wichmann, j rep
<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/robin-vos-strips-vocal-denier-2020-election-outcome-staffer/6591998001/">https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/20/robin-vos-strips-vocal-denier-2020-election-outcome-staffer/6591998001/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx many ish</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Assembly Speaker Robin Vos disciplines GOP lawmaker who is the most vocal denier of 2020 election outcome</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Molly Beck</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, listens to testimony.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">MADISON – The Republican leader of the state Assembly on Thursday placed sanctions on one of his members who has for more than a year falsely claimed former President Trump won the 2020 election in Wisconsin and has proposed legislation to pull back Wisconsin's electoral votes, which is impossible. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Assembly Speaker Robin Vos stripped Rep. Timothy Ramthun of Campbellsport of his only staffer after Ramthun falsely accused Vos of signing a deal with attorneys for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to authorize ballot drop boxes, according to Vos's office. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Vos told reporters Thursday that no one agrees with Ramthun’s claim that Wisconsin can revoke the 10 electoral votes it delivered to President Joe Biden more than a year ago. He said an election review he authorized last summer is aimed at changing how future elections are conducted.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“There are some who believe — there's one who believes — that we somehow have the right (to withdraw electoral votes) even though every lawyer that we have worked with in Wisconsin says we cannot undo the 2020 elections, “ Vos said. “You know, Rep. Ramthun has that belief. That’s his right. But I think that what we're focusing on is not the past. We are looking at the past to learn from it.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Ramthun did not return a phone call from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.</b> </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More:A who's who guide to the Republican review of Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Intra-party tension exposed</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The move underscores the tension between Vos and members of his caucus who do not believe Vos is doing enough to litigate the outcome of the 2020 election, despite the ongoing taxpayer-funded election review Vos authorized in 2021.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>It sparked a backlash from some within a contingent in the Wisconsin Republican base who believe Vos, who is a conservative Republican, is not conservative enough.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More:Wisconsin Republican leader Robin Vos is caught in the middle over the election probe as he faces criticism from the left and right]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Jonathan Wichmman, a political newcomer running for the Republican nomination for governor, called for Vos to resign and called the move to discipline Ramthun "a declaration of war."</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Robin Vos is doing this as a power play to keep every other Assembly rep from going against him," Wichmann said in an interview with Justin Schmidtka, host of the Badger State Resistance Podcast. "We need to clean house."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Jonathan Wichmann, a 2022 candidate for Wisconsin governor</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In response, Vos downplayed the number of people who support Wichmann. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Mr. Wichmann, I think he's probably — what? — at one percent,” Vos told reporters. “He has the right to say whatever he wants, but I will stand with my colleagues. I think I'm in pretty good shape. I think most people appreciate what we're doing and that we need to focus on the future, not on trying to decertify the election and focus on the past.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Assembly Republican leaders released a statement Thursday backing Vos and denouncing Ramthun's theories as misinformation.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>"The word 'misinformation' is too often used in today’s political discourse as a way to completely discount your opponent’s position. However, adhering to the true sense of the word, Rep. Ramthun and his staffer are spreading misinformation," the leaders said.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ramthun proposed a resolution on Tuesday that would <b>"reclaim</b>" the state's 10 Wisconsin electoral votes, which the Legislature's own attorneys has determined to be impossible. In a taped statement, Ramthun also called on the public to demand lawmakers take action on the resolution.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ramthun has released a series of videos taped from his legislative office in the state Capitol detailing theories about the 2020 election and how, in his view, it was incorrectly called for Biden. His staffer Tristan Johannes produced the videos and at times appeared in them. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">More: Wisconsin Republican invokes the QAnon theme as he seeks private funding for an Arizona-style election audit]</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ramthun has long called for lawmakers to move to overturn the election results despite there being no mechanism to do so and has largely been ignored by legislative leaders, with Vos once dismissing it as a "talking point of the far left and far right."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>On Tuesday, Vos also publicly questioned the authority members of his own caucus who lead the Assembly's elections committee. He told reporters that committee chairwoman Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls did not have power to sign a contract with a lawyer who is helping her fight a lawsuit over the Assembly's partisan review of the 2020 election.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, left, and Rep. Janel Brandtjen, right.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“He has no contract with the Legislature,” Vos said of the attorney. “The committee can't sign one. … There's no contract.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Vos last summer hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to review the presidential election at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers on behalf of Assembly Republicans.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Recounts and court rulings found Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Independent reviews have found no signs of widespread voter fraud. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Ramthun has criticized the Gableman review and called on Vos and Assembly leadership to do more but has been rebuffed before. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>When Ramthun issued a similar proposal in November to pull back electoral votes, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke said Ramthun's proposal was not based in law. </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I’ve always encouraged our members to have a full understanding of the law before putting out bills or resolutions," he said in a statement at the time. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contact Molly Beck at molly.beck@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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