Table Of Content
- April 12, 2023: Ethics committee concludes Rep. Liz Harris broke Arizona House rules
- Arizona House expels GOP lawmaker who presented unproven accusations
- Arizona House votes to expel Rep. Liz Harris
- Both Black Tennessee lawmakers have been reinstated after being expelled by GOP
- Mexican officials regret US decision not to retry American rancher in fatal shooting of Mexican
- State House Speaker: Expulsion was necessary
The move leaves the southeast Valley’s District 13 seat vacant and trims the Republican advantage in the House to until it is filled. Ballotpedia features 486,894 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. In one of the text messages, Breger told Harris she was “trying to think of something that won’t raise a red flag” when naming her presentation, a sign that Harris knew of the extreme allegations the presenter would bring up.
April 12, 2023: Ethics committee concludes Rep. Liz Harris broke Arizona House rules
Then, the Emancipation Proclamation with the order for the army to protect escaped slaves was a historical game changer. President Lincoln (for security and peace of mind) had special housing a few miles away from the White House during the Civil War that I was blessed with the opportunity to visit The Lincoln Cottage during one of my last visits to Washington, DC. His final visit to the Lincoln Cottage was reported to be the day before his assassination on April 14, 1865.
Arizona House expels GOP lawmaker who presented unproven accusations
Lawmakers had accused Ms. Harris of making a mockery of Arizona’s Legislature by inviting Jacqueline Breger, a Scottsdale, Ariz., insurance agent and conspiracy theorist, to testify during a February hearing about election oversight. But a video of her testimony in front of election committees exploded on the internet in the days following the hearing. The woman, Gilbert, Ariz., insurance agent Jacqueline Breger, also claimed during the February hearing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "controls" the government and played a key role in money laundering schemes. The committee earlier determined this legislative session that former Democratic Rep. Leezah Sun engaged in disorderly behavior after she threatened a lobbyist with the city of Tolleson, leading to her resignation. Republicans argued in their complaint that the shouting and use of insulting language towards Republicans is enough to be considered disorderly behavior.
Arizona House votes to expel Rep. Liz Harris
Willoughby, the chief nursing officer at Exceptional Community Hospital in the city of Maricopa, ran with Harris as a team in last year's election. Jennifer Pawlik, D-Chandler, won the other House seat with more votes than either Harris or Willoughby. When a member of the Legislature vacates his or her office before their two-year term is up — whether by expulsion, resignation or death — Arizona law calls for a replacement by someone from the same party. "The voters of her district knew what they were electing," Kolodin said.
Both Black Tennessee lawmakers have been reinstated after being expelled by GOP
On Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee determined that Ms. Harris had violated legislative rules by inviting a witness to present false testimony. In addition to the bribery accusation, the witness also claimed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had control over state agencies. "Each member could make up their own mind on whether or not Rep. Harris did, in fact, not only perpetrate this to begin with, but then contradict herself numerous times during the ethics hearing process," said Toma, one of the 46 lawmakers who voted to expel Harris.
Arizona House Republicans Expel One of Their Own
Republican election denier expelled from Arizona house - The Guardian US
Republican election denier expelled from Arizona house.
Posted: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Gilbert insurance agent Jacqueline Breger also claimed during the February hearing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints “controls” the government and played a key role in money laundering schemes. A bipartisan, two-thirds majority of the House voted Wednesday to kick out Harris, an election-denying freshman lawmaker from Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. PHOENIX - The Arizona House has voted to expel Republican state lawmaker Liz Harris.
Mexican officials regret US decision not to retry American rancher in fatal shooting of Mexican
Harris’ actions violated House Rule No. 1, which prohibits members from engaging in disorderly behavior, according to the ethics panel, which further concluded that Harris had damaged the institutional integrity of the House. And the panel said even if they believed that Harris did not know of her testimony ahead of time — a contention they rejected — she did nothing during the hearing to stop the nearly 45-minute presentation. Harris had invited Breger, a Scottsdale insurance agent, to speak during a hearing on elections.
The county’s Board of Supervisors instead selected Republican Julie Willoughby to replace her, despite Republican precinct committee members in her legislative district giving Harris the most votes. At the Feb. 23 hearing, Breger claimed that “bribes and infiltration have been used to affect the outcome” of the 2020 and 2022 elections, and she pointed the finger at state officials such as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, according to the ethics committee report. The House ethics panel launched an investigation into Harris, prompted by a complaint from a Democratic legislator, after she invited insurance agent Jacqueline Breger to promote a series of unfounded allegations at a televised legislative hearing on elections.
Harris represented one of the most competitive legislative districts in the state in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. Both parties had been anticipating she would face a difficult reelection campaign next year. Critics described Ms. Breger’s more than 40-minute presentation as a publicity stunt and said that Ms. Harris knew ahead of time that it would be laden with wild and baseless conspiracy theories.
The lawmaker’s ouster came a day after the House Ethics Committee determined Harris had engaged in “disorderly behavior” in violation of the chamber’s rules. The highlight was a Scottsdale insurance agent who slimed dozens of public officials and private citizens, making preposterous, evidence-free accusations that they all accepted bribes from the Sinaloa drug cartel. Breger in February spoke at a public hearing in front of lawmakers when she, without evidence, accused numerous Republican and Democratic public officials of laundering money for the Sinaloa Drug Cartel through the use of fraudulent mortgage documents. She also accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of being "integral to the laundering activities." During her Feb. 23 presentation at a hearing organized by Harris, Jaqueline Breger accused a swath of politicians from both parties, judges and public officials of taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.
An independent report released on Monday found that heavy paper and longer ballots contributed to those problems. Representative Liz Harris, an election denier who has expressed support for QAnon and has aligned herself with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who has pushed election conspiracy theories, was overwhelmingly removed from office by her colleagues. The expulsion resolution said that Harris “undermined the public’s confidence in this institution and violated the order and decorum necessary to complete the people’s work in the state of Arizona”.
The fact that they were presented before Republican lawmakers in their official capacity at the state Capitol — Democrats on the committees boycotted the hearing — gave the accusations enough credibility to spread. Legislative District 13 precinct committee members nominated Liz Harris, Julie Willoughby and Steve Steele in two rounds of voting at their meeting April 17. But she likely would have little chance of winning the approval of the supervisors and Sellers, a harsh critic of the state Senate's partisan audit of the 2020 election who called the effort in 2021 an "adventure in never-never land." The secretary of state will "immediately" notify the chair of the appropriate party, which in this case would be GOP Party Chair Jeff DeWit.
Her removal came less than a week after Tennessee Republicans voted to expel two Black Democrats, a decision that made that state a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy. There are many people I look up to, but I would have to say that President Abraham Lincoln is at the top of the list. Up until recent events, President Lincoln led this country through its toughest times. He was born into poverty, he self-educated himself, and despite all odds against him he eventually became one of the most memorable Presidents of the United States. His famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, became such a historic event that often it is part of today's 5th grade curriculum to be memorized! The themes of that speech hold true value to me - equal rights, liberty, nationalism, republicanism and democracy.
On April 12, 2023, Harris was expelled from the Republican-controlled legislature for inviting a speaker who promulgated conspiracy theories before a joint hearing of the House and Senate elections committees. PHOENIX – The Arizona House voted to expel Republican Rep. Liz Harris on Wednesday for letting a witness make wide-ranging accusations of bribery during a February hearing about election reforms. Arizona Republican lawmakers have given wide leeway for people claiming to be election experts to share unsubstantiated or disproven claims in hearings at the Capitol. But GOP legislative leaders raced to distance themselves from Breger’s claims and pin blame on Harris.
Arizona’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives took the rare step on Wednesday of expelling a G.O.P. lawmaker who earlier this year had arranged testimony from a conspiracy theorist falsely accusing top state officials of bribery and other misconduct. The joint elections hearing came after Harris voted against a Republican-led budget plan, and Republican leaders allowed the hearing as a way to get Harris to change her vote on the budget. "Harris engaged in disorderly behavior in violation of House Rule 1, thereby eroding the public trust in the legislative process," the resolution calling for her expulsion read. The committee also determined in 2023 that Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, violated the same House rule for hiding Bibles. Former Republican Rep. Liz Harris was found to have violated that rule after she allowed conspiracy testimony to be delivered from a guest speaker during a legislative committee meeting. In full, the ethics panel concluded Harris’ actions violated House Rules and damaged the body’s institutional integrity.
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