Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) said that the January 6, 2021 footage in its entirety was “embarrassing” for mainstream media and the Democrat-led January 6 Committee.
Key discoveries in the newly-released footage provided substantiation to claims that police officers didn’t treat activists who intruded the Capitol as criminals on that fateful day. In numerous videos, Capitol Police Officers were seen giving handshakes and fist bumps to the intruders, uncuffing intruders, leading intruders through the building, and holding doors open for the intruders.
“Quite embarrassing for the MSM and J6 Committee,” said Biggs. “How anyone could compare this day to 9/11 or the Attack on Pearl Harbor is beyond me. Shameful.”
Quite embarrassing for the MSM and J6 Committee.
How anyone could compare this day to 9/11 or the Attack on Pearl Harbor is beyond me.
Comparisons of the January 6 rioting to major terrorist attacks has been common rhetoric among Democratic leaders.
In Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress in April 2021, he declared that January’s incident was the worst attack since the Civil War.
“[I] inherited a nation — we all did — that was in crisis,” said Biden. “The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Vice President Kamala Harris compared January 6 to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor during her speech last January commemorating the Capitol riot. Harris accused the January 6 activists of attempted murder in addition to insurrection.
“Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault, dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars but a place in our collective memory,” said Harris. “What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not only the lives of those elected leaders, what they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is, what they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend.”
That same day, Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also declared in a Senate floor speech that January 6 was comparable to Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
“We did not look away after the attack on Pearl Harbor. We did not look away after the attacks on 9/11,” said Schumer. “They may have been from foreign powers, but we still, just because it was Americans who did this, we cannot look away after the attack of January 6th.”
Last December, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued similar remarks in defense of the January 6 Committee actions against Republican leaders, including Biggs.
“What we saw on January 6 was the worst attack on democracy since the Civil War,” said Jean-Pierre.
Karine Jean-Pierre says January 6 was the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War. pic.twitter.com/9uz8HP7sNU
Part of what Jean-Pierre defended was the ethics probe into Biggs after he refused to comply with their subpoena.
Last Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) released all January 6 footage in its entirety. All footage may be accessed here.
Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself.
To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.
Earlier this month, Arizona’s schools chief took a stand against antisemitic and anti-American materials at state schools.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne held a press conference to “denounce antisemitic and anti-American materials provided by UNICEF and Amnesty International at a high school club event that made Jewish students feel unsafe.”
The reason for Horne’s press conference, according to the release from the Arizona Department of Education, was due to tips from “several community members who had learned of antisemitic and anti-American materials being presented at a lunchtime club sponsored by those organizations…at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale.”
Horne minced no words in alerting the public to the dangers to students by the presence of these materials at this school – or any school in the state, saying, “The materials presented to these students were profoundly antisemitic in particular and anti-American , in nature. Some of the material states that ‘Palestinians have been subject to killings, torture, rape, abuse, and more for over 75 years.’ This is a ‘blood libel’ similar to the blood libels used in the Middle Ages to get people to go out and kill random Jewish people.”
The Republican superintendent pointed out the failure of these materials to document the truth of the horrific attacks in southern Israel on October 7. He said, “In none of this propaganda is there any reference to what happened on October 7. The fact that 1,400 civilians were murdered does not begin to describe to horror of what Hamas did. They went house to house in the neighborhoods, machine gunning entire families, and sometimes killing fathers in front of their children and children in front of their fathers. They copied the Nazi technique of setting fire to houses so that people would burn to death, or if they came out of the fire house, killed them upon their exit. The actions of Hamas are a repetition of what happened during World War II. Yet the materials make no mention of October 7.”
Horne shared an email he had sent to each district superintendent across the state, asking that their schools refrain from inviting UNICEF and Amnesty International and soliciting any materials from these two groups to campuses. The schools chief warned that “giving aid and comfort to terrorists is contrary to US law,” and that the groups and their literature “generate antisemitism among impressionable young people.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Mohave County officials backed down from a proposed policy to hand count all future ballots after Attorney General Kris Mayes threatened criminal charges.
The Mohave County Board of Supervisors convened on Monday to discuss whether they would hand-count all ballots for the 2024 election and beyond; the board declined the policy in a divided vote. Mayes congratulated the board for heeding her threat.
“I am greatly relieved and commend the Mohave County Board of Supervisors for their decision not to authorize a hand count of all ballots for the 2024 election, upholding Arizona law,” said Mayes. “The Board’s decision to adhere to state-mandated procedures for ballot counting avoids potential legal complications and reinforces public trust in the integrity of our elections.”
I am greatly relieved and commend the Mohave County Board of Supervisors for their decision not to authorize a hand count of all ballots for the 2024 election, upholding Arizona law. As Attorney General, it is my duty to enforce our laws and ensure the integrity of our elections.
During the meeting, State Sen. Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R-LD30) said that the county could count on an amicus brief from the House and Senate should the county vote for hand counting ballots and face criminal prosecution.
Supervisor Hildy Angius clarified that hand counting wasn’t as “easy-peasy” as sitting down and physically tabulating the ballot. Angius agreed that problems continue to plague Arizona’s elections, namely calling out mail-in ballots.
Supervisor Ron Gould challenged the notion that no election problems could exist in their county because the law doesn’t allow supervisors access to the voting logs. As a challenge to the strength of voting machines, Gould said that when he served as a state senator in 2005, voting machines in the Republican state representative primary were found to be severely defunct — out of calibration by as much as 18 percent — after a recount flipped the race by 250 votes.
“My biggest concern here today is that folks are losing faith in elections; they don’t think their vote counts,” said Gould. “So much for the infallibility of voting machines.”
Borrelli suggested that Mohave County count ballots through hand counts at the precinct level, then through tabulators at the county level prior to certification. However, Deputy County Attorney Ryan Esplin said that couldn’t be done in light of Mayes’ letter and their own legal analysis. Esplin advised that the board err on the side of caution by adhering strictly to what statute allowed. The county attorney noted that ARS § 16-443 and 16-445 necessarily implied that hand counts could be used, but that 16-622 and 16-602 undermined that argument. Both of those latter statutes were cited by Mayes in her Sunday letter.
“It has to be spelled out in statute, or necessarily implied: that’s the legal standard. There is no statute that specifically authorizes a hand count, and that’s why we say we do not believe you can do a hand count, because there’s no statute that authorizes it,” said Esplin. “Take the safe route: use the machines, because we know those are legal, we know the law, the law says very clear, ‘This is what we do.’”
Supervisors Gould and Angius voted for hand counting ballots; Supervisors Buster Johnson, Jean Bishop, and Travis Lingenfelter voted against.
Mayes sent a letter to the Mohave County supervisors on Sunday that she would file criminal charges against them should they vote to hand count all ballots for the 2024 election and beyond. The attorney general said that the hand count method was not only too slow and less accurate, it also wasn’t permitted by statute. Mayes cited A.R.S. § 16-449, 16-468, 16-602, 16-621, and 16-622.
Mayes also expressed concern that the board was influenced by “bad-faith actors” aiming to sow doubt and undermine Arizona elections.
NEW: AG Kris Mayes sends letter to Mohave County supervisors ahead of today's vote to hand-count ballots.
"We hope you will choose not to violate the law and thus that it will not be necessary for us to consider whether criminal prosecution is warranted"https://t.co/49Whuh7Dq9pic.twitter.com/8c0o0jPSpJ
In a viral response to Mayes’ statement on Monday, conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley criticized Mayes as “an illegitimate attorney general” that benefited from election fraud.
“Yeah forcing ballots into the same machines that shut down on election day in Maricopa is one hell of a way to ‘reinforce public trust,’” said O’Handley.
Yeah forcing ballots into the same machines that shut down on election day in Maricopa is one hell of a way to “reinforce public trust”
You are an illegitimate Attorney General making sure nobody fixes the election fraud you beneffited from
Last week, Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced that his office would be issuing a $10 million grant “for public schools to purchase art supplies.”
Superintendent Horne is proud to announce a $10 million grant. The funding will provide successful district and charter school applicants with $1,000 per full-time art teacher to purchase art consumables. #EducationForAllhttps://t.co/Wgk1anEQfb
The Art Consumable Grant, according to the Arizona Department of Education’s release, will deliver funds to “successful district and charter school applicants…to purchase arts consumables such as paints, brushes, sheet music, dance props, theatrical costumes, and much more.” Selected schools will receive $1,000 for every full-time arts teacher.
In a statement that accompanied the announcement, Superintendent Horne said, “I am a passionate supporter of arts education; it is an essential part of any successful school. There are studies that show learning how to play stringed instruments helps students do better in math, so there are both aesthetic and academic benefits to arts education. I am pleased to encourage schools to apply for these funds to support arts education throughout Arizona.”
The Department encouraged Arizona district and charter schools to apply for the Art Consumable Grant. Schools have until December 31, 2023 to submit their applications for these funds.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) is advocating to pass a ban on kill switches in personal vehicles.
Kill switches allow for the remote shutdown of a vehicle. There are variants of the technology all dedicated to the preventing or limiting vehicle operation: fuel line shutoff valves, battery disconnect switches, remote car battery switches, ignition wire switches, and fuse box switches.
In an interview with Newsmax over the weekend, Biggs said that the promise of safety against drunk driving under a kill switch belied the alleged motive of greater governmental control.
“Think about this: there’s already black boxes in your cars. We know that abuse of FISA — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — against American citizens, we’ve seen the weaponization of government,” said Biggs. “And, ostensibly, this is to stop drunk drivers, supposedly. But this car’s going to be able to monitor the alcohol content of a driver, but they can kill it [the car] at any time because it’s a passive surveillance technique.”
Biggs speculated that kill switches in cars could be appropriated for other purposes, such as government-declared emergencies like the ones enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, let’s say you have another COVID outbreak. Let’s say they determine that you haven’t been vaccinated,” said Biggs. “Can they then go ahead and kill switch your car? It’s a control thing.”
We should push back on any type of vehicle "kill switch."
This proposal by our government aims to assert more control over the American people.
Biggs’ remarks followed continued controversy over the kill switch provision in President Joe Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Section 24220, “Advanced Impaired Driving Technology,” requires that drunk and impaired driving prevention technology become standard in all new vehicles. The section defines that technology as that which can passively monitor the driver’s performance to determine impairment and then prevent or limit any driving of the vehicle. Additionally, the technology would be able to passively detect whether the blood alcohol content of a driver, and prevent or limit any driving of the vehicle if the driver’s blood alcohol content is higher than the legal limit.
Passive detection includes technology that measures blood alcohol content while the driver breathes or touches certain parts of the car.
For breath-based passive detection, sensors are typically installed in the driver’s side door or in the steering column, and infrared light sweeps the breath for alcohol molecules. Companies maintain that their passive detection technologies are capable of distinguishing between driver and passenger breath.
For touch-based passive detection, tissue spectroscopy sensors on areas like the ignition button shine infrared light to measure blood alcohol content.
Biden’s bill directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop policy fulfilling the directives of Section 24220 within three years. After that, automakers would have up to three years to adhere to the new standards. Under that timeline, kill switches could be standard in new vehicles by 2026.
On Monday, Biggs and 32 other members of Congress — including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) — signed onto a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressing concern about the potential surveillance abuses from the forthcoming technology.
“The potential to misuse this technology to surveil American citizens without a warrant poses a threat to constitutionally protected rights of freedom of association, as well as the protection from unreasonable search and seizure,” stated the letter.
The letter asked Buttigieg to explain the difference between impaired and drunk driving, how kill switch technology would detect a drunk driver in a moving vehicle, how the agency-mandated technology will work and examples of any present existence of it, what passive monitoring under the agency directives will entail, whether cameras would be used and if the video would be stored, how the technology would differentiate between defensive driving and drunk driving, any safeguards to ensure protections for those with certain disabilities, the safety implications and possibility of secondary accidents, for how long a car would be disabled and the procedure for handling stranded drivers, the impact of kill switches on road congestion, any law enforcement notification procedures, and who bears liability for accidents caused by disabled vehicles.
🚨UPDATE 🚨 In 2021, Democrats pushed through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Hidden away in the bill was a provision to require a kill switch to be placed into all vehicles built after 2026. While Democrats claim this kill switch is only to be used for stopping a… pic.twitter.com/esUNSQc3EO
Parents have expressed concerns after Gilbert Public Schools (GPS) teachers performed a same-sex “wedding” in front of all their kindergarteners.
Val Vista Lakes Elementary School reportedly posted images of the event on their Facebook page, and GPS liked them. It appears the photos have since been deleted.
Teachers Makayla Krinsky, Suzanne Lunt, and Tina Selles, along with Principal Patrick Miller, were pictured participating in the event. The “wedding” is a popular lesson plan among educators to teach kindergarteners about how the letter “u” always follows the letter “q” in English spelling. Traditionally, the lesson plan focuses on the union of a bride and groom; however, the GPS teachers opted to have two women play the roles.
Miller walked Lunt, wearing a white dress and veil with the letter “Q,” down an “aisle” of white paper. Krinsky served as an “officiant” wearing the letter “O,” with Selles wearing a black top and pants with the letter “U” awaiting Lunt. In the background, the traditional “Bridal Chorus” song played on a screen.
Lunt was a Republican candidate for Arizona House District 14 last year; she lost in the primary. She received endorsements from Jenn Daniels, former Gilbert Mayor; Greg Tilque, president of Gilbert Sister Cities; Julie Spillsbury, Mesa City council member; Joan Kruger, Larry Morrison, and Linda Abbott, former Gilbert Town council members; Reed Carr, former Gilbert School Board president; Bob Worsely, former state senator; Save Our Schools Arizona; Stand for Children Arizona; and the Arizona Nurses Association.
Krinsky, Lunt, and Selles all graduated from ASU.
As shared by Not in Our Schools, a parent posted their concerns in a private Facebook page for GPS parents and community members.
“How would you go about addressing it with both the sNot chool and school board. I can accept the fact that sometimes the letters “Q” and “U” go together or are ‘married’ in some words,” said the parent. “However, I feel like this is completely unnecessary. Honestly believe that marriage should not be spoken about in school at all, let alone should they be pushing the valve off same sex marriage.”
In a separate post, Arizona Women of Action (AWOA) issued a similar concern that a mock same-sex wedding could be problematic for young, impressionable minds.
“This @GPS_District “mock same sex wedding” may have been benign in design, but parents must address these kinds of unacceptable issues at each turn,” said AWOA. “They are confusing and damaging to our children. The more their minds are stressed with these experiences, the more problems will accrue.”
AWOA encouraged community members to contact the school board, as well as the Arizona Department of Education Empower Hotline about the classroom event.
This @GPS_District "mock same sex wedding" may have been benign in design, but parents must address these kinds of unacceptable issues at each turn. They are confusing and damaging to our children. The more their minds are stressed with these experiences, the more problems will… pic.twitter.com/g1bJ4c5Avm
