Republican Rusty Bowers will be going up against David Farnsworth (R), whom Donald Trump endorsed on August 2. The Arizona state Senate candidate became a familiar face after he testified against the ex-president on a televised House January 6 Select Committee hearing. Remaining true to his patriotic values, he continued to face down the ex-president in the aftermath.
Since the previous resident of the White House let loose such language, people have called him not “patriot” but “traitor.” And copying their leader, they have threatened “the price of treason is hanging,” he said in an ABC News exclusive, host Jonathan Karl.
That brings back the chilling photograph of a scaffold with a noose in front of our Capitol Building swarming with insurrectionists. Bowers has continually dealt with harassment and threats:
‘I’ve had people walk up and say, you know, just cold turkey, “I’m ashamed of you.”‘
When he testified and was leaving the hearing a journalist asked him whether he would vote for Trump again and reported that Bowers said “yes.” However, the Arizona candidate argued against that article:
‘My vote will never tarnish his (Trump’s) name on a ballot.’
Karl asked the question again. And Bowers said:
‘I’ll never vote for him. But I won’t have to, because I think America’s tired. And there’s absolutely forceful, qualified, morally, defensible, and upright people. And that’s what I want. That’s what I want in my party. And that’s what I want to see.’
He told the committee about a couple of times he spoke to the ex-president and his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Although President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election by nearly 11,000 votes, they wanted him to trade Arizona’s electors with fake ones:
‘I said, this is new to me. The idea of throwing out the election of the president is like, okay, so what part of Jupiter do I get to land on and colonize?’
Karl asked whether Giuliani provided evidence proving his claims of “thousands and dead people” voting. Bowers replied “never:”
‘You asked [Giuliani] for evidence of fraud?’
The candidate said:
‘Over and over, and he said, “yes, yes.” And he never gave us anything. No names, no data, nothing.’
Donald Trump said at a recent rally:
‘Rusty Bowers, he’s a RINO [Republican in name only] coward who participated against the Republican party in the totally partisan unselect committee of political thugs and hacks the other day, and disgraced himself, and he disgraced the state of Arizona.’
Bowers knew it would take “a miracle” for him to win this race:
‘I have thought at times, someone born how he was, raised how he was — he has no idea what a hard life is, and what people have to go through in the real world. He has no idea what courage is, and the last place on Earth that I would want to do evil would be the state of Arizona.’
Then, Karl asked him:
‘How do you explain the hold that he has, though, on, on Republicans, including a lot of Republican leaders right here in Arizona?’
Bowers responded:
‘Well, those leaders in Arizona are an interesting group in and of themselves. They rule by thuggery and intimidation. So, you know, they, they found a niche, they found a way and it’s fear. And people can use fear, demagogues like to use fears as a weapon. And they weaponize everything. That’s not leadership to me to use thuggery.’
He quoted the Select Committee’s Vice-Chair Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) when she voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 failed coup. She was only one of 10 Republicans to do so. Bowers said:
‘Liz also said that “the reality that we face today as Republicans is we have to choose to be loyal to Donald Trump, or to be loyal to the Constitution.” And you can’t be both.’
‘I don’t see a question at all there. No question. The Constitution was designed to last and be the light of freedom to the whole world. That’s not a legacy that I would want to play with. I have nothing to hide and I want to tell the truth.’
As the BBC wrote, “What’s next for Rusty Bowers?” August 2 should be a very interesting day for Arizona and a number of other states.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
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