So by now you all know who Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate and Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R. AZ) is, right? He’s this doofus:
When he’s not peddling Trump’s Big Lie and trying to push bull shit election audits, he’s spouting some other crazy nonsense. Like this:
Conservative fearmongering over the Justice Department’s bid to monitor threats to teachers and school officials got kicked up another level on Fox News Monday.
Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, appearing on “The Faulkner Focus,” envisioned it ending with parents who speak out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates or the teaching of critical race theory being sent to Guantanamo Bay.
Host Harris Faulkner did nothing to dampen Brnovich’s hyperbolic prediction, instead just agreeing it was “outrageous.”
“Could that really happen?” Faulkner asked Brnovich.
“We are living in a time where we need to make sure that we are protecting our constitutional rights on every single level,” Brnovich responded.
Here’s a little more info:
In early October, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing federal law enforcement to assist localities in dealing with a rash of violent threats directed at school officials stemming from the uproar over mask mandates and critical race theory. The memo was inspired in part by a plea from the National School Boards Association for the Biden administration do something about the increase in “physical threats” toward school officials. The NSBA described some of the threats as “domestic terrorism” in their letter. They later apologized for the letter’s language, but Garland stood by his memo.
“The only thing that Justice Department is concerned about violence and threats of violence,” Garland said in defending the memo last week at a hearing in which several Republican senators were practically frothing at the mouth to defend the rights of parents who want to violently threaten school officials.
So to recap: The situation went from schools trying to protect the health of their students and faculty by requiring masks, to parents threatening the lives of school officials over these mandates, to it getting so bad that the National School Boards Association described the threats as “domestic terrorism” in a letter to Biden, to a fringe Republican like Brnovich equating “terrorism” to “Guantanamo Bay,” to Fox News inviting him on the air, to countless of Americans now believing the Biden administration is going to send parents to an island to be tortured because they said something at a school board meeting.
If you’re an Arizona resident, you should be pissed that your tax dollars are paying this idiot to campaign:
He is now, in his effort to become the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, both fearful of Donald Trump’s wrath and solicitous of Donald Trump’s approval.
So much so, that he seems to have given himself up entirely to wooing the former president, and using the powers of his job to do so. This means, essentially, that instead of paying Brnovich to be the state’s attorney general you are paying him to run for the Senate.
There was a time, shortly after last November’s election, when Brnovich still acted like the AG.
He defended the integrity of Arizona’s election, saying things like, “There is no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.” And, “We were able to determine that did not affect anyone’s vote. They also did a random audit of 2% of the precincts, and it came back 100% that there wasn’t any statistical anomalies or errors.”
Trump, who continues spouting unfounded lies about election fraud, did not like that, calling the election a “massive crime” and saying in May, “Arizona was a big part and Brnovich must put himself in gear, or no Arizona Republican will vote for him in the upcoming elections. They will never forget, and neither will the great Patriots of our Nation!”
And he’s still pushing his Big Lie themed investigation:
Former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said Monday he was questioned by investigators from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office about the 2020 election.
The questioning of Fontes, a Democrat who oversaw mail-in balloting last year but lost his own re-election bid, suggests Brnovich is pressing ahead with his pledge to review the findings of the state Senate Republicans' partisan review of the 2020 election. That review, led and almost entirely funded by supporters of former President Donald Trump, confirmed President Joe Biden's victory in Maricopa County but spread falsehoods about alleged malfeasance.
Brnovich is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate but could be weighed down by sharp criticism from Trump, who retains considerable sway with the GOP base. Trump repeatedly attacked Brnovich earlier this year as “lackluster,” claiming the attorney general wasn't doing enough to advance the false claim that Trump's loss in Arizona was the result of fraud.
Fontes, who is running in a contested Democratic primary for secretary of state, said he spoke for about an hour Monday morning with two special agents from Brnovich's office. He said the discussion was “professional and collegial,” but he said the agents did not seem to know much about election systems.
“If they were trying to build an actual case, they would’ve been prepared before they asked me any questions,” Fontes told The Associated Press. “This is nothing more than political box-checking and an abuse of power by a desperate Republican Senate nominee.”
Fontes said the agents asked “about the archiving of data to the server” but did not disclose other specific lines of inquiry.
Brnovich's office declined to comment.
Trumpism has gotten dangerously out of hand in Arizona:
Election officials told a congressional committee Tuesday they’ve received graphic threats to their safety since the 2020 election and warned that pressure on election workers is a threat to democracy.
Experienced election administrators are increasingly leaving the field as they face unsupported accusations of manipulating election results, a bipartisan group of state election officials told the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.
"It’s not worth it any more for these not-very-high-paying jobs, combined with the level of threat they’re experiencing at the moment," Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who is running for governor, said.
Hobbs has at times had round-the-clock security due to threats from supporters of former President Donald Trump who falsely claim that his loss in Arizona was marred by fraud. She described threatening phone calls to her office and said critics tried to get her husband fired from his job.
"Continued inaction, in the face of threats to undermine our democracy, will have long-term consequences for the future of our country," Hobbs said.
Also, just received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Mark Kelly’s (D. AZ) re-election campaign:
In the 21st century, drought, heatwaves, and wildfires will be some of the biggest challenges in Arizona. This year alone, our state experienced the worst wildfire season in history — with more than 500,000 acres burned.
Each year, these fires grow larger and more threatening, putting our communities, small businesses, and first responders in harm’s way.
It’s critical we invest in wildfire prevention and improve our ability to combat these fires.
It’s critical we increase firefighter pay and the resources available to those responding to wildfires across the state.
It’s critical we invest in wildfire mitigation and recovery efforts, because these fires have long-term effects like flooding and burn scars.
And it’s critical we modernize our wildland fire policy to get better at wildfire prevention and management.
I’ve introduced a bipartisan bill to bring together local and federal leaders to study and improve how we prevent and fight wildfires.
It could use your support:
Sign my petition: Tell Congress to pass my bipartisan wildfire prevention and preparedness bill to address the increasing threat of wildfires in Arizona and across the country.
Thank you for making your voice heard.
Mark Kelly
Click here to add your name.
Democracy and Health are on the ballot next year and we need to get ready to keep Arizona Blue. Click below to donate and get involved with U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D. AZ) and his fellow Arizona Democrats campaigns: