| NEWS | ARIZONA’S FACES OF REBELLION A BY ELIAS WEISS AND KRISTEN MOSBRUCKER year ago, today, the world watched events unravel at the U.S. Capitol as if in a stu- por. The images made no sense. The live television images were a por- trait of dissonance. Rioters storming the symbolic cathedral of democracy. Not for- eign invaders. Americans. Even as — and specifically because — lawmakers inside were trying to certify a free, fair election and the peaceful transfer of power in the world’s longest-lasting republic. The rioters shouted rallying cries, be- lieving their act of insurrection was really a deeply patriotic duty. They likened it to Valley Forge and Bunker Hill. The split-screen images on TV were even more bewildering. On one side, U.S. Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona ar- guing that the election that sent him back to office should be nullified by the will of Congress. On the other side, rioters reach- ing the door to the chamber in which he spoke. At that exact moment. The rioters who stormed the U.S. Capi- tol on January 6 last year and Arizona con- servatives in the same building had the same aim: overturn the results of the elec- tion and keep Donald Trump in power. History will record that the attack on democracy that day had deep roots in Ari- zona. What follows is a chronicle of that history, as we know it today. Federal prosecutors have pursued seven Arizonans for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to assault with a deadly weapon. To date, only one has been sentenced. Joe Biden won by 7 million votes and by 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. But for months after the November 2020 election, several outspoken Republicans stoked the fire of hate groups through social media and live speeches claiming widespread fraud, even as court after court rejected those claims. When violence did break out, those same Republicans renounced the riot, at first. Some have since backpedaled. Gosar was in the middle of his speech on the U.S. House floor when the noise of a raucous crowd erupted behind the chamber doors. The mob had arrived. Lawmakers scurried as Gosar was in mid- sentence. Gosar planted seeds of doubt spewing 8 false information like 30,000 “illegal aliens” voting in Arizona to question the integrity of the free and fair election. He falsely testified more than 400,000 mail-in U.S. Department of Justice ballots were changed after votes were cast — either votes for Trump were switched to Biden or Trump’s name was erased. Joe Biden won the election in Arizona by 10,500 votes. Courts and a series of au- dits reconfirmed the outcome. On January 5, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled to dismiss a lawsuit challeng- ing the presidential election. All eight law- suits filed by conservative backers challenging the election integrity failed in court. Even the Republican-funded audit of Arizona’s votes in Maricopa County found that Biden won and no fraud was found. Ar- izona lawsuits related to the claim that bal- lot workers were changing votes were dismissed in Maricopa County’s Arizona Superior Court in mid-November 2020. “Winning the megamillions lottery is more probable,” Gosar said about the chances of accurate election results. He was rehashing a claim made by one of the five dozen failed lawsuits challeng- ing the election, which Trump’s own offi- cials testified were the safest and most secure in history. In this case, brought before the U.S. Supreme Court by Texas At- torney General Ken Paxton, Trump allies made the baseless claim that he had a one in four quadrillion chance of losing Geor- gia after pulling ahead earlier in the count- ing. The odds that he lost four such states were longer than winning the Powerball jackpot every day for a week, by that logic. The Supreme Court refused to hear the meritless claim. Two of Arizona’s Republican delegates to Congress joined in an amicus brief sup- porting the case: U.S. Representatives Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko. Arizona At- torney General Mark Brnovich chose not to join 17 Republican attorneys general in Tucson resident James Burton McGrew fights Capitol Police. support of the case. The same day he echoed that claim, Go- sar pushed Biden to concede the election — pumping the Stop the Steal hashtag. “I want his concession on my desk to- morrow morning. Don’t make me come over there,” Gosar wrote. Even after the rioters were removed and people died, Gosar simply plowed through his remarks seemingly unfazed by the at- tack on democracy. He, Biggs, and Lesko all voted to reject the certified Electoral College results of Arizona’s election. U.S. Representative David Schweikert was the only Republi- can in Arizona’s delegation to accept the outcome. In total, 121 Republicans voted to nullify Arizona’s vote — 57 percent of all of the House GOP members. No Democrat did. The effort to thwart Arizona voters failed 303 to 122. Not Your Average Protest At least 10 Arizona residents trekked to Washington, D.C., seeking to “Stop the Steal” of the presidential election to keep Trump in the Oval Office and got busted. More than 700 violent protesters — many belonging to extremist groups — were key in the failed coup to re-elect Trump. Jacob Anthony Chansley, the Phoenix man also known as Jake Angeli, was one of the most recognizable faces of the riot. Known as the QAnon Shaman, Chansley was a regular protester in Phoenix who brought his antics to the January 6 insur- rection. Arizona protesters and right-wing politicians played starring roles during the U.S. Capitol riot. He shouted wartime slogans into a bull- horn and led the pack of the first 30 people inside the U.S. Senate chamber. Chansley stood out. He wore fur, face- paint, and a helmet with horns, posing as a prophet of sorts in the fringe movement. Believers in the QAnon conspiracy theories were convinced that the nation would be controlled by a cabal of Satanic pedophiles if Trump was removed from office. Chansley told the FBI he was a member of the Arizona Patriots, a conservative anti- immigrant hate group, court records show. He made the pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., alongside other Arizona Patriots, be- cause Trump beckoned “all patriots” to gather in the nation’s capital. He scrawled an ominous note for then- vice president Mike Pence “It’s Only A Matter Of Time. Justice Is Coming!” left at his podium, court records show. Pence was swiftly evacuated from the Senate chamber when the rioters infiltrated the building. Chansley pleaded guilty to a litany of felony charges, including violent entry into a federal building, civil disorder, and obstruction of official proceedings. He’s now serving a 41-month stint in federal prison followed by 36 months of super- vised probation. He’s also on the hook for $2,000 in re- pairs out of $1.4 million in damages to the U.S. Capitol. Peddling Distrust Weeks before the riot, Biggs revved up a crowd of conservatives during a rally to “Stop the Socialist Takeover” stumping for his fellow Republicans in Georgia. “If you sit on your butt at home, it doesn’t make a bit of difference,” Biggs said, pushing residents to vote. Failure wasn’t an option during the presidential election, he said. “Future elections won’t know what freedom is if we lose this election. That’s the bottom line,” Biggs said. On January 6, Biggs claimed that more than 32,000 voters registered in Maricopa County after the regular voting deadline. A judge imposed a new extended deadline after a lawsuit was filed. The whole pro- cess was rife with fraud, he claimed. “In Arizona, the people who control the evidence related to the election have done everything possible to prevent an indepen- dent audit,” Biggs said on the U.S. House floor on January 6. The Arizona lawsuit seeking to decer- tify the state’s election results was dis- missed in U.S. District Court by early December 2020. His colleague, Lesko, urged >>p 11 JAN 6TH– JAN 12TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
