks at the second America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. (Livestream)

Gosar’s willingness to appear at AFPAC highlights his comfort with some of the most extreme bigots in the American political scene. At AFPAC, Fuentes fanboys pack the crowd alongside other Groyper influencers and old-school white nationalist propagandists. Featured guests at AFPAC III included fellow streamers on Fuentes’ platform like Vincent James Foxx, who has expressed his desire for a Christian theocracy where gay people are criminalized via execution, and Anthime “Baked Alaska” Gionet, who has faced criminal charges for storming the Capitol on January 6 and his defacement of a Hanukkah display in Phoenix, AZ (all of which he live streamed, of course). Elder white nationalists in attendance included disgraced former congressman Steve King and Jared Taylor, who has long organized Klansmen, alt-right figures, and other white supremacists at his own biannual event.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tepidly condemned Greene and Gosar following their AFPAC appearance, and Sen. Wendy Rogers was censured back in Arizona for the violent calls made in her speech.Gosar blamed his second appearance on a**miscommunication**with a staffer (wonder which one), but the slap on the wrist failed to stop Gosar’s pandering. Only months after being lectured by McCarthy, Gosar was back to making headlines for being listed as a guest with another Groyperesque organization, American Populist Union, holding an event on Hitler’s birthday. Gosar denied his involvement, saying he was booked that day, though he had promoted the gathering on social media.

To further highlight Gosar’s comfort in these circles, Gosar has promoted Foxx’s social media and his fringe white nationalist blog over a dozen times. In “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January 6th” — written by former U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman and TPM reporter Hunter Walker —Riggleman recalled a 2019 Freedom Caucus trip to the southern border during which Gosar and then-Representative King “dove into a conversation about how they felt white people had really created superior civilizations.”

These ongoing flirtations with the far-right are not uncommon in today’s Republican Party, but there’s something noteworthy about Gosar. Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, an Arizona journalist with a focus on far-right extremism, considers Gosar to be “unique among his caucus.” Unlike Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, who often generate controversy due to their loud and overly abhorrent comments and behavior, Gosar carefully “signals to those in the extreme,” MacDonald-Evoy explained.

Gosar’s social media output also continues to be littered with “America First” nods and propaganda. (As of right now, his Twitter bio’s location is set to “America First.”) These dog whistles may be innocuous or incoherent to some, but are clear nods to Fuentes fanboys and Groyper shitposters. Gosar’s minor criticism of Fuentes for “having a problem with his mouth,” made headlines, and he seems to have realized the optics of appearing directly alongside Fuentes, but he’s continued to show the movement that he’s engaged.

“His use of internet culture has given him a boost among groups like the Groypers and Patriot Front, which are made up largely of young men who are constantly online,” said MacDonald-Evoy. “Speaking in the right language shows an ‘in-the-know’ and not ‘co-opting’ of the language that I think the extreme parts of the right appreciate and some might not notice.”

These dog whistles are heard loud and clear among members of the far-right. Those activists, including the Groypers, have come to see Gosar as one of their own. After all, the congressman has no reason, besides an ideological one, to continue rubbing shoulders with, giving speeches to, and emboldening such a hateful faction of the right. Gosar repeatedly brushes off these controversies because, they reason, this must be who he is and what he believes. His apparent refusal to distance himself from Searle, or even acknowledge the report about his staffer, can be understood as another of these dog whistles. He sticks by Fuentes to further mainstream his movement’s vile politics within the already vile Republican Party — which is, at best, indifferent to Gosar’s white nationalist friends.

Haley Orion is an independent researcher tracking hate groups, far-right extremism and how they intersect with mainstream Arizona politics. Her work has appeared in local and national publications, and she writes at Arizona Right Watch on Substack.

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/rep-paul-gosar-promotes-pro-hitler-and-holocaust-denying-site-after-it praised him

Jonathan Larsen @ Salon: Paul Gosar blames Jesus for sneaking Kari Lake into “new” National Prayer Breakfast.

2x? https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/paul-gosar

over the last two years, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has emerged as a heavy favorite among far-right conservatives. As an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, Gosar has managed to gain more than 90 endorsements as the midterm election season approaches.

During a recent rally, Gosar spoke before a crowd of right-wing supporters as he declared to be “considered the most dangerous man in Congress."

“This is where it all began,” Gosar said prior to Trump taking the stage. “This is where we questioned: ‘Was there fraud? Absolutely. Was it enough to overturn the election? Absolutely.’”

At the same event, per The Guardian, the Republican lawmaker also echoed the stance of other right-wingers who have criticized critical race theory (CRT), the military and food shortages. Last but not least, he pivoted toward a Trump favorite: voter fraud and illegitimate elections.

So what makes Gosar different from other Trump-supporting Republicans?

Per The Guardian, Gosar is "the kind of politician that Trump – who is embarking on a series of rallies to try to cement his allies’ power in the Republican party – is increasingly seeking to support."

"Gosar has extensive links to white nationalists and Capitol rioters and, many observers say, represents a dangerous new breed of Republican politician, who would have once been considered fringe, but whom Trump is increasingly making central to Republican party politics."

Joe Lowndes, a political science professor at the University of Oregon who also co-authored the book "Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity," weighed in on the rise of Gosar. “We no longer have an ability to make a clear delineation between the right and far-right in the Republican party,” said Lowndes..

he went on to explain how Gosar's rise underscores the problem within the Republican Party as Trump-like figures are taking center stage. The issue appears to be one that Republicans will be haunted by for quite some time.

“The Trumpist wing of the Republicans isn’t just ascending – it’s the dominant wing of the Republican party. It’s the dominant wing not just in national politics, but in state and local politics as well,” said Lowndes. “The Republican Party has committed itself to a party of minoritarian rule, figuring out ways to rule in the long term without having majority support of voters."Gosar retweets AOC cartoon murder video — minutes after ... ›

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

an 3 23 deep state BS?

Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) revealed over the weekend that he and other right-wing lawmakers may intend to pursue criminal charges against members of the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6th, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

"Is there a chance that you guys could prosecute certain members of Congress, Congress, or former members of Congress over the January 6th riots?" asked Gateway Pundit correspondent Jordan Conradson.

"I, I, I would not, uh, leave it just that. I think there's also military that are involved and I think that there, you know, heads have to roll.Otherwise, you condone this, uh, lawlessness and that's what America sees. We see lawlessness in Chicago. We see lawless on our border. We see lawlessness everywhere," Gosar said. "And that's part of the purpose. Precipitating actions that congresses is had allowed."

Gosar also implied that he believes in a nationwide conspiracy concocted by high-level officials to make the country more dangerous.

"So are you looking into any inquiries, resolutions of inquiries into [Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman] Mark Milley or [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Myorkas over their handling of our national security?" Conradson wondered.

"Stay tuned," Gosar joked.

Watch below or at this link.

How Paul Gosar emerged as a far-right favorite and subsequently the 'most dangerous man in Congress’

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

mma 1 23

BEN SHAPIRO (HOST): Republicans are getting hit for putting a bunch of firebrands and a couple of kooks on the House Oversight Committee. Again, the game that is being played here is that Republicans might not have done that, right? Republicans might not have put Paul Gosar on, for example, the House Oversight Committee if Democrats had not been in the habit of kicking people off committees. So now the game is going to be Democrats seat everybody, Republicans seat everybody and they kick other people of the opposing party who they don't like off these various committees.

It is worth noting here the media is making a huge deal over the fact that you have some of the, sort of, more loud members of the caucus -- more of the media-centric members of the caucus, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Paul Gosar on the House Oversight Committee. But let me read you a list of the people on the House Oversight Committee....

So, like a thousand people on the Oversight Committee, obviously.

This is making everybody in the media utterly insane. But the reality is that putting people on the Oversight Committee so that they can ask tough questions of member of government is really not the biggest deal in the world. And it is good to have people who are more firebrandy, like Boebert, on committees like that one. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

If you're going to put people on committees then that seems like a pretty good committee to put them on. Those are the investigative committees where they, actually, would like to be and you're going to get a lot of aggressive questions answered.

rs 1 23

THE FOUNDER OF “Stop the Steal” delivered an early warning about the violence soon to overwhelm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a text to the chief of staff of Rep. Paul Gosar, according to a deposition released by the Jan. 6 Committee.

Ali Alexander is a far-right agitator who was one of the key mobilizers of the protest that morphed into the insurgency of Jan. 6, 2021. After making an early exit from the Ellipse rally he’d helped organize — at which Donald Trump demanded his backers march on the Capitol — Alexander became an eyewitness to the chaos unfolding as insurrectionists breached the Capitol perimeter.

“People were scaling the wall like Spiderman,” Alexander testified to the Jan. 6 committee. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

But Alexander didn’t just stop and gawk. He took time to sound the alarm to Gosar, one of his top House allies. “I think you and your staff should maybe leave,” Alexander texted Gosar’s chief of staff, Thomas Van Flein. “This is hell out here.”

This partisan early warning is cited in the Jan. 6 committee’s 236-page deposition of Alexander, and has not previously been reported. That message, and other details from Alexander’s and related depositions, offer new clarity into the Stop the Steal movement’s links to both far-right paramilitary groups and far-right MAGA lawmakers, including Gosar, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The committee questioners pressed Alexander about his relationship to the Arizona congressman/dentist. “Dr. Paul Gosar and I share political beliefs about election irregularities,” Alexander responded, citing the baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. Alexander then added that Gosar is “a friend to the movement” and “a stellar dude.”

A questioner for the committee sought to clarify Alexander’s warning text: “So you thought Mr. Gosar and Mr. Gosar’s staff was in danger?” Alexander responded: “I thought that they could potentially be in danger … if this escalated.” He added, “I knew a lot of people in Congress. I wouldn’t want them hurt. So I said ‘I think you and your staff should maybe leave.’ Now in retrospect,” Alexander conceded, “that’s stupid because where were they going to go?” There was, of course, no safe exit from the Capitol on Jan. 6. — as it was soon overwhelmed on all sides by the dead-end Trump supporters Alexander had summoned to the Capitol.

the timestamp of the text Alexander sent is 1:10 p.m., according to additional evidence released by the committee. The warning was delivered just two minutes before Gosar rose on the floor of the House t of the Electoral College votes from his home state of Arizona. “I rise up for myself and 60 of my colleagues to object,” Gosar said with an American flag Covid mask pulled down under his chin, “to the counting of the electoral ballots from Arizona.”

Ali Alexander is a protégé of Roger Stone, the Trump-pardoned felon who has been a dirty trickster in American politics for decades. Stone coined the phrase “Stop the Steal” in 2016, but Alexander testified that the two have a “gentleman’s agreement” for him to use it politically. Alexander is a top ally of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well, whom he accompanied during the chaos of Jan. 6.

Alexander, who bears a passing resemblance to Sammy Davis Jr.. is also known to Trump, who always greets him, Alexander testified, by pretending to mistake him for the member of the Rat Pack: “Whenever we see each other, he makes the comment to say, ‘Sammy?’”

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Alexander organized a roving series of Stop the Stealrallies that brought together far-right extremists, toughs, and militants — including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and “Groypers” (or followers of the white-supremacist Nick Fuentes). Oath Keepers former general counsel Kellye SoRelle testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Alexander, Jones, and Stone were “the center point for everything” having to do with the Stop the Steal movement.

‘Baked Alaska’ Sentenced to 2 Months After Livestreaming Himself Rioting on Jan. 6

Twitter Reinstates QAnon Kingpin Ron Watkins

‘Stop the Steal’ Scoundrel Ali Alexander Reinstated to Twitter Day After Praising Brazilian Riot

In addition to his connections with extremist groups, Alexander also had forged connections with far-right members on Capitol Hill. Alexander’s relationship with Gosar appears the most extensive. Alexander testified that in the runup to Jan. 6, Gosar would share messages from Trump with him. “Representative Gosar, if he would talk to the President or meet with the President, might relay some good news back to me,” Alexander told the committee.

When specific plans for Jan. 6 were in development, Alexander testified, he initially sought to hold a morning rally in the shadow of the Capitol — at which Gosar was confirmed to be a speaker.

But planning for the events surrounding Jan. 6 fluctuated as the date neared. The original time slot for Alexander’s Capitol event was pushed back to the afternoon, when Congress would be in session, making Gosar’s participation impossible. Alexander, in turn, got roped into planning for the primary event at the Ellipse, where Trump would address the day’s rabid throng.

Alexander’s participation in that Ellipse rally was not fully welcome. Kylie Kremer, a lead organizer of the Ellipse rally, told the Jan. 6 committee that “Ali is a shady character.” But she said she chose to keep him in the loop because he was “the devil that you know,” and she “would rather keep him close” than risk having him turn on her.

Caroline Wren was another key organizer and fundraiser for the Jan. 6 rally. Alexander testified that Wren was “my main point of contact with what I’m calling Trump world.” Wren testified that Alexander’s participation was needed because he was a better organizer than Kremer and her mother, Amy, who ran the group Women For America First.

“His website, at the end, had 50,000-plus RSVPs,” Wren testified to the committee. “The Kremers had somewhere around 20,000, and that was after the President of the United States had tweeted it multiple times, the Kremers had promoted it. They had less than half the number of RSVPs that Ali Alexander did.”

As part of his planning for the Ellipse event, according to text messages cited by the Jan 6. committee, Alexander hosted a Jan. 3 conference call about logistics for the event. On the call and afterward, Alexander touted that it was joined by several, high-profile right-wing members of Congress.

Wren, who had to drop off the call early, texted Alexander soon after with the query: “Who are the Members of Congress that were on…?” Alexander responded: “Gosar, Lance Goodman, Lauren B, Marjorie, and maybe Congressman Kelleyat a minimum were on.” In his testimony Alexander said he could not recall the specifics of the call but that “Lauren B” referred to Lauren Boebert and “Marjorie” meant Marjorie Taylor Greene, of whom Alexander said, “she’s awesome.”

If Alexander anticipated a peaceful day on Jan. 6, it’s hard to square with his rhetoric leading up to the event. At a rally in D.C. on Jan. 5 he led a crowd in a chant of “Victory or death!” And in the predawn hours of Jan. 6 he tweeted that it was the “first official day of the rebellion.”

First official day of the rebellion.

— Ali Alexander (@ali) January 6, 2021

Alexander was originally slated to be a speaker at the Ellipse rally, but was ultimately boxed out from a turn at the mic. He was, instead, given VIP access for the president’s speech, which Alexander attended along with Alex Jones.

Alexander testified that he did not stay for the duration of Trump’s speech.Instead, he and Jones were tapped (by either Wren or her aide, he said) to lead protesters from the overflow area listening to Trump’s speech in a march toward the Capitol.

Alexander recalled that he traveled with Jones, accompanied by Jones’ security detail, and that they walked toward the Capitol after Jones first made an impromptu speech.Alexander insisted that he and Jones had the intention of reaching the staging area on the north side of the Capitol where Alexander’s separate Stop the Steal event was permitted to begin that afternoon.

But the agitator told the committee that as chaos began to unfold, he quickly realized that his event wasn’t going to happen. He claimed that he tried to “deescalate” the crowd, but the committee questioner was incredulous. “Can you help me understand that assertion with the fact that you were walking to the Capitol, chanting things such as ‘Stop the Steal’?” (Alexander claimed that by chanting he was “gathering people to us … so that we can then move people where they belong.”)

Alexander wasn’t the only one offering text-message warnings to flee the scene that day. As the violence began to unfold, Wren texted Alexander, warning him that this outcome spelled trouble for him. “I think you should leave,” Wren wrote in a text cited by the committee. “This will come down on you hard.”

Alexander has not been charged for any crime in relation to Jan. 6, nor was he referred for prosecution by the Jan. 6 committee. He did reveal that he’s communicated with the FBI through an attorney. In an opening statement, Alexander told the committee: “I had nothing to do with any violence or law breaking that happened on January 6th. I had nothing to do with the planning of violence. I had nothing to do with the preparation of violence. I had nothing to do with the execution of violence. Any suggestion to the contrary is factually false.”

Neither Alexander, Thomas Van Flein (on behalf of Gosar), nor Wren replied to requests for comment for this story.

Alexander is in the news this week because Elon Musk overturned the permanent Twitter ban he received in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6. Alexander has shown no signs of being chastened by his close encounter with the insurrection, or of reforming his inflammatory rhetoric. In fact, his reinstatement to Twitter came just hours after he’d cheered on the insurrection by far right Brazialians who stormed key government buildings in Brasilia on Sunday.

For his part, Alexander made clear to the Jan. 6 committee that one social media platform wasmore important than all others as a tool he’d used to whip up the crowds who stormed the Capitol. “Which social media platforms did you use to promote the events on Jan. 6?” a committee questioner asked. Alexander responded: “Primarily Twitter.”

---

Neo-Nazi supporter and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ) tweeted yesterday that he thought killing the Constitution was a good idea. He then deleted the tweet, but of course no tweet is ever really deleted.

"I support and agree with the former President. Unprecedented fraud requires unprecedented cure," he wrote, along with a screenshot of Donald Trump's seditious message on Truth Social calling for the "termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." (See image below.)

Only a month after the unstable Qongressman was re-elected into the House, he's already broken his oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." I'd call that treason.

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/here-are-more-30-examples-rep-paul-gosar-embracing-antisemitic-media

no lnx twt vid

Here are more than 30 examples of Rep. Paul Gosar embracing antisemitic media

WRITTEN BY ERIC HANANOKI

PUBLISHED 11/29/22

CitationFrom Nick Fuentes' now-suspended Twitter account.

As the Republican Party draws scrutiny for its embrace of antisemites, GOP leaders have done nothing about Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ). Since 2021, Gosar has endorsed and promoted antisemitic media outlets and figures more than 30 times.

Gosar, who is reportedly considered “untouchable inside the House Republican conference,” has not received any discipline from House Republican leadership. To the contrary, Republicans are set to restore the committee assignments that were taken from him by House Democrats and Republicans Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL) after he promoted an animated video of him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Joe Biden.

Three of Gosar’s favorite antisemitic media sources are Nick Fuentes, Andrew Torba’s platform Gab, and Vincent James Foxx’s outlet Daily Veracity.

Fuentes is a Holocaust denier who frequently makes antisemitic remarks, including claiming that Jewish people have too much power and they should “get the fuck out of America.” He and Ye, who was formerly known as Kanye West, recently had dinner with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump reportedly “‘seemed very taken’ with Fuentes.”

Gab is a haven for white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and antisemitic users, including people who have threatened and committed violent acts.Gab’s CEO is virulent antisemite Andrew Torba, who uses his site to repost attacks on Jewish people. Torba has said that he wants to exclude Jewish people from American political life, stating: “We don't want people who are Jewish. … This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country.”

Daily Veracity is a fringe white nationalist site that portrays Black people as violent criminals and warns readers that they “are being replaced” because “minorities are pouring into the country and having children.” It is run by Vincent James Foxx, a Holocaust denier who has frequently attacked Jewish people.Foxx has complained that “the Holocaust is weaponized” against white people; attacked Jewish people because they supposedly “not only control Hollywood, congress, and the media, but they control social media as well”; and claimed that the impeachment of Trump was “The Jew Coup.”

Gosar’s promotion of antisemitism is similar to that of fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), who is also set to get committee assignments back next year.

Here are 33 examples of Gosar promoting antisemitic media figures and outlets. Many examples from this list are via The Informant’s Nick R. Martin, who has extensively covered Gosar’s promotion of extremists.

On February 26, 2021, Gosar was the keynote speaker at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference. (Gosar and Fuentes met at a restaurant the next day.)

Paul Gosar speaking at AFPAC in 2021 from Arizona's Family

In April 2021, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck reported that Gosar took a trip to the border with Greyson Arnold, “a far-right blogger who has shared a post saying ‘Jewish led colored hordes’ are fighting the ‘"White Christian West’” and posted pro-Nazi Germany content.

On May 12, 2021, Gosar wrote to the FBI asking for more information about the No Fly List. He tweeted of his letter: “Today young America First supporters like @NickJFuentes and tomorrow anyone else the regime dislikes. Secret tribunals and no ability to challenge in court is immoral.”

On May 20, 2021, Gosar praised Fuentes and told people to follow him on Twitter.

On June 20, 2021, Gosar promoted Foxx’s Daily Veracity on Twitter.

On August 7, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity on Twitter.

On August 25, 2021, Gosar promoted Foxx on Twitter.

On September 17, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity on Twitter.

On September 24, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity on Twitter.

On September 19, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list.

On September 27, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list

On October 3, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list.

On October 6, 2021, Gosar promoted a column by Michelle Malkin on The Unz Review. As Martin wrote, Gosar was promoting a site “that routinely publishes the work of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and Holocaust deniers,” and was founded “by former California businessman Ron Unz, who has written ‘it far more likely than not that the standard Holocaust narrative is at least substantially false, and quite possibly, almost entirely so.’”

On October 10, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list.

On October 17, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list.

On October 24, 2021, Gosar promoted Daily Veracity through his House email list.

On November 2, 2021, Gosar promoted Foxx on Twitter.

On November 2, 2021, Gosar again promoted Foxx on Twitter.

On November 6, 2021, as Martin wrote, Gosar “retweeted Kyle Clifton, a young antisemite who has called Jews ‘evil’ and described the religion as an ‘elite cabal’ that controls the government and media.”

On November 21, 2021, Gosar posted a video praising Gab and Andrew Torba.

On December 6, 2021, Gosar responded to a tweet by writer Jack Hadfield wondering, “Why has Twitter taken down so many people on the populist nationalist right today?” Gosar wrote: “Go to Gab.” Hadfield has moderated a Facebook group that that includes “jokes about the Holocaust” and “antisemitic conspiracy theories.”

In January, as the Twitter account AZ Right Wing Watch wrote, Gosar shared a tweet from the account “Based Andy Biggs Fan.” The account features antisemitic content.

On January 22, Gosar quoted the Gab user “Retardedist Retarded Retard” and wrote: “Thank you all for inviting me onto Gab back in August. I love the platform and I love the communities that use it. Gab is the future of social media - it's an honor to have your support.” The user that Gosar quoted is an antisemitic fan of Nick Fuentes.

Gosar quoted an antisemitic Gab user to praise Gab

On January 24, Gosar wrote on Gab: “The phony January 6th Committee's partisan witch-hunt continues as they have now set their sights on young conservative Christians like Nick Fuentes. This is pure political persecution and it has to stop. @realnickjfuentes.” Fuentes responded by thanking him.

On February 18, Gosar wrote: “I love Gab!”

On February 25, Gosar spoke at Nick Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference through a pre-recorded message.

On March 16, Gosar wrote on Gab: “It's amazing what Andrew Torba and his team have done with Gab. I joined this truly free speech platform last November and since then I've watched as the performance, quality, and features have increased astronomically. There's even a Gab marketplace now where users can buy/sell goods and services. Andrew is a pioneer, leading millions away from the information stranglehold of Big Tech. I'm excited to see the Parallel Economy develop further. Gab on!”

On April 3, as AZ Right Wing Watch spotted and Martin wrote, “Gosar retweeted a post from an account calling itself ‘Based Paul Gosar Fan.’ The account praises Hitler, posts swastikas and uses the phrase “Accelerate hate!” in its bio. Gosar also follows the account.”

On June 22, Gosar wrote on Gab: “Andrew Torba & I have a great relationship and I'm thoroughly satisfied with my decision to join. Since that time, I have been attacked and smeared simply for having an account and posting on this platform to over 120,000 followers and for consistently promoting Gab on my other social media.”

On May 16, Media Matters reported that Gosar has run advertising on Gab.

On September 30, Gosar promoted a film featuring Nick Fuentes, writing: “The persecution against Christians and Conservatives by the Biden Regime brings great dishonor to our country. If Americans do not have the freedom to dissent, then they have no freedom at all.” He later deleted the tweet.

On August 8, Gosar wrote on Gab: “They've been going after Andrew Torba for months now - some would say years - because the platform that he is building threatens the Liberal World Order and their control over what we're allowed to say and see online.”

On November 28, Gosar wrote on Gab: “Gab is like Facebook but with free speech, anonymity, and a parallel economy of businesses who share our American values. The company is owned and run by Christian Americans, and the terms of service is the First Amendment. I'm glad to be here.”

r ww 10 22

So much for distancing himself from Nick Fuentes.

On Friday, Rep. Paul Gosar promoted a film about Fuentes portraying the white nationalist and Christian fascist as the “most canceled man in America.”

“The persecution against Christians and Conservatives by the Biden Regime brings great dishonor to our country,” Gosar wrote on Twitter, sharing a trailer for the film. “If Americans do not have the freedom to dissent, then they have no freedom at all.”

[twt]

gosar has rubbed soldiers with the 24-year-old Fuentes since he came onto the political scene, notably appearing at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in February 2021 and meeting with the white nationalist the following day.

Prior to that, both Gosar and Fuentes were heavily involved in the so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign, which sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election and keep former President Donald Trump in power. Gosar preemptively sought a pardon from Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol but did not receive one, while Fuentes has been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the attack.

In April of 2021, following his harassment of airline employees, his participation in the so-called “Stop the Steal” campaign and appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, not to mention his threat to lawmakers who certified Joe Biden’s win, Fuentes was placed on a no-fly list. He found an ally in Gosar. The Arizona congressman defended Fuentes, writing a letter to the FBI accusing the agency of abusing its power.

Fuentes, in turn, applauded the congressman. “There is some hope, maybe, for America First in Congress,” Fuentes said on a May episode of his “America First” podcast. “And that is thanks to—almost exclusively—to Rep. Paul Gosar.”

Since Gosar lent legitimacy to the young extremist with his initial appearance at AFPAC, America First’s ranks have swelled. When Gosar appeared by video at the 2022 AFPAC conference, he was joined by other far-right politicians, including fellow House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona state Rep. Wendy Rogers.

A few months later, Gosar expressed frustration with Fuentes, stating, “I’ve given up … on dealing with Nick. Nick’s got a problem with his mouth.” He also claimed he didn’t mean for his taped remarks to appear at the conference, and that he didn’t know about Fuentes’ “divisive” background before his initial appearance in 2021.

But with today’s tweet, it appears now that all is well between the far-right congressman and misogynist white nationalist. Unless, of course, it was just another misunderstanding.

Tags: Nick Fuentes Paul Gosar America First Political Action Conference white nationalism America First

an 922

A former investigator for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection recently expressed concern about Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) repeated echoing of former President Donald Trump.

In fact, he believes the lawmakers' support of the former president's "unhinged conspiracy theories" has convinced him that they are both detached from reality and adamant about ignoring facts.

According to Business Insider, former January 6 House committee investigator Denver Riggleman laid out his arguments in his new book, "The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January 6th."

He also expressed concern about the lawmakers' mental health. "I came to believe Gosar and Gohmert may have had serious cognitive issues," Riggleman wrote in his book.

Riggleman's criticism, per Insider, is a result of "absorbing all the wild ideas the conservative duo would throw around while they huddled with other members of thefar-right House Freedom Caucus."

His remarks, per the news outlet, also coincide with a poll included in its "Red, White, and Gray" project, described as an exploration of "life in a democracy helmed by those of advanced age."

In excerpts of the book referenced by The Guardian, Riggleman wrote that the Republican lawmakers "seemed to be joined at the brain stem when it came to their eagerness to believe wild, dramatic fantasies about Democrats, the media and big tech."

The results of the poll suggest many Americans support the idea of Congressional candidates undergoing medical exams to ensure they are fit for office.

According to the poll, "Eighty-one percent of respondents said they support subjecting congressional candidates to physical and mental exams before they're allowed to serve — an issue that's already on voters' minds as the 2024 presidential race takes shape."

https://angrywhitemen.org/2021/02/27/rep-paul-gosar-gives-speech-at-white-nationalist-america-first-conference/

Rep. Paul Gosar Gives Speech At White Nationalist ‘America First’ Conference

ON FEBRUARY 27, 2021 BY EYES ON THE RIGHTIN AMERICA FIRST, LAURA LOOMER, NICK FUENTES, PAUL GOSAR, RACISM, XENOPHOBIA

On Feb. 19, 2021, Holocaust-denying white nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes announced the speaker lineup for his second annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). Speakers included far-right pundit Michelle Malkin, antisemitic vlogger Vincent James Foxx, and white supremacist ex-congressman Steve King.

But Fuentes teased one more speaker whose identity would be revealed the evening of the event.

Unsurprisingly that special guest speaker was Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), a conspiracy theorist and vocal proponent of the antidemocratic “Stop the Steal” movement which alleges that President Trump lost the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud.

Gosar’s speech focused on alleged censorship of conservative voices by “Big Tech” — particularly social media platforms. Gosar quoted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who voiced concerns that Sec. 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 could lead to companies removing content in a racially discriminatory manner. But it was far-right voices Gosar was concerned with.

“Now today the Democrats do culturally what they cannot do legally: intimidation and suppression of ideas by cancelling, vandalism, doxing, and death threats,” Gosar said. “This is the new America they want. This is not the America of our fathers and our forefathers.”

He said that there were “many people” present who had “firsthand knowledge” of being deplatformed, “including Laura Loomer.” Gosar claimed the Islamophobic activist, who shrugged off the massacre of 51 Muslims in Christchurch, NZ, was “relegated to a third-class citizenship” after being banned from Twitter and other platforms.

When Loomer announced her run for Congress in 2020, Gosar was quick to endorse her. After she won the Republican primary last August, Gosar boasted that he was the “first member of Congress” to do so, and called her a “principled and determined fighter.”

On Oct. 7 he begged the National Republican Congressional Committee to support her. “She fights. She will win,” Gosar wrote. Loomer lost by 20 percentage points against incumbent Rep. Lois Frankel.

Gosar continued his speech by stating that we are facing a “climate crisis,” but not one that’s “about the moon and the oceans.” “We have a climate crisis of intolerance,” he said. “A climate crisis of communists who suppress free speech, suppress our votes, suppress our citizens in favor of aliens, and undermine our republic.”

He added that the Republican Party “will not survive if we cannot speak and connect online.” And he warned that “patriots” need to “win back Congress, and the Senate, and the White House” and “rein in Big Tech,” or Democrats would “use Silicon Valley and the mainstream media to harm conservatives and our republic." [vid]

gosar’s decision to speak at AFPAC II, a conference organized by a fascist who recently spoke about killing legislators, was entirely predictable at this point. Gosar had previously been caught following overt white supremacists on Twitter, and routinely uses his two verified accounts to amplify extremist voices.

Gosar has repeatedly retweeted figures such as male supremacist Mike Cernovich, Neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec, and conspiracy theorist Mark Dice, among others. He touted Revolver News, a far-right website founded by Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who was fired for speaking at a white nationalist conference.

On several occasions Gosar has tweeted the “America First” slogan — or a variation thereof. He’s referred to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan death virus” and warned of “infected illegals surg[ing] across the border.” After a photo op at the border wall he called for a “halt” to “all immigration legal and illegal.”

Last June he retweeted the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti-immigrant hate group founded by the late eugenicist John Tanton, and wrote, “But but but [undocumented immigrants] are just here dreaming of a better life…of crime, murder, rape, and copious drug sales to kill American citizens.”

Three months later he bragged about getting an “A+ rating” from NumbersUSA, another anti-immigrant group founded and funded by Tanton.

And like Fuentes, Gosar had played a large role in spreading baseless conspiracies about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen” from Donald Trump. Gosar not only amplified tweets by “Stop the Steal” movement leaders like Ali Alexander and Mike Cernovich, he helped organize a protest in Maricopa County where he told a crowd of 150 people “This is our Alamo.”

One day after his speech at AFPAC II, where a crowd of racists and conspiracy theorists chanted “America first!” and “Destroy the GOP!,” Gosar was nevertheless allowed to participate at a CPAC panel alongside Mercedes Schlapp — wife of CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp.

[[scott perry PHONE SEIZED 8 22

refused to testify jan 6

One day after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, federal agents have executed a search warrant on a GOP member of Congress at the center of the Jan. 6 investigations.

"This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone," Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) exclusively told Fox News.

"They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish," he claimed, even though prosecutors usually prefer that subpoena route unless they fear the evidence could be destroyed or not turned over.

"I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress," Perry complained.

While Trump's search warrant was reportedly about alleged mishandling of classified information and public documents, Perry's search may be related to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

When Perry was subpoenaed by the House select committee in December, Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote that they were searching for information on the effort to install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting Attorney General.

“We have received evidence from multiple witnesses that you had an important role in the efforts to install Mr. Clark as acting Attorney General," Thompson wrote. "Acting Attorney General Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Donoghue have provided evidence regarding these issues, and we have received evidence that others who worked with Mr. Clark were aware of these plans. We are also aware that you had multiple text and other communications with President Trump’s former Chief of Staff regarding Mr. Clark—and we also have evidence indicating that in that time frame you sent communications to the former Chief of Staff using the encrypted Signal app.Mr. Clark has informed us that he plans to invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in anticipation of a deposition to be conducted by the Committee.When Mr. Clark decided to invoke his 5th Amendment rights, he understood that we planned to pose questions addressing his interactions with you, among a host of other topics."

“In addition, we have information indicating that you communicated at various relevant times with the White House and others involved in other relevant topics, including regarding allegations that the Dominion voting machines had been corrupted," Thompson added.

raw story

Some of the most radical Republicans in Congress freaked out after GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania had his cell phone seized by FBI agents executing a search warrant.

"This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone," Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) exclusively told Fox News. "They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish."

"I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress," Perry added.

Perry, the chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

And some far-right Republicans leaped to his defense, even though a federal judge found there was probable cause his cell phone contains evidence of a federal crime.

"The FBI has gone rogue and is doing the dirty work of a communist regime," tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). "Who is giving these orders?"

"They've declared war!" Rep. Ronnie Jackson argued in all-caps. "Now they’re seizing the phone of a sitting member of Congress. The regime grows more tyrannical every day. If we don’t win and win big in November, our country as we know it will cease to exist!"

"The Biden regime is out of control," argued Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

"This is America, and these Gestapo tactics are not welcome," said Rep.Lauren Boebert (R-CO). "There will be a reckoning."

"We will not be intimidated," Boebert added. "We will not back down to Biden’s thugs. Game on."

GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said, "Garland has lost the trust of the American people and will answer for his abusive tactics."

Meanwhile, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) tweeted "defund the FBI" after two years of Republicans claiming Democrats are running on a "defund the police" message.

"Our country is becoming unrecognizable," Gosar said. "The FBI, and the Regime they take marching orders from, are the enemy of the American People."

"They must be stopped," Gosar demanded.]]

ARIZONA: 2022

Kari Lake, a former Phoenix television news anchor, won the GOP primary for governor of Arizona. Lake has repeatedly called for the 2020 election to be decertified. While Lake has not voiced explicit support for QAnon, she has been endorsed by Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor in the Trump administration and a hero in QAnon circles. She also appeared with with QAnon influencer intheMatrixxx at the Cyber Symposium; organizers, including conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, falsely claimed the event would present "evidence" to support claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Lake also held a rally in Morristown, Arizona, with U.S. Rep Paul Gosar and Mike Lindell in March 2022.
Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem (R) won his primary to become Arizona’s Secretary of State, a position that controls the state’s electoral system. Finchem has self-identified as an Oath Keeper, shared QAnon content, vocally denied that President Biden won the 2020 election, and attended the January 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the Capitol riot.
Current Arizona State Senator and self-proclaimed Oath Keeper Wendy Rogers (R) won the race to retain her Arizona State Senate seat representing District 7. In addition, Rogers spoke in February at the America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist conference organized by Nick Fuentes; appeared on the antisemitic TruNews streaming platform; has been a prominent voice in the effort to undermine the 2020 presidential election; and was censured in March for threatening rival politicians with violence.
U.S. Representative Paul Gosar (R) won the primary to retain his congressional seat representing Arizona’s 9th District. Gosar has ties to the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and America First, and has been seen with far-right fringe figures including Steve Bannon, Ali Alexander and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Gosar has a history of promoting conspiracy theories - including those surrounding the 2020 election – and in November 2021 he was censured for sharing an anime cartoon that depicted a character killing a character meant to be Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Mary Ann Mendoza (R) won the primary for Arizona State House District 9 despite having been pulled from the speaker line-up for the 2020 Republican National Convention after she shared a thread on Twitter that contained the antisemitic conspiracy theory that the Rothschild family is plotting on taking over the world and “enslaving” non-Jews and promoted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Later in January 2021, she shared an antisemitic post on Facebook. In addition, Mendoza has expressed her belief that the insurrection was “staged” and that the 2020 election was rigged.

https://announce.today/home/announce/S1knhF5chWFFP4DZTYBH

jim Arroyo, a member of the Oath Keepers in Yavapai County, claimed that CongressmanPaul Gosar said that the U.S. is in a civil war"

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A member of the Yavapai County chapter of the Oath Keepers, an extremist right-wing militia group that was involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, claimed in a recent YouTube video that Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar met with them and said that the U.S. is in a civil war.

"We did a meeting a couple of years ago where our elected representative from Washington Paul Gosar came out and we asked him flat out at that time, 'Do you think we’re heading into a civil war?'" Arroyo said in the video, which is titled "The Coming Civil War? Part 1" and was posted on November 22, 2020. "And his response to the group was just flat out, 'We’re in it. We just haven’t started shooting at each other yet'."

Phoenix New Times was unable to reach Arroyo for comment. Gosar, a Republican and diehard supporter of former President Donald Trump, who represents Arizona's 4th Congressional District, did not return New Times' multiple requests for comment. But other clues of a relationship with the group have surfaced. An image of Gosar standing near a person wearing Oath Keepers clothing emerged last summer. Also, one of Gosar's brothers, Dave Gosar, recently told the New York Times , (which first reported on Arroyo's video), that the congressman is closely affiliated with the Oath Keepers.:{

“He’s been involved with anti-Muslim groups and hate groups,” Dave reportedly said. “He’s made anti-Semitic diatribes. He’s twisted up so tight with the Oath Keepers it’s not even funny.”

Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar spearheaded an effort to overturn the state's election results. Screenshot via C-SPANDave Gosar, a Wyoming attorney, did not respond to New Times' request for comment.

The Oath Keepers are a conspiratorial right-wing paramilitary group whose members believe that the federal government is tyrannical and conspiring trying to strip people of their constitutional rights. They encourage their followers to stockpile guns and ammunition and to organize local militias to prepare for an eventual civil war. The group was involved in past armed standoffs between ranchers and federal agencies, and Oath Keeper members have shown up with guns at Black Lives Matter protests in various cities.

Arroyo articulated this worldview explicitly in the November 20 video, stating that a "communist takeover" of the United States is occurring and that his group believes "whole-heartedly that we are already underway with a civil war in this country."

"It’s a deeply conspiratorial worldview. They believe the government is evil and if given the opportunity would immediately enslave the American people and take away their rights," said Alex Friedfeld, an investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism. "When you have that maximalist framing it starts to justify more extreme measures."

In a later video posted on December 30 2020, Arroyo describes the Yavapai County Oath Keepers as the "largest active group in the Western United States." Arroyo is involved in the "biggest chapter" of Oath Keepers in Arizona, accord to Friedfeld.

The involvement of the Oath Keepers in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has been well-documented. Some estimate that at least 10 Oath Keepers members were part of the pro-Donald Trump mob that infamously breached the Capitol. And Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, was spotted at the Capitol.

So far, three people associated with the group have been charged in federal court with conspiracy and destruction of government property for their involvement in the attack on the Capitol. Federal prosecutors allege that the defendants communicated logistics for the attack prior to January 6 and discussed "joining forces with other Oath Keeper chapters." Two of the defendants also said in media interviews after the raid that they are members of the Oath Keepers.

Gosar publicly voiced sympathy for the rioters shortly after the Capitol attack occurred and has been the subject of scrutiny for his alleged affiliation with right-wing activists behind the attack.

"People look to politicians to be trusted figures within the community," Friedfeld said. "If it turns out that those comments are true, it would be deeply concerning because he’s essentially saying that politics are over, it’s civil war."

"When politicians do that they give conspiratorial ideas and dangerous ideas a sheer of legitimacy, they make them look not extreme," Friedfeld added. "By interacting with the Oath Keepers and by giving them legitimacy and validating their beliefs, Gosar, if this is true, is further normalizing extremist rhetoric and behavior, bringing it into the mainstream so that other people can be exposed to it with potentially dangerous results."

Other Republican elected officials in Arizona have ties to the Oath Keepers. One is State Representative Mark Finchem, who represents Arizona's 11th Legislative District and has described himself as a member in the past. He once served as the Arizona Coordinator for the Coalition of Western States, a group that backed the infamous armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.

Published On: Wed, 24 Feb 2021

no lnx pix

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/08/31/dem-lawmaker-asks-court-to-reject-jan-6-defamation-case-from-gosar-finchem-kern/

Democratic Rep. Charlene Fernandez is asking a court to dismiss a defamation case brought against her by two Republican state legislators and a GOP congressman because statements Fernandez made to the FBI about the two GOP legislators are privileged.

The case stems from a letter sent by Fernandez and other Democratic lawmakers asking the FBI to investigate Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, and GOP Congressman Paul Gosar’s connections to the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C.

In February, the trio filed a lawsuit against Fernandez, D-Yuma, accusing her of defaming them by making disparaging remarks, connecting them to the violence of Jan. 6 and conspiring against them. The trio have not brought a suit against any of the 43 other Democratic legislators who also signed the letter.

the lawsuit was stalled for months because Fernandez was immune from being served while the legislature’s annual session was taking place. But when the session ended, Fernandez waived service and both sides agreed to a 60-day response period which started at the end of the session on June 30.

“Contrary to all of the rhetoric… this is not a lawsuit about alleged fraud in the 2020 election, the purported suppression of conservative viewpoints by social media companies or issues of border security,” Fernandez’s attorney, David Bodney, wrote in the motion to dismiss the lawsuit. “Rather, this lawsuit is about whether state legislators – or, indeed, any Arizonan – may petition federal authorities to investigate potential crimes of the utmost seriousness without being dragged into court to face frivolous and retaliatory defamation litigation.”

(Bodney represents the Arizona Mirror on matters relating to public records and other First Amendment issues.)

Bodney argued that the court should grant the motion to dismiss in part because the Democratic lawmakers were communicating with law enforcement entities. Arizona case law states that such communication is privileged and a person cannot be sued for making a report to law enforcement.

“Thus, the relevant question is whether the Criminal Referral constitutes a formal or informal complaint to a prosecutor or law enforcement,” Bodney says. “Unquestionably, it is, as its name makes clear.”

Bodney also argues that the three GOP officials have failed to show that Fernandez has demonstrated “actual malice” — that she knew or had the “high probability” that she knew the statements she was making were false or defamatory.

In their lawsuit against Fernandez, Finchem, Kern and Gosar pointed to public statements they made denouncing the violence of Jan. 6 as evidence that Fernandez acted with “actual malice.”

“The fact that a public official has made self-serving denials of the conduct for which he is being criticized is insufficient to show actual malice as a matter of law,” Bodney argued.

Bodney also suggested that the initial lawsuit by Finchem and Kern — Gosar was added as a plaintiff several months later — did little to distance themselves from the violence of Jan. 6 as well.

“It is not reckless disregard for the truth, by any definition, to assert that a man who returned to the scene of an ongoing riot should be investigated for his potential involvement in encouraging and supporting the rioters,” Bodney said.

Footage reviewed by the Arizona Mirror has shown that Kern was closer to the Capitol than he said he was, and he was recorded on the Capitol grounds while violent clashes with police were still ongoing.

Finchem, too, has been found to have been closer to the Capitol on that day than he claimed.

Finchem has insisted that he never got within 500 yards of the Capitol building, but Getty footage of the failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election that was discovered by activists on Twitter shows Finchem walking directly in front of the east steps at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters had already broken through a series of barricades and police lines, and then smashed their way into the Capitol building.

Fernandez is seeking attorney fees from Finchem, Kern and Gosar.

This isn’t the first time Finchem has gone after his political rivals.

Earlier this year Finchem sent a cease and desist letter to the group who was seeking to recall him from office. Finchem said if they did not destroy all their campaign related material, which focused on Finchem’s connections to Jan. 6, he would sue them for defamation.

One point of contention for Finchem in the cease and desist letter is his connection to the extremist Oath Keepers organization that the recall organizers pointed out.

Finchem has long been tied to the organization, but in his cease and desist his attorney claimed that the Oath Keepers is a “non-partisan” group and called allegations that it is anti-government to be “spurious claims.” The letter also calls the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website “hate-filled”

The FBI describes the Oath Keepers as a “loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government have been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.”

Sixteen Oath Keepers have been indicted thus far in a case that claims they coordinated to conspire to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, with prosecutors saying that more could be prosecuted in the future.

Finchem’s attorney, Alexander Kolodin, previously represented Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company conducting the Arizona Senate’s “audit.”

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/06/02/mark-finchem-was-much-closer-to-the-jan-6-insurrection-than-he-claimed/

Newly discovered footage taken during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot shows Arizona GOP legislator Mark Finchem was much closer to the day’s violence than he has previously claimed.

Finchem has insisted that he :{never got within 500 yards of the Capitol building:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, but :{Getty footage:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: of the failed attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election that was recently :{discovered by activists on Twitter:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: shows Finchem walking directly in front of the east steps at the Capitol after pro-Trump rioters had already broken through a series of barricades and police lines, and then smashed their way into the Capitol building.

...

Finchem, who is from Oro Valley and is running to be secretary of state, did not respond to a request for comment confirming if the man in the video was him, but the :{high-resolution video:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: clearly shows Finchem wearing the same hat, jacket and VIP lanyard he had been :{seen wearing throughout the day:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

In the past, Finchem has refused to speak in detail about the events of the day, and text messages he released to bolster his claims have instead conflicted with :{previous statements he has made:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

[twt]

:{ Screenshot via Twitter

Finchem also posted a photograph of rioters on the east steps on social media, praising the insurrectionists for standing up to Congress. The area in which the photo was likely taken appears to be roughly 100 yards away from the east steps of the Capitol.

There is no way Finchem could have been 500 yards away — more than a quarter of a mile— and taken the photo of the steps that he published on Twitter. The furthest point from the east Capitol steps before one hits the Capitol Reflecting Pool, the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, is approximately 320 yards away.

The Arizona Mirror has analyzed video footage, social media posts and more to create a timeline of where Finchem was that day.

The day before Trump supporters failed to overthrow Congress, Finchem addressed a crowd of Trump loyalists, joking that the day’s rain storm was God washing away the stench of Washington, D.C. The “pre-rally” held on Jan. 5 at Freedom Plaza contained a who’s who of the political fringe and members of the #StopTheSteal movement.Finchem was introduced by Ali Alexander, a #StopTheSteal leader and the organizer of that day’s rally and the larger one on Jan. 6, at which Trump:{implored his followers to march to the Capitol:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and “show strength” to stop a “rigged” election.

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” the ex-president said shortly before the coup attempt.

Alexander praised Finchem, one of his strongest allies in Arizona and a leader in the state’s effort to undermine Joe Biden’s narrow win.

“The storm is here,” Alexander said, referencing the :{QAnon conspiracy theory:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, before :{introducing Finchem:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: as his “friend.”

:{In }:{, Finchem baselessly told the crowd that Trump’s electoral loss was fraudulent and that Democrats knew the election was stolen. There is no credible evidence supporting those claims. }:

“I want you to hear a message from Americans,” Finchem said, speaking directly to lawmakers who questioned #StopTheSteal activists. “This ain’t going away.”

The next day, Finchem attended President Donald Trump’s speech at The Ellipse in President’s Park, just south of the White House. He can be seen in one video posted on Facebook :{walking by the front of the stage:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a dark jacket with rectangular patches on the shoulders. At 10:48 a.m., his back can be seen :{in a photo posted on Twitter:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by fellow Arizona Republican lawmaker Anthony Kern on Twitter.

The first skirmishes with police at the Capitol :{would begin at around 1 p.m.:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and Finchem has previously said he arrived at the east side of the Capitol [jnz said prez rendezvous pt?] at around 1:45 p.m. Finchem has continued to :{struggle with his story:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: on where he was when that day, and has gone as far as claiming that Democrats — not his fellow Trump supporters who marched alongside him from Trump’s speech — were responsible for the day’s violence.

At 1:50 p.m., the on-scene Metro Police Department commander :{had declared a riot:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

In :{text messages released:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: by Finchem, he texted fellow #StopTheSteal advocates :{Michael Coudrey:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and Alexander that he was on his way in a golf cart.

appears to show Finchem riding in the back of a golf cart, wearing the same hat and jacket from hours earlier.

At 3:16 p.m., Finchem tweeted a photo of Capitol rioters saying, “What happens when People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud. #stopthesteal.”

But the Mirror’s analysis indicates that Finchem took the photo some time before he posted it online. Videos posted on the social media platform Parler that were aggregated by ProPublica and organized by the times they were posted and where they were takenmakes it likely that Finchem took his photo at least 40 minutes earlier.

In the :{video posted on Parler:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, protesters can be heard singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The video features awoman in a yellow jacketwho is prominently seen in Finchem’s photo, and many of the same flags being carried by rioters can be seen in both.

The video was posted at approximately 2:35 p.m. near the east Capitol steps, where conspiracy-peddling media figure Alex Jones and Alexander had led many of the protesters just a few minutes earlier :{leading a chant of “1776.”:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:

In the newly found Getty footage, Finchem can be seen walking through the crowd he had earlier photographed. He is easily identified by his cowboy hat and jacket with shoulder patches. It is unclear exactly what time Finchem is walking through the crowd, but it appears to be after Finchem took his photo, as many of the people and flags are now gone.

At around the same time in nearby parts of the Capitol, police were :{violently clashing with protesters:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, using :{tear gas and pepper spray:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: to disperse the crowds and rioters :{had already breached the Capitol:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:. Finchem would say that he was unaware of the violence until 5 p.m. that day when he was getting ready for a podcast interview.

Later that night, Finchem would tweet complaining that the D.C. Police were preventing a GrubHub driver from delivering food to his hotel, blaming the “commie” Mayor of D.C..

Finchem has :{blamed antifa for the violence:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and :{vowed to sue those who try to connect him to the events of Jan. 6:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, going as far as filing a :{cease and desist against a recall campaign:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that has been using his attendance at the day’s events as a reason to remove him from office.

One point of contention for Finchem in :{the cease-and-desist letter:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: is the connection to the extremist Oath Keepers organization that the recall organizers have pointed out.

Finchem has :{long been tied to the organization:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, but in his cease-and-desist letter, his lawyer states that the Oath Keepers is a “non-partisan” group and called allegations that it is anti-government to be “spurious claims.” The letter also calls the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website “hate-filled.”

The :{FBI describes the Oath Keepers:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: as a “loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government have been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.”

:{Nineteen Oath Keepers have been indicted:(style="box-sizing:border-box;background-color:#ffff66;"):}: thus far in a case that claims they coordinated to conspire to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, with prosecutors saying that more could be prosecuted in the future.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories**/2021/6**/9/2034150/-Defense-fund-started-for-Arizona-Jan-6-lawmakers-while-Pillow-guy-s-movie-prompts-a-wider-audit

as the traitors stormed the Capitol steps on Jan. 6, crashing through windows and doors,Rep. Paul Gosar stood at the mic on the House floor.An Arizona Republican infamous for the political ads his siblings make for his opponents, and too many other shitty things to list (like boycotting the Pope but standing with militias), Gosar was objecting to the Arizona vote. A gelatinous presence, one Ted Cruz, the required Senate vote, hovered lizardlike next to Gosar. Then shit got real.

Gosar’s wet dream had come true: he’s on stage blocking certification while Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and other white supremacists he had found common ground with for years occupied the US Capitol, pledging to stop an election and remove some heads.

...outside on the Capitol steps Arizona State Senator Mark Finchem tweeted a photo of the insurrection with the caption, “What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud.” Former Arizona State Senator Anthony Kern, who lost his race in November, was also there. The three Arizona lawmakers,Gosar, Finchem, and Kern, are the beneficiaries of a new dark money defense fund, and goobers nationwide are ponying up.

A dark money nonprofit established by an Arizona Republican donor to “fight back” against alleged “malicious, defamatory and fallacious” assertions involving three Republican lawmakers and their ties to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has received significant, but undisclosed, support from small-dollar donors, its director said.

It’s no surprise the three Arizona Republicans are concerned about potential legal costs, sinceGosar, in particular, was identified as one of the architects of the Jan. 6 riot by Ali Alexander, the guy who did the planning. Both Finchem and Kern have been featured in news stories about their QAnon activities, their role in the Stop the Steal movement, and their presence at the Jan. 6 riot. Silly me, but it sounds like establishing a defense fund suggests they know they are in legal peril.

After Jan. 6

Paul Gosar left the insurrection to headline a Feb. 26 white nationalist conference in Florida. The meeting’s organizer, Nick Fuentes, called Jan. 6 “awesome” and urged Gosar to protect the nation’s “white demographic core.” You can believe Gosar’s siblings: that’s about the only thing he’s interested in.

Loser Anthony Kern returned to Arizona and was hired as a ballot counter at the audit—until, that is, the media pointed him out and the obviously compromised trumper was dismissed because of “optics.”

Finchem remains in the State Senate, where he has declared his candidacy for Secretary of State. That’s right, the man who says the Arizona vote was stolen from trump would be in charge of elections.

Apparently the current clusterf*ck of an audit in Phoenix is not enough for Finchem. Based on an online movie produced by the pillow asshole, Finchem is now demanding that the audit expand beyond Maricopa County to include Apache, Pima, Pinal, and Yuma counties.

In an email to supporters of his campaign for secretary of state, Rep. Mark Finchem claimed that Lindell’s recent internet video provided enough “probable cause” to “begin an inquiry” into ballot images from multiple counties across the state.

Because Lindell’s been right about everything so far, eh? Here’s a two-minute scene from the movie that Finchem called a “revelation,” in that it proved the Chinese switched trump votes to Biden. See, the anonymous hacker lists numbers! Lindell’s Deep Throat copied some publicly available information, added a lot of 1’s and 0’s to make it look computery, built an Excel spreadsheet with “China” listed a lot, and claims it to be what it is not. ...[ital sat]

schmidt always says, "follow the money", but this morning's paper published a case where you _{can't}_follow the money:

A dark money nonprofit established by an Arizona Republican donor to “fight back” against alleged “malicious, defamatory and fallacious” assertions involving three Republican lawmakers and their ties to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has received significant, but undisclosed, support from small-dollar donors, its director said.

The Guardian Defense Fund was created in the aftermath of the pro-Trump rampage to help U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, address assertions about their activities on that day.

Unlike political parties and other political groups, the nonprofit social welfare organization formed on Feb. 3 does not have to disclose its financial backers and is only required to reveal limited information.

If congress could somehow pass H.R. 1, it would eliminate groups like the Guardian Defense Fund..

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/06/07/jan-6-legal-defense-fund-gosar-finchem-kern-raising-money/7591753002/?itm_medium=recirc&itm_source=taboola&itm_campaign=internal&itm_content=BelowHomepageFeed-FeedRedesign

https://www.azmirror.com/blog/a-gop-lawmakers-nonprofit-was-billed-400k-for-audit-security/

sept 2021

Newly released documents show that the Arizona “audit” has spent more than $400,000 to hire off-duty police officers to provide security for the ballot review that concluded last month at the state fairgrounds.

:{Not much has been previously known:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: about how much money is flowing in and the agreements between the Senate and Peoria-based Law Enforcement Specialists except that the Senate entered into an agreement with the group on April 26.

The documents show that a nonprofit created by state legislator and election conspiracy peddler Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, and the leader of a law enforcement support group called the Arizona Rangersare the customers.

Finchem’s Guardian Defense Fund is a 501(c)(4) that he first used to :{fundraise for his lawsuit against Rep. Charlene Fernandez:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, a Yuma Democrat who he claims defamed him. Its treasurer is audit spokesman and former Arizona Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen.(Pullen also serves as the :{treasurer of another one of Finchem’s PACs:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.)

Finchem has been at the forefront of spreading discredited theories about the 2020 election and has made the baseless claims that Donald Trump and other Republicans lost their elections because of fraud the centerpiece of his nascent campaign for secretary of state.

The newly released documents are part of thousands of records released this week in response to a court order after liberal watchdog group American Oversight sued the Senate under the state’s public records law. The Senate is still withholding some 3,000 records, as well as documents and communications created by lead vendor Cyber Ninjas and its subcontractors.

Within the documents are invoices from Law Enforcement Specialists detailing the hours and officers who conducted security for the “audit.” As of July 8, the Senate :{owed the company $401,160.45:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

Law Enforcement Specialists charged $60 an hour for officers to work 12 hour shifts, though the invoices show that some officers worked up to 14 hours at a time. The average hourly pay for police officers in Arizona is :{around $21 an hour:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

In documents released to American Oversight earlier this year, the Arizona Senate :{signed a contract with the Arizona Rangers:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, requiring a $20,000 “contribution”.

The Arizona Rangers have been fundraising as well, leader Mike Droll previously told the Arizona Mirror, as many of the Rangers involved are driving from areas far away from the audit. The group has raised more than $180,000 on a GoFundMe page.

Shortly before the election review began, Finchem :{appeared on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s show:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: from the floor of the “audit” to say that his fund was paying for “additional security”.

Chafian, Alexander, Gibson and Diaz are all on the list of Trump allies, alongside Lewis and Flynn, whose communications members of the January 6th committee want to examine in their effort to understand preparations for the rallies that set the stage for the violence at the Capitol. Others include Trump confidant Roger Stone; InfoWars host Alex Jones; Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio; andTom Van Flein, chief of staff for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.). Two individuals on the list — InfoWars host Owen Schroyer and #WalkAway organizer Brandon Straka — face federal charges related to the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol.

Though they deplored Babbitt's death shortly after the event, few among Republican Members of Congress and conservative media initially claimed any wrongdoing from law enforcement, or suggested that it warranted a backlash.

Gradually, though, efforts were made to suggest that Babbitt was a martyr, or at least a patriot who was unjustly killed.^[72] Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin were sympathetic to Babbitt, with Levin understating Babbitt's actions and claiming that she had been just "walking around with the rest".

Republican representative Paul **Gosar** claimed that she had been "executed", later doubling down on that comment and adding that the police officer had been "lying in wait" and demanding to know his name. This drew a rebuke from representative Liz Cheney, who accused Gosar of "[smearing] the men and women who defended us". Fringe conservative figures^[72] and far-right extremists^[73] have also cast Babbitt as a martyr or a "freedom fighter".^[73] Democratic strategist Mark Burns said that this was a "dangerous development for a Republican Party with members ^[27] increasingly comfortable pressing for and defending political violence".^[74] Both he andDavid Frum in The Atlantic compared these efforts to the Nazi glorification of Horst Wessel.^[75]

Some QAnon supporters, including Lin Wood, have claimed instead that Babbitt is still alive and that her apparent death was a "false flag" operation.^[27][76]

In October 2021, Trump recorded a video message arguing that "There was no reason Ashli should've lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family".^[77][78][79] Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the shooting of Babbitt, describing it as an "assassination".^[80]

https://wickershamsconscience.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/what-ever-happened-to-tom-van-flein/

wC was working through a long New York Times article (paywalled) recently on U.S. House of Representative’s Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bizarre terroristic threat to “get even” with folks who complied with the law. When this jumped out at WC:

[The House panel investigating January 6] demanded records of communications between the White House and Ali Alexander, who publicized the “Stop the Steal” rallies, as well as Tom Van Flein, Mr. Gosar’s chief of staff.

New York Times, “McCarthy Threatens Technology Firms That Comply with Riot Inquiry,” September 1, 2021

Van Flein, as Alaska readers may recall, was an Alaska attorney whose “take no prisoners” style of litigation got him into trouble more than once. But it also brought him to the attention of The Quitter, Alaska’s Sarah Palin and Van Flein became her lawyer. Well, one of her lawyers. That association apparently gave Van Flein a raging case of Potomac Fever. In 2011, he quit – well, for a given definition of “quit” – his private Alaska law practice and relocated to Washington, D.C. Van Flein apparently landed on the staff of Arizona’s far-right Rep. Paul Gosar, a Trumpster and a major proponent of Donald Trump’s Big Lie, a dentist who has decayed into a MAGA extremist.

A right-wing activist and convicted felon, Ali Alexander, told his Twitter followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6. Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — timed to match with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters. Biggs and Brooks have denied the association; Gosar has not.

Gosar called Alexander “a true patriot” on Twitter, and on Dec. 19, the two both spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Phoenix.

[[twt pix 1 6]

salon reports,

Gosar skipped Friday’s vote on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package approved by the House to, which was organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who**mused about killing members of Congress**days before the riot. Gosar later condemned “white racism” during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference ahead of former President Donald Trump’s speech over the weekend — and then met with Fuentes again after the event.

Salon, March 3, 2021

Let’s be clear about this: instead of attending a vote on emergency relief for the worst pandemic to hit the U.S. since 1918, Gosar chose to speak at a a white supremacist rally organized by an avowed white nationalist.

So that’s Van Flein’s boss. That’s the Congressman for whom Van Flein has chosen to work.

Apparently Van Flein’s employment did not go well at first. In 2011, disaffected Gosar staffers quit. One former staffer described Van Flein as disengaged and preoccupied with his former client, Sarah Palin and her legal issues. In a Politico article, the former staffer says, “[Tom] is never at his desk, doesn’t do anything for the office, is very disrespectful of every other staffer in the office, is late for work, is gone all day and leaves early,” [she] wrote. “And that is just the beginning.” Add to the mix that a rookie Congressman hired as his Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff (a) guys with no, absolutely zero, legislative experience, and (b) from Alaska, not Arizona.

But despite all that, Van Flein was later promoted by Gosar to Chief of Staff and Legislative Counsel, where now his communications records are part of the investigation by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

WC likes Van Flein as a person. He’s been generous to charities WC supports, and we worked as co-counsel in a case with pretty good success. Van Flein’s penchant for leveraging embarrassing details of a case in at the public forum to obtain negotiating advantage is ethically sketchy and morally troubling, but overall he was effective and reasonable. So WC offers his former colleague some free and unsolicited advice: the MAGA crowd will, without hesitation, throw you under the bus if it suits their interests. We’ve seen Donald Trump do it repeatedly; there’s every reason to think that if things start to get hot for the 11 unscrupulous House members who backed the effort to disrupt the count of the electoral votes, they will sacrifice anyone and everyone, with care or hesitation, to avoid the consequences of their actions.

WC also offers the same reminder provided to Lisa Murkowski: if you stand too close to a skunk, you’re gonna get sprayed. And it never washes off.

Just saying.

avowed white nationalist' House Republican torched for tweeting 'despicable' lies about Uvalde shooting

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

May 25, 2022

**U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar** (R-AZ) is being criticized after falsely identifying the Uvalde, Texas shooter who massacred 19 children and two adults at an elementary school as being a “leftist,” undocumented, and LGBT..."

4 22

Free Speech For People just filed, on behalf of Arizona voters, lawsuits challenging the candidacies of Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, & Mark Finchem

an 4 22

According to a report from Politico's Olivia Beavers, despite all outward appearances, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are at odds with each other, with the Colorado Republican unhappy she is mentioned in the same breath as her Georgia colleague.

In a deep dive into squabbles that are pulling apart the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, Beavers reports that at a recent conference the two had to be separated.

According to the report, "Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert look from the outside like MAGA twins, both loathed by Democrats for their incendiary right-wing rhetoric. But inside the House GOP, they’re not quite buddy-buddy."

The report notes that Boebert fits in more with the thinking of her Republican colleagues ("a team player") and she joined many of them in being furious with Greene over her appearance at a white nationalist conference well months ago.

As Beavers wrote, when the House Freedom Caucus board of directors gathered last month at its usual spot a few blocks from the Capitol, the two tangled over Greene’s appearance at a February event organized by a known white nationalist."

"Their confrontation grew so heated that at least one onlooker feared the Greene-Boebert back-and-forth might escalate beyond the verbal cage match had another board member not stepped in to de-escalate, according to a GOP lawmaker who was granted anonymity to describe what happened," Politico reports.

"The incident was confirmed by three people connected to the Freedom Caucus, whose members largely avoided public criticism of Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) at the time and focused their discontent on the event organizer, Nick Fuentes," the report added.

You can read more here.

his sis said sociopath 11 21 contrib to anime fail?

lcv

2019 Scorecard Vote

Blocking the EPA from Reducing Carbon Pollution

House Roll Call Vote 383

Issue: Climate Change

Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) offered an amendment to H.R. 3055, an appropriations bill funding various government agencies, which would have prohibited the EPA from recognizing the health and environmental dangers of carbon dioxide and blocked implementation of standards to reduce carbon pollution.

Climate change is already having devastating impacts on communities across the country and the costs are piling up. More extreme storms, record-breaking floods, and raging wildfires are hurting our families and devastating communities, and these impacts and the burden of toxic pollution hit lower income, communities of color, and Indigenous peoples first and worst. On June 20, the House rejected the Gosar amendment by a vote of 178-254 (House roll call vote 383). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.

...

US Congress passes resolution in support of Ukraine

The US House of Representatives approved a resolution "steadfastly, staunchly, proudly and fervently" in support of Ukraine. Many in Congress urged that more be done to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Only three members of the House voted against the resolution: Republicans Paul Gosar of Arizona, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is introducing a similar resolution in the Senate, the upper chamber....

http://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/GroundZero-3.pdf

acctableUS

...

paul Gosar Played An Active Role In The Lead Up To January 6

th Riots And

Later Offered To Help Rioters Get Pardons

Paul Gosar Urged Trump Supporters To “Join” Him On January 6

To “Fight For Trump”

Because He Believed The Election Was “Stolen.”

Paul Gosar

SUMMARY: Representative Paul Gosar is among most vocal supporters of the January 6 insurrection

in Congress. Gosar even encouraged Trump supporters to “join me in DC January 6” to “fight for

trump.” Gosar has purportedly offered a “blanket pardon” to rioters and has dismissed videos of the

riot as “propaganda and lies.”

Gosar has been an active opponent of federal public lands throughout his career in Congress. He has

called for disposal of public lands, repeatedly introduced anti-public lands legislation, opposed

National Monument protections, and has called for uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

US Rep. Paul Gosar Was One Of The Most Vocal Members Of Congress With

Regards To Supporting The January 6th Riots, Claiming The Election Was

Stolen, And Allegedly Offering Pardons To Rioters After Asking His Followers

To “Join Him” In D.C.

...

Gosar Tweeted: “Patriots: The Time Is Now. Hold The Line. Join Me In DC January 6th.

#Fightfortrump.” Gosar Tweeted: “Patriots: The time is now. HOLD THE LINE. Join me in DC January

6th. #FIGHTFORTRUMP” [Twitter, 01/02/21]

Gosar Tweeted, “We Haven’t Come This Far And Fought This Hard To Have The Election Stolen

From Us.” Gosar Tweeted, “We haven’t come this far and fought this hard to have the election stolen

from us.” [Twitter, 11/04/21]

Paul Gosar Is An Outspoken Defender Of The Rioters, Who He Calls “Peaceful

Protestors” And That Videos Showing Otherwise Are “Lies”

Gosar Referred To The Rioters As “Peaceful Protestors,” And Claimed That Ashli Babbitt Was

“Executed.” “[Gosar] has also been outspoken in his defense of US Capitol rioters, calling them

‘peaceful protestors’ who were being harassed by the Justice Department. One of Trump's most ardent

supporters, Gosar also said that Ashli Babbitt, a protestor who was shot by Capitol Police on January 6

and later died from her wounds, was ‘executed.’” [Business Insider, 10/24/21]

Gosar Claimed Videos That Had Been Released Thus Far On January 6th Insurrection Were

“Propaganda And Lies.” “This week I offered an amendment, again asking for the release of all Capitol

security footage on and before January 6. No more propaganda and lies. Show America the full videos.

Why do Democrats oppose the truth?” [Twitter, 05/21/21]

Paul Gosar Reportedly Offered A “Blanket Pardon” For January 6 Rioters

Gosar Allegedly Offered A “Blanket Pardon” To Rioters For Another Investigation Ahead Of

January 6th

. “GOP congressman Paul Gosar encouraged pro-Trump rally organizers to plan protests in

Washington DC on January 6 by telling them they would get a ‘blanket pardon’ for another, unrelated

investigation, according to two of the protest's planners.” [Business Insider, 10/24/21]

Gosar Told January 6th Rioters How Much He Appreciated The Work They Had Been Doing

Ahead Of January 6. “The two anonymous sources said Gosar told them: ‘I was just going over the list

of pardons and we just wanted to tell you guys how much we appreciate all the hard work you've been

doing,’ according to the outlet.” [Business Insider, 10/24/21]

● Gosar Tweeted, “After 4 Years Of #Notmypresident We’re Expected To Roll Over And

Let Them Steal An Election? I Don’t Think So.” ”After 4 years of #NotMyPresident we’re

expected to roll over and let them steal an election? I don’t think so.” [Twitter, 11/07/20]

●

Paul Gosar Has Repeatedly Claimed Without Evidence that The 2020 Election Was

Fraudulent.

Gosar Tweeted, “This Was Not The Most Secure Election In U.S. History.” “The people of Cuba are

not protesting because lack of access to the vaccine. Republicans do not want to defund the police. This

was not the most secure election in U.S. history.” [Twitter, 07/13/21]

Gosar Tweeted, “Listen To These Accounts Of Election Fraud Uncovered By The Audit. Don’t

Listen To The Big Lie.” “Listen to these accounts of election fraud uncovered by the audit. Don’t listen

to the Big Lie—’BeSt EVeR eLeCTIon.’” [Twitter, 09/29/21]

Gosar Tweeted About How Democrats Were Trying To “Steal The Election,” In September 2020.

“Tune in at 3 PM EST to hear me discuss Biden’s stance on immigration, how Democrats are trying to

steal the 2020 election and much more!” [Twitter, 09/15/20]

Paul Gosar Is A Longtime, Outspoken Critic Of Public Lands Protections

WhoHas Tried To Sell Off Arizona’s Public Lands

Paul Gosar Introduced A Bill To Sell Off Arizona’s Public Lands

In 2016, Paul Gosar Introduced A Bill He Said Would Deal With The Problem Of “Large Swaths

Of Federal Land.” “Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following

statement after introducing H.R. 5836, the Hunting, Education and Recreational Development (HEARD)

Act: ’Throughout my home state of Arizona, I have heard repeatedly about significant challenges local

communities face due to poor federal land management policies and the existence of large swaths of

federal land within their jurisdiction. The HEARD Act addresses these issues and ensures the people of

Arizona have a voice in the decision making process. By facilitating locally-driven solutions and injecting

transparency, this legislation ensures that public lands will be utilized more efficiently while also yielding

significant benefits for stakeholders.’” [Paul Gosar, D.D.S., 07/15/16]

● The HEARD Act Would Have Resulted In Selling Off Public Lands In Arizona. “The

Hunting, Education and Recreational Development (HEARD) Act, establishes an orderly

process for the sale, conveyance and exchange of federal lands not being utilized by public

land management agencies that have been identified for disposal. The HEARD Act will yield

significant benefits for education, sportsmen, agriculture and natural resource users, counties

and states by establishing a revenue sharing mechanism that ensures a fair return for all.”

[Paul Gosar, D.D.S., 07/15/16]

Gosar Wants To Take Steps To Dispose Public Lands In Favor Of “Private Property

Rights”

Gosar Is An Outspoken Critic Of Public Lands Who Has Continually Opposed

National Monuments Protections While Supporting Selling Off Arizona’s Public

Lands, And Mining Anywhere And Everywhere.

Paul Gosar Has Called For Inventorying Public Lands “For Disposal.” “Rep. Gosar, who has a

propensity for inflammatory proposals and rhetoric, recently called for the BLM to create an inventory of

public lands that would be ‘eligible for disposal’ and criticized the recent review of the federal coal

leasing program, calling it ‘shameful.’” [Adventure Journal, 04/11/16]

Rep. Gosar’s Priorities For Land Use? Private Property Rights And Local Control. “Gosar,

chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, said House Republicans are largely united on land-use

issues. He noted many Freedom Caucus members and GOP leaders like Ryan and House Majority Leader

Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) belong to the Western Caucus, which has long pushed a libertarian approach

to federal land management. ‘We all are committed to protecting private property rights, strengthening

local control, fostering economic growth, preserving multiple use of public land and increasing energy

independence,’said Gosar.” [E&E, 05/17/21]

Some Conservationists Rank Gosar As Second Worst Congressional Attacker Of Public Lands In

Congress. Gosar is ranked as the second worst congressional attacker of public lands according to the

Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, due to the 21 anti-public lands bills he has introduced.

[Centeractionfund.org, Accessed 12/03/21]

Gosar Is In Favor Of Mining Anywhere And Everywhere. Even On The Doorstep

Indigenous Sacred Sites Like The Grand Canyon And Chaco Canyon

Gosar Tweeted That It Was “Time To Mine Again In The U.S.” “Did you know solar panels, wind

turbines & electric vehicles ALL require critical minerals from mining? If not mined here, these minerals

are often obtained using slave labor w/ terrible environmental standards in other parts of the world. It’s

time to mine again in the U.S.” [Twitter, 05/30/21]

Gosar Tweeted A Link To An Article About The Decision To Halt Mining At Chaco Canyon,

Claiming It “Hurts Americans And In This Case Navajo Allottees.” “Once again, the Biden

Administration’s war on oil and gas (why you are paying more at the pump) hurts Americans and in this

case Navajo Allottees. They were never consulted on this misguided, unscientific and directly harmful

policy.” [Twitter, 11/18/21]

Gosar Tweeted In Support Of Controversial Twin Metals Mine In Minnesota, Claiming That

“Stopping Twin Metals Will Further Enslave Congolese Children.” “Children are dying in #Congo

mining & Dems can’t name a mine in America they support. Stopping Twin metals will further enslave

#Congolese children. We should let union workers in MN free us from foreign dependence & liberate the

children @NRDems.” [Twitter, 09/30/20]

Paul Gosar Says Raising The Federal Onshore Royalty Rate Would Be “The Final NailIn

The Coffin” For The Domestic Oil Industry

Gosar Claimed Raising Royalty Rates Would “Drive The Final Nail In The Coffin Of Domestic Oil

And Gas.” “It already takes decades for drilling and mining projects to get through the permitting

process. Now, by raising royalty rates through the roof, Democrats will drive the final nail in the coffin of

domestic oil and gas, forcing our own companies to take their business overseas.” [Twitter, 10/28/21]

● The Royalty Rate Is Unchanged Since The Mineral Leasing Act Was Passed In 1920.

“The current royalty rate, 12.5%, was established in 1920. Changing the royalty rate for new

leases would not be expected to affect an operator’s production from producing wells, but it

could influence interest in future leases and impact bonus payments received during lease

sales.” [Congressional Research Service, 09/22/20]

●

Paul Gosar Believes That Protecting Sage Grouse Is “One Of The Greatest Threats To

The West.”

Gosar Claimed That Sage Grouse Protections Were One Of The Greatest Threats To The West.

“The Obama Admin’s #SageGrouse listing & 20-year mineral moratorium on 10 mill acres of land has

been 1 of the greatest threats to the West.” [Twitter, 10/25/17]

● The Sage Grouse Is A Keystone Species In Whose Protections Would Have

Reverberating Positive Conservation Effects In Sagebrush Ecosystems. “The Greater

Sage-Grouse is considered a keystone species for the entire sagebrush ecosystem, since

sufficient conservation efforts for the bird would in effect protect an additional 350 species of

wildlife as well as the viability of the agricultural landscape. The bird is a candidate for

Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection, for which the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS)

must make a listing decision by September 2015. Before that deadline, FWS officials must

judge whether state and federal plans for 11 Western states are sufficiently strong enough to

protect the Greater Sage-Grouse without an ESA listing.” [Audubon, 02/12/15]

●

Paul Gosar Opposes National Monument Protections

Gosar Introduced A Bill Which Would Have Prohibited New National Monument Designations Of

More Than 5,000 Acres. “Rep. Gosar introduced H.R. 3946, which would require an unattainable level

of public input and local approval conditions for the establishment of new national monuments. The

proposed bill would also prohibit new national monument designations of more than 5,000 acres and

national monument designations within 18 western counties. Additionally, Rep. Gosar has cosponsored

eight bills that would facilitate land seizures or undermine the Antiquities Act. Rep. Gosar, who has a

propensity for inflammatory proposals and rhetoric, recently called for the BLM to create an inventory of

public lands that would be ‘eligible for disposal’ and criticized the recent review of the federal coal

leasing program, calling it ‘shameful.’” [Americanprogress.org, 04/11/16]

Gosar Supported Completely Eliminating Arizona’s Four National Monuments Which Were

Under Review During The Trump Administration. “The current chairman of the anti-public lands

Congressional Western Caucus, Gosar supports completely eliminating Arizona’s four national

monuments caught up in the Trump administration’s dangerous and unnecessary review. Gosar even went

further than the Trump administration, which has said they will not be making changes to Grand

Canyon-Parashant National Monument.” [LCV.org, 08/16/17

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says many things, mostly because he desperately wants to become Speaker of the House. He recently promised that he's going to have a talk with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA.) and and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) about their "appalling" decision to speak at a conference organized by a far-right fringe figure and self-proclaimed white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

Greene smiled and waved to the crowd right after Fuentes asked for a “round of applause for Russia” as Vladimir Putin rained down missiles and mortars on Ukraine. It's not clear exactly what McCarthy plans to say to Greene and Gosar or when, but as Politico reports he might be postponing "the talk" because there's really nothing he can do to control their behavior.

The two already have been stripped of committee assignments and any move to censure the pair only would draw attention to the far right faction of the GOP. One House Republican, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), says the wanna-be speaker should focus on issues much more important than Greene and Gosar.

“Dealing with dumb, stupid things people do in Congress should probably go down — and go pretty far down — on the list when you’ve got peacekeeping tanks rolling into a country that was not in conflict, when you’ve got record inflation, when you’ve got all of these things,” Armstrong said.

One centrist Republican, who spoke about the flap on the condition of anonymity, observed that the GOP leader has few options with which to threaten Greene and Gosar because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats have “fired all our shots” by stripping their panel assignments.

“I want them to shut up. Just stop it,” this Republican said. “[But] there’s nothing else. What else can Kevin do officially through the conference?”

no twt lnx

Marjorie Taylor Greene asked journalists to judge her by her own words — and this one accepted the challenge

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia speaking at the 2021 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, ]

Alex Henderson March 01, 2022

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is being slammed by her critics for speaking at the America First Political Action Conference — an event organized by White nationalist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes — on Friday, February 25. Greene, in response to the criticism, has challenged journalists to judge her by her own words. And Washington Post opinion writer Catherine Rampell, in her February 28 column, accepts the challenge and describes some of the many appalling things that Greene has said since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.

“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doesn’t want to be held accountable for the White supremacists she pals around with,” Rampell explains. “Judge her instead by her own words, she pleads. Sure thing, Congresswoman. Challenge accepted.”

Greene wasn’t the only far-right MAGA Republican who spoke at the America First Political Action Conference, described by Rampell as a White nationalist equivalent of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Others included Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin. All of them were welcomed by Fuentes.

“Minutes before Greene addressed the crowd,” Rampell notes, “Fuentes crowed that ‘our secret sauce here, it’s these young White men.’ He declared that the January 6 insurrection was ‘awesome.’ He solicited a ‘round of applause for Russia,’ to which the crowd chanted ‘Putin! Putin!’ And he seemed to suggest that attempts to compare Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler are flattering.”

After the event, a defensive Greene tweeted, “I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they’ve ever shared a room with…. I’m only responsible for what I say.”[atom/ frag/libtard]

Rampell, in response, writes, “Well, we at least agree on that last part. Greene should be held responsible for what she says, at a neo-Nazi confab or elsewhere. For instance, Greene should be held accountable for continuing to compare every Democratic policy she opposes — whether mask mandates, vaccination requirements or January 6 responses — to the Holocaust…. She has shared other anti-Semitic garbage over the years.”

The Post columnist continues, “These include claims about Jewish space lasers supposedly sparking California wildfires. And how ‘Zionist supremacists’ are conspiring to replace the West’s White Christian population with non-White Muslim immigrants, an endorsement of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory that was also voiced by other speakers in Orlando.”

Other offensive things Greene has said, Rampell observes, range from “her remarks that Muslims do not belong in government” to “her claim that 9/11 was an inside job, with no plane ever crashing into the Pentagon” to saying “that leading Democratic officials should be executed.”

Many Republicans are afraid to saying anything against Greene, as former President Donald Trump likes her and they dare not offend Dear Leader. But Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah isn’t afraid to call Greene out. When Romney was asked about Greene and Gosar appearing at a White nationalist event, he responded, “I’m reminded of that old line from the ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ movie, where one character says: ‘Morons. I have got morons on my team.’”

Rampell writes, “She has been denounced by some of the few Republicans who still have principles…. Most Republicans, it seems, would prefer to keep the morons on their team.”

an me 1 22 https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/paul-gosar/

https://yyy.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/26/paul-gosar-far-right-republicans

Over the last two years, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) has emerged as a heavy favorite among far-right conservatives. [GUK?] As an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, Gosar has managed to gain more than 90 endorsements as the midterm election season approaches.

During a recent rally, Gosar spoke before a crowd of right-wing supporters as he declared to be “considered the most dangerous man in Congress."

“This is where it all began,” Gosar said prior to Trump taking the stage. “This is where we questioned: ‘Was there fraud? Absolutely. Was it enough to overturn the election? Absolutely.’”

So what makes Gosar different from other Trump-supporting Republicans?

Joe Lowndes, a political science professor at the University of Oregon who also co-authored the book "Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity," weighed in on the rise of Gosar. “We no longer have an ability to make a clear delineation between the right and far-right in the Republican party,” said Lowndes.

He went on to explain how Gosar's rise underscores the problem within the Republican Party as Trump-like figures are taking center stage. The issue appears to be one that Republicans will be haunted by for quite some time.

an 12 21 me https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/navarro/

A former Trump White House advisor has revealed he collaborated with a right-wing agitator to execute a behind-the-scenes effort to halt the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory.

Speaking to The Daily Beast last week,Peter Navarro —ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump— touched on his role in the plans and how he and former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon corroborated with Republican lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) to halt the certification of the election results.

“We spent a lot of time lining up over 100 congressmen, including some senators. It started out perfectly. At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them,” Navarro told The Daily Beast. “It was a perfect plan. And it all predicated on peace and calm on Capitol Hill. We didn’t even need any protestors, because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it.”...

aha: polarization --> demonization--> death threat --> death squad pinochet helo rides did nothing wrong Kyle

mantra of demonization can make name eg pelosi into a devil term; she was actively hunted 1/6 shoot bitch in the brain? AOC = commie?

landed here pol cartoon accidentally but interesting analogy? pirate creshaw action here, gosar flies? defeats evil? scott perry chr freedom cocks we must destroy dems/nazis

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/ocasio-cortez-gosar/

put in context of hugwe surge in death threats and 1/6 attack; gabby scalise shot; how signif is that this is pix? cartoon? anime genre? trump WWF vs CNN?

gosar censored for aoc kill anime, also biden; tired to blame staff? alt rt ploy just kidding? shooting bills in ads cliche so he just escalated to claiming that he was killing a rep/symbol of their policies [that are destroying am // scott perry freedom cock?]; prev border patrol agent vid rape aoc? threw burritos?

pretty good speech:

Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, a far-right MAGA Republican and conspiracy theorist who has never been shy about making inflammatory remarks, has been drawing vehement criticism from Democrats for posting a cartoon that depicts him murdering Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City and inflicting harm on President Joe Biden. He has previously been criticized for appearing at a conference organized by white supremacists.

Many House Republicans, however, have been silent about the controversies. And Ocasio-Cortez, during a speech on the House floor this week, called them out them out for it.

The congresswoman, during her speech, made it clear that a much more vehement response from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders is needed.

AOC: "It's a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong, and instead decides to venture off into a tangent about gas prices and inflation"pic.twitter.com/fi13Jb396s

— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona)1637178021

AOC: "Does anyone in this chamber find this behavior acceptable? Would you allow depictions of violence against women, against colleagues? Would you allow that in your home? ... And if it\u2019s not acceptable there, why should it be accepted here?!"pic.twitter.com/Bas9dS5dfo

— Justin Baragona (@Justin Baragona)1637178312

Ocasio-Cortez told fellow House members, "What I believe is unprecedented is for a member of House leadership of either party to be unable to condemn incitement of violence against a member of this body. It is sad, it is a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong…. What is so hard, what is so hard about saying that this is wrong?"

READ:**A growing threat is emerging from the theocratic wing of the GOP — but many liberals are missing it**

The Democratic congresswoman added, "This is not about me. This is not about Rep. Gosar. But this is about what we are willing to accept."

Gosar has maintained that the anti-AOC cartoon was meant to be a joke, but Ocasio-Cortez stressed that depictions of murder should never be taken lightly.

"This nihilism runs deep," Ocasio-Cortez explained. "It conveys and betrays a certain contempt for the meaning and importance of our work here — that what we do, so long as we claim it is a joke, doesn't matter."

jihad squad: https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/rep-ilhan-omar-torches-lauren-boebert-following-bizarre-rant-on-house-floor/

st'd alt rt 4chan BS?

trump had wwf wrestle ~ cnn, action hero pirate guy

Top historian explains how Gosar's disturbing anime video underscores the GOP's real threat to US democracy

Meaghan Ellis November 10, 2021

A top historian is explaining how Rep. Paul Gosar's (R-Ariz.) disturbing anime video clip underscores the real threat Republican lawmakers pose to the United States' democracy.

On Tuesday, November 9, Joanne Freeman, a top historian at Yale University specializing in the early structure and history of American politics and government culture, put Gosar's tweet into perspective as she highlighted how disturbing his subliminal threat of violence really is.

"Threats of violence lead to actual violence. They clear the ground. They cow opposition. They plant the idea, Freeman tweeted, "They normalize it. They encourage it. They maim democracy. And run the risk of killing it."

The critical remarks came shortly after Gosar shared the video which featured an anime version of himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). The Democratic lawmaker fired back with a fiery rebuke of Gosar and the video. Other Democrats also weighed in to slam the far-right Arizona lawmaker.

"This is sick behavior from Rep. Paul Gosar," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) tweeted.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) also slammed Gosar as he called on the House to impose some form of consequences for the lawmaker's threat.

“This is grotesque and demands action by the House of Representatives and social media companies. Glorification & incitement of violence is not just toxic to our democracy, but dangerous for my friends and colleagues. Enough is enough!" Crow tweeted.

Rep. Illhan Omar (D-Minn.) also called for Gosar to be reprimanded for his behavior.

She tweeted, "This man should not serve in Congress. Fantasizing about violently attacking your colleagues has no place in our political discourse and society.

Despite the critical reactions, Gosar's digital director has stood by the production of the clip insisting it is being taken too seriously.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/paul-gosar/

raw reed

Messages leaked to the *Washington Post* implicate Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) in a plot to create a so-called "Brooks Brothers Riot" in his home state to block President Joe Biden's victory.

Woodrow Johnston, the vice president of political consultancy McShane LLC, told an undercover liberal activist posing as a Trump supporter that Gosar wanted to use the far-right Proud Boys gang to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election in Arizona.

"We might need to do the same here in Nevada," Johnston added in his message.

The protests that Johnston organized remained peaceful and did not actually disrupt vote counting.

Even so, Johnston's boss, Rory McShane, distanced his consulting firm from efforts to organize protests against certifying the election.

"I was unaware of these texts, but I know Mr. Johnston was not working on behalf of any client or organization," he said. "Our management team has met with Mr. Johnston. I'm confident he sees the error of what he did."

Gosar's office claimed that the Trump-loving Arizona congressman was not in contact with Johnston and denied coordinating any election-related protests.

The original "Brooks Brothers Riot," which took place in Florida more than two decades ago, was organized by Republican campaign operatives who successfully disrupted the vote recount in the Miami-Dade County election office after the 2000 presidential election.

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white nationalist GOP congressman doubles down on support for white nationalist ‘America First’ group

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

March 13, 2021

During this year's Conservative Political Action Conference held in Orlando, Florida, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and former Rep Steve King, R-Iowa, spoke at the nearby America First Political Action Conference, where AFPAC founder Nick Fuentes delivered white nationalist and Christian nationalist messages.

Having a sitting member of Congress address AFPAC gave a credibility boost to Fuentes's efforts to recruit young conservatives to his far-right ideology. And Gosar's appearance on AFPAC's stage wasn't the last of it.

Gosar, who sat through Fuentes' speech emphasizing the importance of preserving a white “demographic core," praising the Jan. 6 insurrection as “awesome," and mocking Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn's disability, met with Fuentes the next day.

Gosar responded to criticism by saying that he denounced “white racism," but a week after the conference, he posted a tweet containing a slogan frequently repeated at AFPAC: “America First is inevitable."

An op-ed in the Arizona Republic condemned Republican officials' silence on Gosar's appearance at AFPAC. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., already on the outs with Trump supporters, was one of the few Republicans to criticize Gosar for appearing at the “clearly racist" AFPAC event.

Gosar skipped a House vote on the COVID-19 relief package to make it to Florida in time for his AFPAC appearance. Although Fuentes' record of bigotry and extremism has led to him being banned from CPAC and some social media platforms, Gosar's appearance at AFPAC did not disqualify him from speaking at CPAC the following day.

Prior to the conference, the hard-right Gosar was a promoter of Trump's false stolen-election claims and a supporter of the “Stop the Steal" movement. MSNBC's Steve Benen noted Tuesday that “House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) issued a 2,000-page report late last week 'exposing thousands of social media posts by GOP lawmakers attacking the presidential election and spreading lies before and after the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results.'" Gosar's messages took up 177 pages.

As Benen reported, Gosar has a history of extremist rhetoric. A few years ago, Gosar visited an Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers. When asked if the U.S. was headed for civil war, Gosar reportedly replied, “We're in it. We just haven't started shooting at each other yet." Oath Keepers' founder Stewart Rhodes, who repeatedly warned that militias would wage bloody civil war if Trump did not remain in power, was identified by federal prosecutors this week as playing a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

A month before Gosar's appearance at AFPAC, a New York Times article on Republican representatives' associations with extremists noted:

In July, Mr. Gosar, a dentist, posed for a picture with a member of the Proud Boys. Two years earlier, he spoke at a rally for a jailed leader of Britain's anti-immigrant fringe in London, where he vilified Muslim immigrants as a “scourge." And in 2014, he traveled to Nevada to support the armed standoff between law enforcement and supporters of the cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, who had refused to stop trespassing on federal lands.

On Thursday, the Southern Poverty Law Center published its report on the AFPAC gathering, detailing speakers' white nationalist rhetoric.

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/paul-gosar/

no lnx twt

Meet Rep. Paul Gosar: The GOP's leading ambassador to white supremacy

Igor Derysh and Salon March 03, 2021

Former Republican lawmakers slammed the GOP for its silence after Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., spoke at a conference organized by a white nationalist who praised the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, weeks after being linked to the rally that sparked the deadly attack

Gosar skipped Friday's vote on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package approved by the House to attend the America First Political Action Conference, which was organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who mused about killing members of Congress days before the riot.Gosar later condemned "white racism" during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference ahead of former President Donald Trump's speech over the weekend — and then met with Fuentes again after the event.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh, an Illinois Republican who was elected alongside Gosar during the 2010 Tea Party wave before rejecting far-right extremism after Trump's rise to power, said he was "stunned" by Gosar's extremist turn and expressed frustration that Republican leaders have stayed silent on his appearance at AFPAC.

"It's beyond disappointing," Walsh said in an interview with Salon. "This is where the party is now. The fact that this party— and we all contributed to it — but here we are in 2021, and one of their members keynotes a white nationalist event and the party can't condemn it. The party is telling the country that they're OK with white supremacy."

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-Va., also slammed the party for failing to condemn Gosar for getting cozy with white nationalists, noting that Fuentes is a Holocaust denier who has pushed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. (Fuentes has denied this.)

"This is what @RepGosar supports: Unambiguous anti-Semitism," Riggleman tweeted. "He should be condemned by the full House for speaking at AFPAC."

The Anti-Defamation League's Arizona chapter said in a statement that Gosar's appearance at AFPAC was "deeply disturbing."

"A member of Congress should never share a stage with Fuentes," the group said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center said it was "unimaginable" that Gosar would not be held accountable by his colleagues.

"Less than two months after the violent attack on the Capitol, Rep. Paul Gosar participated in a gathering of white nationalists at the beckoning of one of the movement's most notorious and hateful leaders who glorified the events of that day," Susan Corke, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said in a statement to Salon. "While his colleagues were holding hearings to ensure that another violent insurrection will never again disgrace the halls of Congress, Gosar provided these extremists a mainstream platform and further stoked the hate that drives their movement."

Gosar, who was described by "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander as a key ally in organizing the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the riot, and who has extensive ties to extremist groups, skipped Friday's House vote, citing the coronavirus pandemic — although he previously joining a lawsuit arguing that voting by proxy in Congress is unconstitutional. "I continue to be unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency," he said in a letter justifying his absence.

Gosar, who led Republican objections to the counting of Arizona's electoral votes, and later reportedly asked Donald Trump for a pardon related to his involvement with the rally, spoke at AFPAC after former Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who was denounced by the GOP in 2019 for comments defending white nationalism and white supremacy.

The event was organized by Fuentes, a 22-year-old white nationalist agitator who promoted the Jan. 6 rally and originally gained prominence after the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville. Fuentes, who has been banned by some social networks for making racist and anti-Semitic comments, called on the AFPAC audience to help America protect its "white demographic core" and accused Black Lives Matter activists of trying to create "a new racial caste system in this country, with whites at the bottom," The Washington Post first reported.

"If America ceases to retain that English cultural framework and the influence of European civilization, if it loses its White demographic core and if it loses its faith in Jesus Christ, then this is not America anymore," Fuentes said.

Fuentes, who attended the Jan. 6 rally but says he did not enter the Capitol, later praised the rioters as "patriots."

"I saw the police retreating and we heard that the politicians voting on the fraudulent election had scurried to their underground tunnels away from the Capitol," Fuentes said. "I said to myself: 'This is awesome!'"

Fuentes went on to mock Gosar's Republican colleagues and made fun of Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., for using a wheelchair.

Gosar did not mention AFPAC or Fuentes on Saturday during an appearance at the Trump-headlined CPAC but abruptly interrupted a panel discussion to note that he disavows racism, with no apparent context. "I want to tell you, I denounce . . . white racism," he said. "That's not appropriate."

Gosar acknowledged to the Washington Post after the panel that he was referring to Fuentes' comments. He told the outlet that he accepted the invitation because "you don't accomplish anything by isolating" certain audiences.

"We thought about it, and we thought: There is a group of young people that are becoming part of the election process, and becoming a bigger force," Gosar said. "So why not take that energy and listen to what they've got to say?"

CPAC organizers did not comment on Gosar's appearance but blocked Fuentes from entering the conference with a group of maskless supporters.

Despite Gosar's comments, Fuentes posted a photo of the two sharing drinks on Saturday.

"Great meeting today with Congressman Gosar!" he wrote. "America is truly uncancelled."

Walsh, who like many Tea Party-backed Republicans pushed racist conspiracy theories to win elections, said the appearance made clear how far Gosar had drifted to the extremist fringe from their time in Congress together in 2011 and 2012.

"Gosar was sort of nuts back then," Walsh said, "but we were all sort of part of the same Tea Party wave. Even though some of us were kind of nuts, it was all about the issues. I don't recognize these guys now. I mean, this crazy shit was fringe — now it's like the base of the party."

Walsh noted that just two years ago the Republican Party stripped King of his committee assignments after he questioned why the term "white supremacy "was deemed offensive.

"Maybe I'm naive, but back in 2010, if Gosar pulled something like this I got to believe [former House Speaker John] Boehner and leadership would have come down on him like a ton of bricks," he said. "It's amazing. He blew off a COVID relief vote to fire up a bunch of white supremacists, and the fucking party, they're not going to do a damn thing to him."

Republicans were recently forced to reckon with freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has made comments pushing conspiracy theories and calling for Democrats to be executed. The party ultimately decided not to punish Greene, but Walsh predicted it won't even have the same conversation about Gosar.

In the pre-Trump era, Walsh said, the situation was quite different: Republican leaders would "bounce his ass off of committees, immediately the party censures him, and the party goes out of their way to condemn this Nick Fuentes and this white nationalist group." Now, he added, "I didn't see one Republican in the conference who condemned what Gosar did. … I don't think they'll even bring it up."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., has been one of the most vocal Republicans in opposing the racism and conspiracy theories pushed by his party's fringe, but like the rest of his colleagues has stayed silent on Gosar's speech. Kinzinger's office did not respond to Salon's request for comment.

Fuentes is understood as the leader of the "groypers," a fringe far-right group fueled by supposedly ironic memes, including specific Pepe the Frog poses. The ADL describes them as a "white supremacist group" who believe they are defending the country against "demographic and cultural changes that are destroying the 'true America' — a white, Christian nation."The FBI is currently investigating a $250,000 bitcoin payment Fuentes received ahead of the Jan. 6 riot, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Alexander, the "Stop the Steal" organizer, praised Fuentes' "hugely successful" AFPAC event over the weekend. Last week, Alexander hosted Gosar's chief of staff, Tom Van Flein, a former top aide to ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in a Clubhouse chatroom that also included indicted right-wing fraudster Jacob Wohl.

Alexander said after the Capitol riot, in a now-deleted video, that he had "schemed up" the Jan. 6 rally to put "maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting" to certify the election, in collaboration with Gosar and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Mo Brooks, R-Ala. Biggs and Brooks have both denied involvement with Alexander. Gosar, notably, has not.

Gosar previously appeared at a rally organized by Alexander in December, where he told supporters they planned to "conquer the Hill" to return Trump to the White House.

Gosar's office did not respond to questions from Salon.

Gosar has also come under scrutiny for his ties to extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, some of whose members now face conspiracy charges after they were seen in videos leading the invasion of the Capitol.

The New York Times reported after the riot that Jim Arroyo, who leads an Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers, promoted a "coming civil war," citing Gosar's appearance at an event held by the group several years earlier.

"We had Congressman Paul Gosar come to a meeting, he is the elected representative here in Northern Arizona," Arroyo said. "And we asked him, flat out — Do you think we are headed towards a Civil War? And he said, 'We are in a Civil War, we just haven't started shooting yet' ... So that is about to change."

The group has used that kind of civil war rhetoric as a recruiting tool, according to KNXV.

Gosar came under criticism last summer after posing for a photo with a member of the Proud Boys. In 2018, he met with the jailed leader of a far-right anti-immigrant extremist group and made comments about Muslim immigrants that were widely seen as Islamophobic. In 2014, he traveled with Arizona Republican Party chairwoman Kelli Ward to support the Bundy militia in its Nevada standoff with federal law enforcement, after rancher Cliven Bundy refused to pay grazing fees and stop trespassing on federal land.

"He's been involved with anti-Muslim groups and hate groups," his brother, Dave Gosar, told the Times. "He's made anti-Semitic diatribes. He's twisted up so tight with the Oath Keepers it's not even funny."

Dave Gosar and other siblings of the congressman bought ads to campaign against their brother in 2018 after he falsely suggested that the deadly Charlottesvile neo-Nazi rally was "created by the left" and carried out by an "Obama sympathizer." He also falsely claimed that billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, the target of countless anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, had bankrolled the event.

"We warned everybody how dangerous he was," Dave Gosar said after the riot.

Gosar condemned the rioters on Twitter, urging them to "not get carried away" while posting a photo of the mob scaling a Capitol wall. But he posted the same photo to the far-right social network Parler, which was used by some rioters to coordinate the attack, without any such criticism. "Americans are upset," he wrote in response to the image.

In the days following the riot, Arizona Democrats called for the FBI and Justice Department to investigate Gosar and other state lawmakers "directly involved, as well as those who, through words and conduct, aided and abetted sedition, treason or any other federal crimes."

"The events of January 6 were not spontaneous, nor were they the random acts of a diffuse handful of unconnected individuals," the state Democratic party said in a letter to federal law enforcement officials. "For weeks prior to the breach, a group of Republican Arizona legislators and legislators-elect publicly advocated for the overthrow of the election results which encouraged precisely the kind of violent conduct that we witnessed."

CNN has reported that Gosar and Biggs asked Trump for a pardon related to their involvement with the rally that preceded the riot in January, but were denied.

Gosar's siblings have launched a new campaign to remove their brother from Congress in the wake of the riot.

"We feel it's our moral obligation," Dave Gosar told the Los Angeles Times, adding that his brother is "in my opinion, about as despicable a politician as I have ever seen."

"He started at an extreme place, he started at a bigoted place ... and he's gone even further into that," added sister Jennifer Gosar.

"Paul has no character, no integrity, no honor," agreed brother Tim Gosar, "and is absolutely as close as you get to a pathological liar."

Walsh predicted that despite calls for Gosar to be punished, the Republican Party will stay silent because of the effect Trump has had on the party over the last five years.

"This is one of Trump's impacts on the party," he said. "The party follows a lot of Trump's signals. Trump makes signals to a lot of these white supremacists and white nationalists. I mean, Donald Trump didn't go out of his way to condemn them. They're more welcomed now in the coalition, and I think the party gets that. So the party is much, much more loath to condemn people like this."

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alt rt has afpac w/ gosar and steve king

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/cpac-fascism/

no lnx

Republicans' fascism two-step was on display at CPAC 2021

Amanda Marcotte March 01, 2021

If you want a perfect emblem of the current state of Republican politics, look to the story of how Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., spent this past weekend.

On Friday night, Gosar attended a conference for unvarnished fascists, where the main organizer gave a speech calling for America to be white nationalist country and openly celebrated the insurrection spearheaded by Donald Trump on Jan. 6. On Saturday, while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Gosar lamely claimed to denounce "white racism," clearly feeling that those magic words erased his participation in and support for those who are organizing white racists to take over the country through force.

It should be silly that Gosar believes that simply declaring "I denounce" is enough to negate all his concrete actions in favor of white nationalism, but the sad fact is that he has good reason to think it will work. After all, that's how things have been working for years in this country. Call it the fascism two-step: First, Republicans do something overtly fascist. Then they wave off concerns about their fascism by faking umbrage and relying on the widespread belief that "it can never happen here" to paint their critics as hysterical. Gosar was just a particularly blunt and obvious example, but it's the strategy that's been used throughout Trump's presidency and now is being heavily employed to minimize the attempted insurrection.

Much was written, both on social and plain old regular media, about how CPAC this year was cementing Trump's power over the GOP and turning the party into a cult of personality for their orange-hued buffoon of a leader. Indeed, it's both alarming and darkly funny, from the rapturous reception of his predictably whiny stemwinder to the ridiculous gold statue of Trump that was on display, which drew thousands of jokes about golden calves. But really, the Trump worship is only part of what is the bigger and much scarier story of CPAC.

The conference was geared around the task of completing the transformation of the Republican party into an overtly authoritarian — even fascist — party that is focused on seizing and holding power against the will of the American people. The Trump idolatry is part of that — what's a fascist party without a cult around a narcissistic leader? — but ultimately, Trump still functions as he always has, which is as a tool for his followers to get what they want, and not an ends in himself. And what they want, as CPAC made quite clear, is to make the U.S. a white nationalist country, which is always what the "MAGA" slogan stood for.

The CPAC straw poll showed only 55% of attendees endorsed Trump as their favorite for the Republican presidential nominee. However, a full 97% approved of Trump's performance in office, despite him ending his presidency by launching a coup that ended in a bloody attack on the Capitol. Trump himself they can leave or take. But the insurrection and the violent assault on American democracy? That is what the CPAC crowd is all about.

As Heather "Digby" Parton noted at Salon Monday morning, "Trump went out of his way to cancel a whole lot of Republicans he considers disloyal, promising to do everything in his power to 'get rid of 'em all,'" and then proceeded to name "every single GOP politician who voted for impeachment individually, his voice dripping with venom."

This is a result, of course, of Trump's famous narcissism and his obsessive cataloging of his enemies. But it is also, and more importantly, about something else: Purging the party of anyone who isn't on board with a fascist agenda. The targets of Trump's wrath are the only Republicans who drew the line at a violent attempt to overthrow the government. This isn't about just remaking the party in his own image, but remaking they party as one explicitly supportive of violent insurrections. Frankly, it won't be a hard task, since, as his pathetically short list showed, few Republicans were even interested in opposing his coup in the first place....

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/capitol-riot-2649927261/

no lnx twt

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/capitol-riot-2649927261/

These Republican representatives are accused of helping to plan January 6 insurrection

U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar speaking with supporters at the 2018 election eve rally hosted by the Arizona Republican Party at the Yavapai County Courthouse in Prescott, Arizona, photo via Gage Skidmore.

Mark Sumner and Daily Kos January 13, 2021

It's obvious that many Republicans—including Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz in the Senate, and dozens in the House, including minority leader Kevin McCarthy—actively inflamed Donald Trump's white supremacist mob and encouraged their deadly assault on the Capitol. However, it now seems that some Republicans in Congress may have done more than knowingly fan the flames. In the days since the rotunda was cleared of debris and the halls were cleaned of the literal human excrement smeared there by Trump's biggest fans, information has appeared that indicates some Republicans may have actively been involved in planning or carrying out the assault.

On Tuesday evening, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill conducted a Facebook live session for her constituents during which explained her support resulting in calling on Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment. During that webcast, Sherrill made an astounding accusation. She claimed to have witnessed Republican members of Congress leading Trump supporters on, not a tour, but a "reconnaissance" of the Capitol. "We can't have a democracy," said Sherrill, "if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the elections results."

As reported by USA Today's northerjersey.com, Sherrill's accusation was as astounding as it was direct.

“Not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn't have access to classified material, I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him; those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5—a reconnaissance for the next day; those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd; those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy; I'm going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress."

Sherrill has not so far detailed what she means by this reconnaissance, or given names of Republicans who were involved. However, it's become increasingly clear in the days since the insurrection that the situation at the Capitol was much more dire than was originally reported.

The accusations of involvement by Republican members of Congress aren't just coming from Democrats, they're coming from those who were involved in the assault.

As The Washington Post reports, Ali Alexander, the right-wing activist who formed the "Stop the Steal" movement, did so with the help of three Republican members of Congress: Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, and Paul Gosar. "We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting," said Alexander. Biggs' staff has denied any contact with Alexander—but the involvement of all three Republicans is certainly worthy of investigation.

Completely disowning Alexander's claims could be difficult. He and Gosar appeared together at a "Stop the Steal" rally in Phoenix on December 19. At that same rally, Alexander played a recorded message from Biggs, who he described as a "friend." In both the live and recorded messages, Gosar and Biggs singled out January 6 for action.

Gosar would go on to promote other "Stop the Steal" events more than a dozen times, as well as pumping out tweets and emails promoting the January 6 gathering in D.C. Typical of Gosar's statements was an op-ed on the site Revolver, Gosar called simply counting the legal electoral vote a "Third World coup d'etat." According to Gosar, Biden's win involved "statistically impossible" spikes in the voting and "We will not tolerate this." Far from distancing himself from Alexander's group, Gosar claimed ownership. "As many of you know, I helped organize the very first 'Stop the Steal' rally," he wrote. "… Patriotic warriors joined together to gather evidence and tell the Left we will not accept a coup and a usurper in the White House."

All three Republicans continued to be involved in "Stop the Steal." As The New York Times reports, In the hours immediately before the assault on the Capitol, Brooks addressed the "Stop the Steal" rally in D.C. "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass," said Brooks. "Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?"

Gosar, Biggs, and Brooks are far from the only Republicans connected to Alexander's group, or the only ones who both inflamed Trump supporters through lies about the election and demands to attend the January 6 event.

On December 30, Alexander tweeted what would happen if Congress voted to approve the count of the Electoral College vote. "If they do this, everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building. 1776 is always an option." The use of "1776" appeared in a number of statements from hard-line Trump representatives right up to the insurrection. Both Q-supporting Reps Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert directly called the insurrection an "1776 moment."

On Tuesday evening, The Washington Post reports that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she feared some of her Republican colleagues would not only open the doors to rioters, but direct them straight to her. "I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die," she said. "I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive." According to Ocasio-Cortez, she can't go into specifics because of security concerns. But it's clear there were very good reasons to be concerned. And it's clear that multiple Republicans in both the House and Senate did more than enough to justify removing them from the halls of Congress. In fact, several of them may well deserve a new office—in very small room surrounded by bars.

Wednesday, Jan 13, 2021 · 9:27:10 AM Eastern Standard Time · Mark Sumner

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Survey: Should Donald Trump be prosecuted after he leaves office?

Right-wing moms are defending their sons' 'right' to storm the Capitol. Some even joined in

Jared Kushner scrambled to stop Trump from joining neo-Nazis' favorite social media app: report

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-antifa/

no lnx twt

delusional GOP lawmakers, Trump supporters now blaming 'antifa' for Capitol Hill chaos

Meaghan Ellis January 07, 2021

Most Americans clearly heard President Donald Trump encourage his supporters to march to Capitol Hill and demand the 2020 presidential election results be overturned in his favor. Shortly after Trump's directive, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building.

But despite all evidence to the contrary, several delusional Republican lawmakers and a disturbing number of Trump loyalists insist antifa is to blame for their own behavior. Hours after law enforcement managed to gain control of the chaotic situation, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) expressed outrage over what ensued. However, he did not hold the Trump supporters accountable, reports the Washington Post.

According to the Republican lawmaker, some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters and in fact, were members of the "violent terrorist group" antifa. Antifa, a left-wing anti-fascist movement, has been described by some on the right at a "terrorist" organization, but the Southern Poverty Law Center cautions that designation is "dangerous" and "threatens civil liberties."

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) also took to Twitter with a flurry of tweets that claimed there's "evidence" to suggest antifa was behind the riot — all of which, appears to be hearsay. On Thursday, Jan. 7, Brooks tweeted, "Please, don't be like #FakeNewsMedia, don't rush to judgment on assault on Capitol. Wait for investigation. All may not be (and likely is not) what appears.Evidence growing that fascist ANTIFA orchestrated Capitol attack with clever mob control tactics. Evidence follows:"

He also broke down his claims saying:

A Congressman warned me on MONDAY of a growing ANTIFA threat & advised that I sleep in my office rather than leaving Capitol complex & sleeping in my condo. I heeded that advice & have slept on office floor for 4 straight nights.

Congressman told me he was warned on TUESDAY by Capitol Police officer that intelligence suggested fascist ANTIFA was going to try to infiltrate the Trump rally by dressing like Trump supporters.[vs proud boy say dress like anifa?]

Capitol Police advised TUESDAY that it best not to leave Capitol complex.

Evidence, much public, surfacing that many Capitol assaulters were fascist ANTIFAs, not Trump supporters. Again, time will reveal truth. Don't rush to judgment. Don't be fooled by #FakeNewsMedia whose political judgment drives their reporting.

My view: fully prosecute all!

Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) also tweeted an excuse for what occurred. Just hours after the breach, Gosar tweeted, "This has all the hallmarks of Antifa provocation."[ie FALSE FLAG?]

Conservative media figures and Trump supporters took to social media with bizarre claims in an effort to take the blame off the pro-Trump mob.

...

However, many Twitter users have pushed back with obvious clues that Trump supporters were, indeed, responsible for the Capitol building breach, noting masks were non-existent and there was no social distancing. Media outlets are also revealing the identities of some of the rioters photographed at the Capitol building.

Despite conservative attempts to divert from what happened, many of the rioters are, indeed, right-wing extremists.

newsmax: uS Army combat veteran @CoryMills_PACEM says "I'm pissed off at what I am seeing on American soil, I'm pissed off that I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting this terroristic behavior only to see it on our soil." http://nws.mx/tv

Many lawmakers are calling for those identified to face charges for their actions and involvement in the Capitol breach.

just 27 out of 249 congressional Republicans acknowledge that Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, according to a Washington Post survey, and Trump on Saturday demanded that they be identified.

More than a month after President-elect Biden claimed a decisive victory over the lame-duck president—winning the popular vote by more than 7 million and garnering 306 votes in the Electoral College—Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) still insist Trump won the race, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Another 220 GOP members of the House and Senate—roughly 88 percent of congressional Republicans—refuse to say who won.

Those are the findings of a Washington Post survey conducted this week.

Beginning "the morning after Trump posted a 46-minute video Wednesday evening in which he wrongly claimed he had defeated Biden and leveled wild and unsubstantiated allegations of 'corrupt forces' who stole the outcome from the sitting president," a team of 25 reporters contacted aides for all 249 Republicans in the House and Senate by email and phone, thePost explained.

In addition to researching "public statements made by GOP lawmakers in recent weeks to determine their stance on Biden's win," the Post reporters asked three questions:

Who won the presidential contest?
Do you support or oppose Trump's continuing efforts to claim victory?
If Biden wins a majority in the Electoral College, will you accept him as the legitimately elected president?

According to the Post,only nine congressional Republicans oppose Trump's ongoing efforts to claim victory, nine others—including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)—support his attempt to overturn the election results, and 231 declined to answer.

Brooks and Gosar said they will not accept Biden as the legitimately elected president of the U.S. regardless of what happens when electors meet on December 14.

"In my judgement, this is the worst election theft in the history of the United States," Brooks said, while Gosar claimed that there is "too much evidence of fraud."

The lawmakers' statements come just days after Attorney General William Barr, a key Trump ally, admitted that "we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have" affected the outcome of the election, as Common Dreamsreported.

Thirty-two congressional Republicans said they will accept Biden's victory if he wins a majority in the Electoral College, and 215 did not respond.

The Post distilled the survey results into the following chart:...

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/more-and-more-republicans-are-piling-onto-conspiracy-theories-about-vote-counting/

kos

To read Donald Trump's Twitter feed, you'd think that counting votes is an inherently suspicious activity. As his campaign files lawsuits to try to stop votes from being counted in Michigan and Pennsylvania, Trump is frenetically trying to whip up his base against any vote-counting activity that might not help him—and a series of House Republicans are acting as his winged monkeys, throwing their weight into legitimizing Trump's efforts to delegitimize the basis of democracy.

Trump has promoted a Breitbart piece attacking Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, and announced, as if it was evidence of wrongdoing,"We are winning Pennsylvania big, but the PA Secretary of State just announced that there are 'Millions of ballots left to be counted.'" Four of Trump's tweets in the past 24 hours have gotten Twitter warning messages that "Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process."

He has help.

Rep. Paul Gosar bragged about having joined Trump supporters outside the site where ballots were being counted in Maricopa County. The aggressive group was apparently motivated by a conspiracy theory about votes being changed rather than counted, and it included far-right anti-immigration activists and threatened reporters.

Rep. Kevin Brady repeated Trump's lies about vote counting being conducted in secrecy, cloaking a lie as a call for transparency.That transparency already exists, however—though law enforcement in more than one city has had to defend vote-counting sites against mobs of Trump supporters trying to get inside to disrupt counting. Rep. Jim Banks tied together a Peter Strzok conspiracy theory with a reference to "the shady ballot counting happening in WI, MI and PA." You know, the ballot counting. Which Republicans insist must be shady, because it's not going their way.

The majority of the Pennsylvania state House tweeted that "The failure of Pennsylvania to have firm election results on Election Day is an openly partisan failure by Democrats from the Wolf administration to the PA Supreme Court." Except the failure of Pennsylvania to have firm election results on Election Day is a direct result of Republican legislators blocking election officials from counting or even processing mail ballots before Election Day!

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich enthusiastically jumped on board with claims that "Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are all being stolen by Democrats." Again, because votes are being counted.

That's the substance of Republican angst: Votes are being counted, and those votes may not go the way Republicans want them to go. That must be the result of conspiracy and cheating and outright theft by Democrats, they claim, with a big dose of rage that the votes of Black people are being counted at all.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden's message is simple: "Every vote must be counted."

https://theintercept.com/2020/08/27/tucker-carlson-defends-kenosha-shooter

no twt pix

TUCKER CARLSON set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday — by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing two, as a well-meaning kid who decided he “had to maintain order” in the Democrat-run state because “no one else would” — the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right.

“The chaos that began with the first George Floyd protests on Memorial Day has reached its inevitable and bloody conclusion,” Carlson told viewers tuning in for his buildup to the Republican National Convention, which had featured, on its first night, two speakers lionized for threatening to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion in St. Louis.

[twt pix]

Last night, three people were shot on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two of them have died. Police say they’ve charged a 17-year-old with murder,” Carlson reported, without revealing that the suspect, Kyle Rittenhouse, was not the anti-fascist radical his viewers might have been led to expect, but a conservative vigilante who had posted video from the front row of a Trump rally in January, and written “BLUE LIVES MATTER” and “Trump 2020″ on his TikTok bio, as Buzzfeed first reported.[twt tucker]

rittenhouse was reportedly charged with six crimes on Thursday, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

The incident came after a third night of protests in Kenosha over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black father who was critically wounded by a police officer who fired seven shots into his back, but throughout his report on the fatal shootings Carlson pretended, as he has for months, that there were no non-violent protests over police violence against communities of color, just “riots.”

In Carlson’s telling, the moral of the story was not that Rittenhouse — who was photographed and caught on video from multiple angles shooting three men — had provoked trouble by responding to a militia group’s Facebook call for “patriots willing to take up arms and defend” the city from “evil thugs,” but that he was something closer to a victim, prodded to fill a vacuum by the misrule of the city’s Democratic mayor, John Antaramian, and the state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers.

[

pix Kyle Rittenhouse was photographed hours before the shootings on Tuesday, among a group of volunteers who cleaned anti-police graffiti from a high school in Kenosha.

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images]

“Kenosha has devolved into anarchy because the authorities in charge of the city abandoned it,” Carlson told Fox viewers unaware that the city had not, in fact, collapsed into chaos just because they were being shown isolated scenes of violence on a loop.

“People in charge, from the governor of Wisconsin on down, refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn,” Carlson claimed, oblivious to the fact that video recorded by witnesses to Tuesday’s events showed Rittenhouse and other heavily armed young vigilantes had spent most of the night standing close to armored police vehicles outside a business they appointed themselves to guard.

[twt vid]

at one point in a livestream broadcast that night, a police officer could be heard offering water to the militiamen, including Rittenhouse, and telling them: “We appreciate you guys, we really do.”

Later that night, after Rittenhouse wandered a short distance away and got into a confrontation with a man he shot in the head, video recorded by a pro-Trump YouTuber, Drew Hernandez, seemed to show Rittenhouse running back down the street in the direction of the police vehicles. As he retreated from the scene, the video appeared to catch Rittenhouse telling someone on his phone: “I just killed somebody."

[twt vid]

according to the police complaint against Rittenhouse, released on Thursday evening, his friend Dominic Black told a detective that he received a call from his friend Kyle at 11:46 pm on Tuesday, in which the gunman stated that he shot someone.

A subsequent analysis of the video by the New York Times visual investigations unit suggested that, moments before Rittenhouse opened fire, a single gunshot was fired into the air for unknown reasons by someone standing near the parking lot where the confrontation took place.

Shelby Talcott, a video journalist for the Daily Caller, a conservative site founded by Carlson, captured footage of Rittenhouse fleeing the scene of the first shooting, as protesters shouted that he had shot someone.

[twt vid]

video shot by another pro-Trump YouTuber, Brendan Gutenschwager, appeared to Rittenhouse pursued by several protesters who suspected him of carrying out the first shooting. After he tripped and fell, just a block away from the police, two of those men attempted to disarm him, one by kicking him and another by hitting him with a skateboard.

[vid]

rittenhouse fired at both of them, apparently killing the skateboarder, Anthony Huber, with a shot to the chest as they struggled for the rifle, and then shooting a third protester, Gaige Grosskreutz, causing a gaping wound in his arm. Grosskreutz, a member of a social justice group who was wearing a hat with the word “paramedic” emblazoned on it, also appeared to be armed with a handgun.

In a remarkable scene at the end of Gutenschwager’s video, Rittenhouse can be seen walking with his hands up, apparently trying to surrender to the police officers he had been chatting with earlier in the evening, as a bystander shouts that he shot the protesters, but the officers drive right past him in the direction of the men he shot.

while all of this footage was available to Carlson before he went on air, later in his monologue he professed to have no idea what exactly had happened or whether — because the men who had attempted to disarm the vigilante after he had shot someone in the head could be seen kicking and hitting Rittenhouse — a jury might ultimately decide that he had acted in self-defense.

In this, Carlson was closely following a consensus explanation that had formed during the 24 hours after the shooting by pro-Trump YouTubers, bloggers, and commentators, who decided, after studying slow-motion imagery and still photographs, that the young man who had traveled to Kenosha from his home in neighboring Illinois to defend the city from residents enraged by the shooting of Jacob Blake, was merely acting in self-defense.

rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, suggested on Twitter that the slow-motion video convinced him that the killings were “100% justified self defense.” Hours before Carlson went to air, Gosar also blamed the violence on Kenosha’s local government. “Armed citizens defending themselves will fill the vacuum,” he wrote[twt dr paul gosar az cernovich?]

one of Rittenhouse’s defenders was Elijah Schaffer, a freelance producer for Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV and a pro-Trump political activist who releaseda misleading accountof a fight involving Black Lives Matter protesters in Dallas in May. Writing on Twitter on Wednesday, Schaffer described the Turkish journalist Tayfun Coskun’s photograph of the protesters attempting to disarm the gunman as Rittenhouse “being attacked by #BLM rioters.”

“One of the attackers,” in Schaffer’s words, was “about to assault him with a skateboard."

[twt pix]

that “assault” by the skateboarder Anthony Huber ended with his failed effort to wrest the gun away from Rittenhouse and being fatally shot in the chest.

Schaffer also thought a 20-second interview he did with Rittenhouse before the shootings provided important “context” as to what took place later, since the vigilante did not say anything racist or political in that third of a minute.

[twt vid]

as Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times opinion columnist, noted on Twitter, an obvious flaw in the conservative argument that Rittenhouse was just defending himself from the second and third men he shot is that they were only “attacking” him because he had just shot someone else in the head[twt]

carlson’s defense of Rittenhouse also hinged on the false idea that he had taken to the streets to oppose a phantom movement of violent radicals using the protests as cover. “The Justice Department could have stopped all of this months ago,” Carlson ranted over footage of Kenosha recorded by another of the conservative gonzo video bloggers who descended on the city this week, searching for images of chaos to discredit the protest movement. “If federal prosecutors had treated the organizers of BLM and antifa the way they treated Roger Stone, our cities wouldn’t look like Kosovo tonight.”

Another conservative journalist who interviewed Rittenhouse earlier in the evening was Richie McGinniss, who directs video for the Daily Caller, the website that was once used to smear Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.

[twt vid]

mcGinniss appeared on Carlson’s show on Wednesday to discuss what happened in Kenosha and his own effort to save the life of the first man shot and killed by Rittenhouse, who was later identified as Joseph Rosenbaum.

What made Carlson’s interview with McGinniss odd, however, was that the Daily Caller videographer repeatedly referred to Rittenhouse as “the alleged shooter,” even though he was standing just six or seven feet away from Rosenbaum when he was shot and seemed to have been filming the confrontation at the time.

[twt vid]

it is unclear if McGinniss has video of Rittenhouse shooting Rosenbaum, but he told Carlson that he witnessed the crime at close range. Even so, Carlson failed to ask him directly if he could say for certain that Rittenhouse did shoot Rosenbaum in the head and cause his death. Instead, McGinniss offered what sounded like testimony to the gunman’s good character. “The 17-year-old who I interviewed earlier in the night, he actually mentioned that he was there to maintain peace, in the absence of police,” McGinniss said.

“It’s just hard to believe this is America,” Carlson said. “We can’t put up with this.”

When the complaint against Rittenhouse was released late Thursday, it said that McGinniss told a police detective that he did clearly see the teen shoot Rosenbaum at close range as the victim reached for the rifle. Footage recorded earlier in the evening showed that Rosenbaum was incensed by the presence of the armed militia members in the neighborhood.

The complaint cited a coroner’s report which “indicated that Rosenbaum had a gunshot wound to the right groin which fractured his pelvis, a gunshot wound to the back which perforated his right lung and liver, a gunshot wound to the left hand, a superficial gunshot wound to his lateral left thigh, and a graze gunshot wound to the right side of his forehead.”

As the momentum to excuse Rittenhouse’s crimes as justified spread online Thursday, amplified by far-right figures around the globe, Jamelle Bouie called it “the single most ominous development of the year."

[twt]

the journalist Matt Prigge noted that the increasingly obscene lionization of Rittenhouse echoed the wave of praise in 1970 for the National Guardsmen who killed four anti-war protesters at Kent State, documented by the historian Rick Perlstein in his book, “Nixonland."

at a news conference on Friday, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said that he did not want armed volunteers like Kyle Rittenhouse on the streets during protests.

“This group of people that are carrying weapons here, if they’re in their house — and again, I support the Second Amendment — if they’re in there protecting their property, I have no issue with that,” the sheriff said. “The people that have been here carrying guns, they haven’t been arrested because it’s a right that they have. Have we asked for them to come? Are we asking for them to come in and support things? I’m not.”

“You could clearly see the situation escalated Tuesday night because a 17-year-old boy carrying what appears to be an assault rifle, who has no idea how to handle a situation like this,” Beth added. “I don’t care if he had the right intentions or not, two people are currently dead, and one almost had his arm blown off.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/how-total-fabrication-connecting-george-soros-son-whistleblower-went-underbelly-internet

no lnx pix twt many

semiotic?

escalaor

How a total fabrication connecting George Soros' son to the whistleblower went from the underbelly of the internet to Rep. Steve King

WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 11/15/19

Rep.Steve King (R-IA) falsely suggested in a tweet that Alexander Soros, the son of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, is the alleged whistleblower whose complaint sparked the current House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. The tweet -- which was also shared by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) -- came after the falsity had spread on social media and on a prominent far-right message board.

On November 14, King -- who has a history of embracing far-right and white nationalist figures and rhetoric -- tweeted a collage of four images of Alexander Soros with 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), current Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), writing above the images, “Adam Schiff said, ‘I do not know the identity of the whistleblower.’ @RepAdamSchiff here are four strong clues.” (The collage had been previously used as part of the ongoing right-wing attacks on George Soros, who has been the target of anti-Semitic smears for years.) King has since deleted the tweet, and both George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and Alexander Soros criticized King for the false accusation.

Steve King falsity

Gosar soon after shared King’s tweet, adding, “Is it the dude on the bottom left?”

Paul Gosar falsity

Before King sent the tweet, the same false claim with the same images had been circulating on Twitter -- particularly by those supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory -- as well as on Facebook and on 4chan.

How the lie spread

Early on November 7, QAnon-supporting Twitter account Eyes on Q tweeted the images of Soros with Schumer, Pelosi, Clinton, and Warren, writing, “What's this all about then?” While the account did not claim that the person in the photos was the whistleblower, many users inferred that from the tweet (including a contributor for the conservative website The Houston Courant), and it received thousands of retweets. Hours later, the account noted it was Alexander Soros in the photos.

Eyes On Q falsity

A little over an hour after Eyes on Q’s first tweet went out, the same images were shared in a pro-Trump Facebook group, with the poster writing, “Here is the identity of the whistleblower. He's a Deranged Trump-Hating DNC operative.” That afternoon, another Facebook page shared the false claim and images in a meme, getting more than a thousand shares.

Facebook post Soros1]

Around the same time, another QAnon-supporting Twitteraccount, @TrumpsWolfX, tweeted the images along with the photo of another person, a former Obama administration official who has received death threats after being falsely accused of being the whistleblower. The account wrote, “What is this guys name? ... Asking for a Nation.”

@TrumpsWolfX falsity]

Later that afternoon, account @LJC36 tweeted some of the images she claimed showed the whistleblower, naming a different person than Soros, and sarcastically encouraged people to “please, PLEASE under no circumstances … retweet this picture.” (Media Matters has removed the alleged whistleblower’s name from the screenshots below.) The tweet received more than 5,000 retweets, including one from conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi,who, as Mother Jones noted, a few days later tweeted an article from an obscure right-wing site that had also pushed the photo collage and false whistleblower claim on November 8.

@LJC36 falsity]

Shortly thereafter, another QAnon account posted the images, asking, “Are these pics of the #Whistleblower?” The account invoked the QAnon slogan, “Where we go one, we go all,” or “WWG1WGA.” It later acknowledged that the person was not the whistleblower.

Patriot Morehead falsity]

That evening, another right-wing Facebook page pointed to Soros as the whistleblower; that post currently has more than 7,000 shares.

Facebook post Soros3]

Over the next few days, the images and false claim continued to circulate around Twitter and Facebook (on both pages and groups with the latter).It also spread to 4chan’s “politically incorrect” message board known as “/pol/,”where users -- some citing the previous social media posts -- posted the images and continued asking if Soros was involved or accusing him of being the whistleblower.

4chan post Soros3]

On November 10, TheBuffalo Chronicle, a site that previously posted multiple articles and Facebook advertisements pushing viral disinformation about Canadian politics, posted the images and falsely wrote it showed the “CIA employee and Democratic Party political operative who filed a 'whistleblower' complaint.”

Buffalo Chronicle falsity]

A few days later, King and Gosar posted the images and the false claim from their own Twitter accounts, helping to further spread it on social media.

press supp

Nunes is not unique. Numerous Republicans now reflexively attack the press, from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) shouting "fake news" at a CNN reporter for challenging his claim that the Charlottesville riots were a false flag, to Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) doing the same at reporters questioning her claim that mass shooters are mostly Democrats, to the incident last year in which Greg Gianforte body-slammed a Guardian reporter yyy one night before being elected to Montana's congressional seat.

Climate Deniers Attack ‘Rock Star’ Pope as ‘Nature-Worshipping Pagan’ Amid U.S. Visit

**ecowatch.com**/2015/09/22/climate-deniers-pope-francis/

Cole Mellino

The Pope’s visit to the U.S. has been heralded for months, and now the day has finally arrived. The Pope is expected to arrive in Washington, DC later this afternoon. It will be the Pope’s first visit to the U.S. and the first time a Pope has ever addressed Congress, which he will do on Thursday.

“In recognition of both Pope Francis’ encyclical and his visit this week to the United States, Notre Dame is recommitting to make the world a greener place, beginning in our own backyard,” Father Jenkins said in astatement.

And other Catholic institutions are facing mounting pressure to follow in Notre Dame’s footsteps. Reuters conducted a review today into Catholic churches with oil and gas leases. The review found “235 oil and gas leasing deals signed by Catholic Church authorities in Texas and Oklahoma with energy and land firms since 2010.” And in one archdiocese—Oklahoma City—church officials have signed three new oil and gas leases since Pope Francis released his encyclical on the environment.

This is going on despite the fact that Oklahoma’s public utilities commission shut down two disposal wells last week amid earthquake increases from two a year to two a day due to increased fracking. The Reuters report said “it was not clear whether production on the church leases was through fracking … or more conventional methods.” But, regardless of the type of extraction, many find the situation problematic. “There may be some kind of inconsistency here between what the Pope has said and what the Church is doing in U.S. oil and gas country,” Mickey Thompson, a consultant and former director of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, told Reuters.

Last week, 11 Republican members of Congress called for climate action ahead of Pope Francis’ visit, introducing a resolution that put the climate challenge in the broader context of conservation, stewardship, innovation and conservatism. Today, Senate Democrats will introduce a climate change bill “intended to signal their full-throated support of President Obama’s aggressive climate change agenda to 2016 voters and to the rest of the world, reportsThe New York Times.The bill, which The Timessays has “no chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress” would “establish as United States policy a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by two percent each year through 2025—a cut even larger than the target set by the Obama administration.”

In The Midst Of The Budget Battle, Congress Is Handing Out Favors To The Mining Industry

BY JESSICA GOAD, GUEST BLOGGER ON SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

With one week to go until a potential government shutdown, the House of Representatives moves to help mining companies bypass environmental rules.

With reports that the Republican party is in a state of “civil war” over whether to shut down the government and default on the nation’s debts as part of its 42nd effort to defund Obamacare, House Republicans are in clear agreement on at least one thing: giving mining and timber companies a sweetheart deal on publicly-owned resources and exempting them from environmental laws.

By several measures, the mining industry already enjoys the benefits of friendly laws and environmental loopholes. Under the General Mining Law of 1872, for example, mining companies pay no royalties on the gold, silver, copper, and other taxpayer-owned minerals that they extract from taxpayer-owned public lands. And the industry is exempt from portions of environmental laws like the Clean Water Act.

And yet, these facts didn’t stop National Mining Association — which spent nearly $5 million on lobbying last year alone — CEO Hal Quinn from complaining that the industry:

…remain[s] burdened by an antiquated and duplicative permitting system that discourages investment and jeopardizes the growth of downstream industries, related jobs and technological innovation that depend on a secure and reliable mineral supply chain.

One of the bills, which will likely be up for a vote next week, is the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act of 2013 (H.R. 687). It would require the U.S. Forest Service to trade publicly-owned forest lands that contain a major copper deposit for certain private lands owned by the Resolution Copper Mining company, a subsidiary of multinational mining conglomerates Rio Tinto and BHP-Billiton.

The bill not only gives away taxpayer-owned copper deposits to a private company, but it also bypasses the standard requirement that the federal government analyze the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of land exchanges under the National Environmental Policy Act.

H.R. 687 is strongly opposed by rock climbers whose access to the recreation areas would be lost by the privatization, as well as Native American tribes who have sacred sites on the land.

The second bill, the National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act of 2013 (H.R. 761) passed the House on Wednesday night and gives the mining industry several new shortcuts around environmental protections. It would allow federal agencies, for example, to declare that a proposed mining project does not constitute “a major federal action” and therefore permit applications would not need to be subjected to environmental review and public comment. It also places an arbitrary deadline of 30 months on any permitting decisions regardless of the size of the project or controversy.

Mining interests aren’t the only ones getting a great deal in the House this week. The chamber today is also debating the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act (H.R. 1526) which would — for the first time ever — legislatively mandate levels of logging in national forests. The Obama administration has threatened to veto the bill, saying that it would not only “undermine appropriate management and stewardship of these lands which belong to all Americans,” but would “increase litigation risk.”

Jessica Goad is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress.

===

wiki

Paul Anthony Gosar^[2] (born November 27, 1958) is an American politician who has been a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arizona since 2011, representing Arizona's 4th congressional district. The district includes most of the rural western portion of the state, as well as a few outer suburbs of Phoenix. He represented the neighboring1st district during his first term. He is a member of the Republican Party.

[hide]

Early life, education and dental career

Gosar was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming in 1958,^[1] the son of Bernadette M. (née Erramouspe) and Antone John "Tony" Gosar. His paternal grandparents were Slovenian and his maternal grandparents were Basque immigrants fromBanca, France.^[3] He is the older brother of Pete Gosar, a former college football player at the University of Wyoming, who is the former Chairman of the Wyoming Democratic Party and was a candidate for Governor of Wyoming in 2010^[4] and2014.^[5]

Gosar earned his B.A. from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and later, his D.D.S. from Boyne School of Dentistry at Creighton, and owned his own dentistry practice in Flagstaff for twenty-five years. He was the Arizona Dental Association's “Dentist of the Year” in 2001, has been inducted into the ADA Hall of Fame, and served as their President. He was also President of the Northern Arizona Dental Society and the Vice-Chair of the ADA Council on Governmental Affairs.^[6]

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2010

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2010 § District 1

In 2009, Gosar – who had never run for elected office before – announced he would challenge Democratic incumbent Ann Kirkpatrick in the 1st district in the 2010 elections. Gosar has been identified as a Tea Party candidate by The New York Times because the Arizona Tea Party features Gosar on its website.^[7] Libertarian nominee Nicole Patti was also on the ballot.

Gosar won the Republican primary. He was endorsed by Sarah Palin and three Arizona county sheriffs: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Coconino County Sheriff Joe Richards, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.^[8] Kirkpatrick challenged him to five debates across the district.^[9][10] Gosar initially agreed to one debate but later withdrew. Gosar released a statement explaining the decision to withdraw from the debate was based on the long drive to and from KAET in Phoenix, which organized the debate.^[11] A producer at KAET said Gosar's staff told the station the candidate could not participate in the debate because he would be attending a fundraiser instead.^[12]

Gosar defeated Kirkpatrick in the November 2, 2010, general election, taking 49.7 percent of the vote.

2012

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Arizona, 2012 § District 4

Following changes made in redistricting, Gosar was going to seek re-election in the 1st district, which was made less favorable to Republicans.^[13] However, with Kirkpatrick priming for a rematch, Gosar changed his mind and announced in January 2012 he would run in the newly created 4th district, which is heavily Republican. As part of the move, he bought a second home in Prescott, which he claims as his official residence.^[14][15]

Gosar initially faced a tough primary fight against Babeu. However, Babeu pulled out in May 2012 due to allegations of abuse of power.^[16] Gosar then easily defeated former state senator Ron Gould and businessman Rick Murphy in the Republican primary, all but assuring him of a second term.

In the November general election, he routed Democratic challenger Johnnie Robinson, taking 67 percent of the vote.^[17]

Tenure

Abortion

Paul Gosar describes himself as pro-life. On abortions, Gosar states, “These procedures undeniably rob the world of a human life in a most cruel fashion...The right thing to do is to ban these procedures.”^[18] These beliefs are reflected in his voting record. Gosar cosponsored the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill that would make permanent restrictions on federal funding of abortions in the US.^[19] Gosar also cosponsored the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, an act placing restrictions on abortions in the District of Columbia.^[20] Gosar was given a 100% rating by the National Right to Life Committee, a pro-life interest group, and a 0% rating by NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League), a pro-choice interest group.^[21]

Gun rights

Gosar has stated that the “Second Amendment is one of the most important rights set forth by the Bill of Rights” and has stated he will “continue to oppose efforts to restrict, infringe, or remove this constitutionally protected right.”^[22] Gosar cosponsored the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, a bill that would allow noncitizens of a state to, with concealed carry permits, carry concealed weapons in that state.^[23] Gosar also sponsored the “Amendment to Restore 2nd Amendment Rights on Army Corps of Engineers Administered Recreational Lands”, which would allow citizens to carry weapons on land administered by the Army Corps of Engineers.^[24] Gosar was endorsed by the NRA (National Rifle Association) and given a rating of 92%. He was also endorsed by Gun Owners of America, and given a rating of 75%.^[25]

Immigration

Regarding immigration, Gosar has stated, “I strongly believe we need to immediately secure our border and oppose amnesty for anyone who blatantly violates our law.”^[26] Gosar has cosponsored multiple bills that would impose regulations on immigration. For example, Gosar cosponsored the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, a bill that would eliminate birthright citizenship for children born in the US to undocumented immigrants.^[27] Gosar also cosponsored the Keeping the Pledge on Immigration Act of 2011, a bill that would increase border security.^[28] Gosar was given an “A” rating by NumbersUSA, an organization in support of immigration reduction.^[29]

Native Americans

In December 2014, Gosar drew controversy when he referred to American Indians as "wards of the federal government". He was responding to concerns from members of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona when he made the comment that stunned people at the round-table talk in Flagstaff, Arizona. The topic had addressed the proposal to swap 2,400 acres of southeastern Arizona's Tonto National Forest for about 5,300 acres of environmentally sensitive land. The proposal, which was attached as a rider to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, would give land sacred to the Apache in Arizona to Resolution Copper Mine, a joint venture owned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. Troy Eid, a Republican and former U.S. Attorney in Colorado, responded to Gosar's comments and said: "In the heated context of what this represents, it's especially inappropriate to be resorting to what amounts to race baiting." A Gosar spokesperson said the congressman's comments were misconstrued.^[30]

Finance

In 2010 Gosar signed a pledge sponsored by Americans for Prosperity promising to vote against any Global Warming legislation that would raise taxes.^[31]

Attempt to Impeach EPA Administrator

On September 11, 2015, Gosar announced that he had filed articles of impeachment against EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy for "high crimes and misdemeanors:", claiming that she had "lied to the American people in order to force misguided and overreaching regulations, which have no scientific basis, down our throats.".^[32] An EPA spokeswoman said Gosar's resolution "has zero merit and is nothing more than political theater" while fellow Republican and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed that “There’s no plan to impeach Gina McCarthy." ^[33]

Boycott of Pope Francis

On September 18, 2015 Gosar announced that he would not attend Pope Francis's planned address to Congress unless the Pope spoke about issues such as "violent Islam" or Planned Parenthood instead of global warming. While he stated that he remains proud to be a Catholic and to have attended a Jesuit University where he learned to "think critically [and] welcome debate and discussion," nonetheless, he would treat the Pope the same way he believes leftist politicians should be treated. Fearing the possibility the Pope would discuss climate change, he said "I will not attend."^[34] According to Gosar, Pope Francis has “adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into ‘climate justice’ and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies.”^[35]

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Gosar is a member of several caucuses.^[36]

GOP Doctors Caucus
Oral Health Caucus
Western Caucus
Native American Caucus
Immigration Reform Caucus
Military Veterans Caucus
Israel Allies Caucus
Congressional Rural Caucus
Republican Study Committee
Congressional Cement Caucus

References

^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gosar#cite_ref-CQRollGuide_1-1) "Guide to the New Congress" (PDF). CQ Roll Call. 2010-11-04. Retrieved2010-11-24.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Elections 2012 – AP Election Guide : Paul Anthony Gosar". NPR. Retrieved2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Paul Anthony Gosar, D.D.S". Rootsweb.ancestry.com. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Profile contrasting Paul and Pete Gosar^[dead ^link]
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Mead wins GOP primary for Wyoming governor". Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. August 19, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Arizona's Former Dentist of The Year Launches Robust Bid to Unseat Ann Kirkpatrick in Congressional District One". Gosar for Congress. 14 October 2009. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Zernike, Kate (October 14, 2010). "Where Tea Party Candidates Are Running". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Endorsements". Gosar For Congress. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Paul Gosar Finds Easy Victory in CD1 Primary". Prescott eNews. 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Arizona Capitol Times Blog Archive » Kirkpatrick wants 5 debates with GOP challenger". Azcapitoltimes.com. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Gosar pulls plug on televised debate". Arizona Daily Sun. 2010-10-19. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Gosar backs out of today's TV debate in favor of fundraiser". Prescott Daily Courier. 2010-10-20. Retrieved 2010-10-21.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Taylor, Jessica (October 5, 2011). "House Democrats Gain With New Arizona Map". National Journal. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Wilson, Reid (January 7, 2012). "Gosar Will Switch Districts". National Journal. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ [1]^[dead ^link]
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Sheriff Babeu Abandons Race for Arizona Congressional Seat. Fox News Latino. 2012-05-11. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "election 2012: Results from The Arizona Republic, 12 News and". Azcentral.com. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Dr. Gosar Condemns Abortion Genocide: Disgusted at Congress’ Failure to Protect the Unborn and Ban Pain Capable Abortions". Gosar.house.gov. July 31, 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Bill Summary & Status – 112th Congress (2011 – 2012) – H.R.3 – All Information – THOMAS (Library of Congress)". Thomas.loc.gov. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Bill Summary & Status – 112th Congress (2011 – 2012) – H.R.3803 – All Information – THOMAS (Library of Congress)". Thomas.loc.gov. Retrieved2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Paul Gosar – Ratings and Endorsements". Project Vote Smart. Retrieved2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Second Amendment Gun Rights". Gosar.house.gov. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Rep. Clifford “Cliff” Stearns [R-FL6]. "National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 (H.R. 822)". GovTrack.us. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Sponsored Legislation | Congressman Paul Gosar". Gosar.house.gov. 2011-05-29. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Paul Gosar – Ratings and Endorsements". Project Vote Smart. Retrieved2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "www.gosarforcongress.com". www.gosarforcongress.com. Retrieved2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "H.R.140: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 – U.S. Congress". OpenCongress. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Rep. Edward “Ed” Royce [R-CA40]. "Keeping the Pledge on Immigration Act of 2011 (H.R. 1274)". GovTrack.us. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "2012 Arizona 04th Congressional District | NumbersUSA – For Lower Immigration Levels". NumbersUSA. Retrieved 2012-12-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Fonseca, Felicia (December 10, 2014). "Rep. Paul Gosar Calls Native Americans 'Wards Of The Federal Government:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Huffington Post. Retrieved January 25,2015.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ http://americansforprosperity.org/files/Gosar_Paul.pdf
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Smith, Steven "Rep. Gosar Files Articles of Impeachment against EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy", House.gov Press Release, September 11, 2015. Retrieved September 22, 2015
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "GOP lawmaker moves to impeach EPA chief McCarthy", Fox News, September 15, 2015, Retrieved September 22, 2015.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Hall, Paul Gosar / Town. "Why I Am Boycotting Pope Francis’s Address to Congress". TIME.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Viebeck, Elise, "Who is Paul Gosar, the congressman boycotting Pope Francis?", 'Washington Post', September 21, 2015, Retrieved September 22, 2015
:{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;user-select:none;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Committees and Caucuses". 2011-03-20. Retrieved 2011-03-20.

External links

Conservatism portal

Congressman Paul Gosar official U.S. House site

113TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 687

[Report No. 113–167]

To facilitate the efficient extraction of mineral resources in southeast Arizona

by authorizing and directing an exchange of Federal and non-Federal

land, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Mr. GOSAR (for himself, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. SALMON, Mr. SCHWEIKERT,

and Mr. FRANKS of Arizona) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

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Following the Money: PACs and Their Effects — Podcast January 23, 2012

Posted on :{January 24, 2012:(style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: by William Timberman

Following the Money: The Influence of Political Action Committees on Our Politics and Legislation. Democratic Perspective’s co-hosts, Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson, look at Political Action Committees (PACs) — what they are, who funds them, and what kinds of distortions … Continue reading :{→:(style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

" style="background-image: url(http://verdevalleyindependentdemocrats.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/play_button_dyn_v4_32.png); background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(116, 51, 153); display: block; width: 32px; height: 32px; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;" />

Standard Podcast [ 15:01 ] :{Hide Player:(style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: | Play in Popup | Download

Posted in Arizona Politics, Campaign Finance, Elections, Front Organizations, Government, National Politics, Paul Gosar,Podcasts, Political Action Committees, Political Contributions, Special Interest Legislation | Tagged Arizona Politics,Campaign Finance, National Politics, PACs, Paul Gosar, Political Action Committees | Comments Off

Money. Money. And More Money.

Posted on :{January 24, 2012:(style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: by Gary LaMaster

This week, Democratic Perspective continued our “Follow the Money” series on PACs (Political Action Committees) and Super Pacs. To illustrate the problem, we chose to focus on contributions to Congressman Paul Gosar since he is currently our representative. Under current … Continue reading :{→:(style="border:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

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bs prc

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On March 25, 2014, the EPA and the Corps of Engineers released a proposed rule that would assert Clean Water Act jurisdiction over nearly all areas with even the slightest of connections to water resources, including man-made conveyances.

Congressman Gosar’s bill prohibits the EPA and Corps from “developing, finalizing, adopting, implementing, applying, administering, or enforcing” the proposed rule, the agencies’ interpretive rule, and any successor document, or any substantially similar proposed rule or guidance.

According to a recent report by economist and University of California-Berkley faculty member Dr. David Sundling, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Water Act rule is rife with errors and lacks transparency. Dr. Sundling concluded that the miscalculations in the EPA’s analysis are so extensive that it should be rendered useless for determining the true costs of this proposed rule. His report underscores the need for EPA to withdraw the rule and complete a comprehensive and transparent economic review that complies with federal law.

On May 1, 2014, Rep. Gosar and 230 of his colleagues sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the EPA, and John M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army, urging them to withdraw the proposed rule. The full text of that letter can be found HERE.

*:{:{:{:{:{

}:On June 2, 2014, Congressman Gosar hosted a joint field hearing on EPA’s proposed rule in Phoenix, Arizona that was attended by four of his Congressional colleagues and 9 Arizona witnesses. Stefanie Smallhouse, testifying on behalf of the of the Arizona Farm Bureau said, “The newly proposed EPA rule for the Waters of the U.S. would be devastating to my family’s farming operation, as well as hundreds of others in agriculture in Arizona…This proposed rule is an economic disaster, and a dream killer for my kids. There is no way a family farm such as ours would be able to withstand the hefty fines which would be enforced as a result of this rule.”}:}:}:}:*

Bob Lynch, testifying on behalf of the Irrigation and Electrical Districts’ Association of Arizona said, “The EPA and the Corps have driven a truck through Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Rapanos. According to them, everything is relevant, everything affects everything, and everything is jurisdictional… How many permits will the Central Arizona Project need? Will it have to treat the water before it stores it in Lake Pleasant? Before it releases it back into its system to deliver to cities, towns, industries and agriculture? And who will be able to afford it? Certainly not agriculture…This may be the biggest jurisdictional overreach that I have witnessed in 50 years of law practice. I hate to say it but the only people who come out ahead on this proposed rule will be lawyers.” More information about that joint field hearing can be found HERE.

Public comments on the proposed rule were accepted until November 2014. The agencies expect to issue a final rule in April 2015, making the Gosar bill both timely and necessary.

The list of 114 cosponsors that supported the Gosar bill and joined him for introduction include: Justin Amash, Mark Amodei, Brad Ashford, Brian Babin, Andy Barr, Dan Benishek, Marsha Blackburn, Rod Blum, Mike Bost, Charles Boustany, Jim Bridenstine, Mo Brooks, Larry Bucshon, Michael Burgess, Bradley Byrne, Doug Collins, Paul Cook, Kevin Cramer, Rick Crawford, Ander Crenshaw, Jeff Denham, Charles Dent, Jeff Duncan, Tom Emmer, Blake Farenthold, John Fleming, Bill Flores, Randy Forbes, Trent Franks, Chris Gibson, Louie Gohmert, Bob Goodlatte, Sam Graves, Morgan Griffith, Glenn Grothman, Crescent Hardy, Gregg Harper, Richard Hanna, Jody Hice, French Hill, Richard Hudson,Tim Huelskamp, Bill Huizenga, Duncan Hunter, Will Hurd, Robert Hurt, Sam Johnson, David Jolly, David Joyce, Alcee Hastings, Mike Kelly, Adam Kinzinger, Robert Latta, Doug LaMalfa, Doug Lamborn, Billy Long, Frank Lucas, Cynthia Lummis, Kenny Marchant, Tom McClintock, David McKinley, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Mark Meadows, Dan Newhouse, Randy Neugebauer, Richard Nugent, Devin Nunes, Pete Olson, Steve Palazzo, Steve Pearce, Scott Perry, Collin Peterson, Robert Pittenger, Ted Poe, Mike Pompeo, Phil Roe, Hal Rogers, Todd Rokita, Tom Rooney, Paul Ryan, Matt Salmon, Aaron Schock, Jim Sensenbrenner, John Shimkus, Mike Simpson, Jason Smith, Chris Stewart, Steve Stivers, Marlin Stutzman, Mac Thornberry, Patrick Tiberi, Scott Tipton, Fred Upton, David Valadao, Tim Walberg, Greg Walden, Randy Weber, Dan Webster, Brad Wenstrup, Bruce Westerman, Lynn Westmoreland, Ed Whitfield, Roger Williams, Steve Womack, Ted Yoho, Don Young, Ryan Zinke, Martha McSally, Walter Jones, Ron DeSantis, Keith Rothfus, Tom Rice, Jason Chaffetz, Glenn Thompson and Tim Murphy.

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paul gosar bak

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Prominent Republicans

Conspiracy Theorists

Trump Lawyers and Allies

Audit Costs

Other Records

Litigation

Gosar speaks at Bunkerville (Dr. Kelli Ward’s Facebook)

Paul Gosar posing with Ron Watkins, the alleged “mastermind” behind QAnon. (Ron Watkins’ Telegram)

Gosar speaks at the second America First Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. (Livestream)

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---

Rep. Paul Gosar Gives Speech At White Nationalist ‘America First’ Conference

After Jan. 6

avowed white nationalist' House Republican torched for tweeting 'despicable' lies about Uvalde shooting

Free Speech For People just filed, on behalf of Arizona voters, lawsuits challenging the candidacies of Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, & Mark Finchem

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Contents

Early life, education and dental career

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

Tenure

Abortion

Gun rights

Immigration

Native Americans

Finance

Attempt to Impeach EPA Administrator

Boycott of Pope Francis

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

References

External links

Following the Money: PACs and Their Effects — Podcast January 23, 2012

Money. Money. And More Money.