Arizona Senate Censures Member Over Controversial Comments, Threats

Editors’ Note:  We know Senator Rogers is quite passionate about election integrity, a project we support. We also know that the terms racist, white nationalist, and domestic terrorist are also thrown about with abandon. It seems that anyone who opposes the Left is a racist/white nationalist.  The lopsided vote in favor of censure itself is revealing (23 to 4, 3 not voting), disconcerting, and disappointing. If we in the liberty movement are to convince others of our position (and since we lost that should be our primary concern), we must be careful and precise with our language. Just because the other side of the political spectrum gets away with extreme statements, is no excuse for those on our side to behave similarly. We need to be the adults in the room. Moreover, knowing that most of the press, entertainment, academia, and big business is hostile to our views means we must be doubly careful with rhetoric just from a practical political point of view. They will always use poorly crafted statements against us.  Passions are running high and Senator Rogers sometimes uses language to get a rise out of her opponents.   It is doubtful that is the best strategy to advance liberty or to advance her career.  Her use of religion, near the close, is also too narrow and inappropriate. We treat readers of Prickly Pear as adults.  To be fair to her, Click here to hear her comments and listen particularly to the ending, and judge for yourself if you believe they crossed the line.  Regrettably, we think they did.  For the record, Prickly Pear was founded by two Jews, an Evangelical Christian, a Roman Catholic and a Buddhist.

 

The Arizona state Senate has admonished publicly a Republican member of its chamber for comments she maintains as her right to free speech but other lawmakers call dangerously inflammatory.

Lawmakers voted, 24-3, on Tuesday to censure Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff.

“Whereas the senator from Legislative District 6 has engaged in conduct unbecoming of a senator, including publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messages encouraging violence against and punishment of American citizens, and making threatening statements declaring ‘political destruction’ of those who disagree with her views, the senator from District 6 has damaged the reputation of the Arizona State Senate by her actions,” Republican Majority Leader Rick Gray, R-Sun City, said.

Rogers spoke against the measure before others, calling the chamber “corrupt” and claiming the measure was an attempt to stifle her First Amendment rights.

“Freedom of speech is one of the most precious rights we have under heaven,” she said. “This censure is nothing more than an attempt to limit my speech. I represent hundreds of thousands of people. The majority of them are with me and want me to be their voice. … I do not apologize. I will not back down, and I am sorely disappointed in the leadership of this body for colluding with Democrats to destroy my reputation.”

A conservative Republican and steadfast ally of former President Donald Trump, Rogers drew criticism for attending the America First Political Action Conference, which has been described by many news outlets as a white-nationalist event. At the conference, Rogers reportedly told members the organization’s traitors should be hanged from a “newly-built set of gallows.”

Rogers also has taken the unpopular opinion of criticizing Ukraine in its fight against an invading Russian army, praising Vladimir Putin and criticizing the European Union’s support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She described the EU in one tweet as “New World Order tyranny and Germany’s attempt to rebuild the Third Reich.”

After learning of a potential censure, she threatened to retaliate against her fellow Republicans.

“I will personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me simply because of the color of my skin or opinion about a war I don’t want to send our kids to die in,” she tweeted, also referring to the censure as “throwing the sweet grandma under the bus for being white.”

Democrats uniformly voted in favor of the censure.

“When somebody shows you who they are, believe them,” Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Rios said. “I believe (Rogers) has proudly shown us who she is. It’s not a sweet grandmother. It’s someone who has gleefully called white nationalists ‘patriots,’ called for hanging political enemies, called Zelenskyy a ‘globalist puppet’ for (George) Soros and the Clintons. The list goes on and on.”

Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, spoke on the matter.

“This certainly is not something I wanted to do,” she said. “We do support the First Amendment, freedom of speech … but what we do not condone is members threatening each other, to ruin each other, to incite violence, to call us communists. We don’t do that to each other. … We as elected officials are held to a higher standard.”

The censure carries no real punishment for Rogers, something Democrats lamented. As part of a thin majority in the chamber, Rogers could single-handedly block Republican bills that fall along party-line votes.

After the vote, Gov. Doug Ducey called the measure “a clear message” in a release.

“Anti-Semitic and hateful language has no place in Arizona. I have categorically condemned it in the past and condemn it now. I strongly believe our public policy debates should be about creating opportunity for all and making our state a better place, not denigrating and insulting any individual or group,” he said. “I believe the vote taken today by the Arizona Senate sends a clear message: rhetoric like this is unacceptable.

“These are incredibly divided times, but picking a side in the fight to protect western democracy is an easy call. It’s Putin versus freedom. I will always side with freedom. I believe any statement supporting Russia’s actions in Ukraine is not only ill-advised but wrong and dangerous.”

*****

This article was published by The Center Square and is reproduced with permission.