As anticipated, the shadow of Arizona loomed giant through the first Home listening to into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on our nation’s Capitol and our lifestyle.

There have been the oh-so Proud Boys from our state, identifiable by their orange hats and armbands that day as they ripped down barricades and attacked Capitol police.

There have been the pretend electors, engaged not in some symbolic protest as first thought however as co-conspirators in a coordinated plot to overturn democracy. Folks like state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward, and Jim Lamon, who’s now hoping we’ll elect him to the U.S. Senate, and state Rep. Jake Hoffman and former Rep. Anthony Kern, who’s operating for the Legislature, having been turned out by voters two years in the past.

And there was the practically apoplectic Rep. Andy Biggs, who earlier within the day took to the Home ground – the very place the place 17 months in the past Capitol police had to attract their weapons to carry again the mob – and referred to as Thursday’s listening to “an illegitimate present trial”.

Biggs is extra involved in regards to the measurement of tortillas

A Democrat-engineered distraction from that which America cares most about:

The worth of tortillas.

“They don’t need you speaking about, ‘Hey, the dimensions of that pack of tortillas that I simply purchased final week earlier than it got here out, it used to appear to be the common corn tortillas, now they appear to be mini tortillas,’ ” Biggs mentioned.

“Similar value, the identical packaging,” he continued. “They don’t need you speaking about that.”

Rep. Biggs, belief me once I say that Individuals can multi-task. We are able to – and do – fear about staggering inflation and the truth that you now should take out a financial institution mortgage to replenish your fuel tank.

However numerous us additionally fear today about the way forward for democracy and the shattering of a centuries-old custom of the peaceable switch of energy.

This wasn’t simply spur-of-the-moment insanity

Thursday’s listening to painted an unsightly image, one which’ll be crammed out as this month’s hearings proceed.  What we will see to this point means that one thing extra than simply shameful occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, a corruption that wasn’t merely the unlucky results of some spur-of-the-moment insanity by impassioned “patriots” who merely obtained carried away.

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It was fastidiously deliberate and meticulously coordinated – from the seeds of doubt deeply planted to erode belief in our elections … to the pretend “electors” who had been a part of a scheme to steal the vote in Arizona and different swing states … to the storming of the Capitol to cease Joe Biden from changing into president.

And sure Arizonans seem like in on it as much as their eyeballs.

One other view: Jan. 6 video is damning. Make the same one about riots on the left

Which brings us again to the illustrious Rep. Biggs, who actually, actually, reeeeally didn’t need America to see the proof put forth by the Home choose committee investigating Jan. 6.

The committee, he charged, is “not designed to seek out fact. It’s not designed to provide you with a official legislative objective.”  It’s, he charged, engaged in “partisan warfare”.

A number of congressmen sought pardons, Cheney mentioned

Just a few hours later, Republican Rep. Liz Cheney started dropping bombshells. Amongst them, that sure of her fellow Republican colleagues requested then-President Donald Trump to pardon them for his or her participation in occasions main as much as the Jan. 6 assault.

“Rep. Scott Perry (of Pennsylvania)  … has refused to testify right here,” mentioned Cheney, who’s vice chair of the Home choose committee. “As you will notice, Rep. Perry contacted the White Home within the weeks after Jan. 6 to hunt a presidential pardon. A number of different Republican congressmen additionally sought presidential pardons for his or her roles in making an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.”

Cheney hasn’t named names … but … however we have already got a reasonably good concept who these a number of different congressmen may be: Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy of California and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama and yep, Andy Biggs.

All 5 had been subpoenaed to testify. All 5 refused.

In a Could letter to Biggs, the committee famous that former White Home personnel have recognized him as one of many lawmakers who requested to be pardoned for “actions taken in reference to President Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election”.

It appears a good query to surprise why a sitting congressman would want a presidential pardon after a failed coup.

If Biggs sought a pardon, precisely what was it for?

We all know that Biggs attended White Home planning classes to maintain Trump in workplace (as did Reps. Debbie Lesko and Paul Gosar). We all know that he helped unfold the false narrative that the election was stolen. Cease the Steal organizer Ali Alexander has mentioned that he, Biggs, Brooks and Gosar “schemed up” the Jan. 6 rally to place stress on Congress to not certify the vote – a declare that all three congressmen have denied.

So why the necessity for a pardon, Rep. Biggs?

One other view: Trump trashes his daughter for being sincere about Jan. 6

Do not look an reply – from Biggs, anyway. He’s too busy fuming over the shrinking measurement of tortillas to deal with the rising measurement of questions on what position he performed in certainly one of democracy’s darkest days.

“The Democrats have principally corrupted each establishment in America,” the congressman prices.

The one who on Jan. 6, 2021, urged Congress to reject the duly-certified outcomes of the election in his own residence state.

Attain Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Comply with her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This text initially appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Andy Biggs actually hates the Jan. 6 listening to. Now we all know why