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Now the Arizona Legislature expels a House member [1]

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Date: 2023-04-12  

No doubt this was Rep. Liz Harris's next witness

Happily, the two Justins in Tennessee will soon take their seats in the Legislature and continue representing their districts, especially on gun policy. It’s not likely that Arizona Rep. Liz Harris is going to see a groundswell of support for reinstatement, as was the case with Representatives Jones and Pearson in Tennessee. Harris is a Republican election conspiracy goober who was even too crazy for Arizona’s Republican majority, which just expelled her:

The Arizona House of Representatives voted to expel Rep. Liz Harris, R-Chandler following an ethics probe that found Harris engaged in “disorderly behavior” for bringing a guest to a public hearing who falsely accused lawmakers of taking bribes from a drug cartel.

Let that sink in: Too crazy for Arizona’s Republicans—the party of Kari Lake and Cyber Ninja “audits.” Expulsion here requires a two-thirds majority, a very high bar, so for Republicans to expel a fellow Republican means the member must’ve done something pretty bad (vote was 46-13). Heck, when Sen. Wendy Rogers made racist, antisemitic remarks and dumped all over Ukraine President Zelenskyy, she was only censured, not booted out.

What Harris did, under the guise of an election conspiracy investigation, was invite a nutter to give a presentation that accused just about everyone in Arizona’s government of taking bribes and working with drug cartels. Who knew?

In the 41-minute presentation at the joint House and Senate Election Committee hearing in February, Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger shocked officials with accusations that Gov. Katie Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma, lawmakers, judges, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others conspired with a Mexican drug cartel and received bribes through a scheme using property deeds.

I won’t go into the bonkers history of who Breger is and how she learned about the supposed bribes and other dirty work, but for none of it did she provide evidence. Suffice to say, her sources are QAnon-worthy—what one judge called “delusional.” But that’s who Rep. Harris, who’s been pushing election fraud BS since Trump lost Arizona in 2020, chose to spotlight.

After Breger’s testimony, however, other members called for an ethics probe of Rep. Harris, who said she didn’t know what Breger was going to say, but that was a lie. Harris is a first-term conspiracy boob who almost makes Kari Lake seem sensible; in fact, this whole chain of events started because the newly installed Rep. Harris refused to cast any vote in the Legislature until the 2022 election was redone (the Arizona election when every Republican denier for statewide office lost).

To appease Harris, Republicans said she could hold an election fraud hearing, and that’s where Breger’s nuttery was on display. The ethics probe showed that Harris clearly knew of and supported Breger’s screwball theories, and she worked to hide the details of the presentation from her colleagues. That’s why she was expelled—not so much the crime but the coverup. Old story.

Thanks to jqjacobs in the comments, Harris packs up and leaves.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/12/2163556/-Now-the-Arizona-Legislature-expels-a-House-member

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