Arizona House Expels Republican Lawmaker: 'If You Don't Toe the Line, This Is What Happens'
Arizona’s state House has expelled Republican Liz Harris from the chamber.
Harris, only months into her first term in office, was kicked to the curb by the GOP-controlled state House of Representatives on a vote of 46-13 Wednesday, according to KNXV-TV in Phoenix.
The action came days after two Tennessee Democrats were expelled from that state’s legislature in a move that drew heavily sympathetic coverage for the expelled members from the national establishment media and Democrats in the U.S. Senate demanding an investigation, according to NBC News.
The resolution passed to oust Harris, who represented Legislative District 13, stated that she “brought ‘disrepute and embarrassment to the House of Representatives’” and “also ‘allowed the impugning of other members’ in violation of House Rule 1.”
The resolution zeroed in on the testimony of Jacqueline Breger, a witness at a Feb. 23 hearing on Arizona’s elections who was invited by Harris to speak.
Breger “purported to present ‘findings’ of an investigation that alleged the existence of numerous schemes within Arizona, including money laundering, drug trafficking and sales, public corruption, bribing of public officials and election fraud,” the resolution states.
The resolution stated the testimony cited the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” as well as “various private citizens, government employees, and appointed and elected officials, including current Arizona legislators.”
The House hearing was not the appropriate venue for such accusations, the resolution states.
“Representative Harris violated the inherent obligation to protect the integrity of the House of Representatives and used her elected position to provide Ms. Breger with a legislative platform as a substitute for a criminal court,” the resolution states.
One of the “current Arizona legislators” Breger discussed is Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, a Democrat, who filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee accusing Harris of knowing in advance what Breger was going to claim, according to The Arizona Republic.
Rep. Liz Harris has officially been expelled from the AZ House of Reps for violating ethics rules.
I spoke with her as she was walking out of the House 👇🏼 @azfamily https://t.co/skYrGLDjSF pic.twitter.com/Sh6ABzj4xD— Sarah Robinson (@sarahrobinsontv) April 12, 2023
Harris took a combative tone after the vote.
“I stand for honesty and integrity. The report is a lie,” she told reporters as she carried items out of her office.
“If you don’t toe the line, this is what happens,” she said.
Republican state Rep. Alexander Kolodin said the expulsion was a mistake.
“A sad day in the history of the Arizona House of Representatives. I fear we have set a dangerous precedent,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
A sad day in the history of the Arizona House of Representatives. I fear we have set a dangerous precedent. pic.twitter.com/7CEPPR98jz
— Alexander Kolodin (@realAlexKolodin) April 13, 2023
A report from the House Ethics Committee said that its members believed Harris knew what Breger would present at the hearing.
“Representative Harris’s inconsistent testimony leads the Committee to believe that she had a more detailed understanding of Breger’s presentation than she led the Joint Elections Committee to believe, and that Representative Harris had hoped to avoid providing the presentation to House leadership before the hearing,” the report stated, according to the Arizona Mirror, an online nonprofit news organization.
The report said Harris, who had organized the hearing, denied knowing what Breger would say.
On social media, one of the biggest names in Arizona politics took Harris’ side.
Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate for governor who is still fighting in court over the election’s outcome, wrote on Twitter that it’s the voters who elected Harris — not Harris’ colleagues in the House — who should determine her future. She called the members who voted against Harris’ expulsion the “good guys.”
The Arizona house of representatives just kicked out a duly elected member.
LD 13 voted for Ms. Harris to represent them in the legislature.
They should have the final say in her future.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 12, 2023
The names in RED are the good guys.
The others… 🤔 https://t.co/VefFKXl200
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) April 13, 2023
House Democratic Leader Andrés Cano backed the expulsion in a statement.
“This is a sad day for our institution. But it is a necessary day. There has been real damage done to the lives and reputations of people who did not deserve it. Most importantly, the integrity of this House has been jeopardized,” he said.
“Misinformation, lies, and conspiracies are not harmless, and it’s not just politics. The defamatory allegations that Representative Harris’ invited her guest speaker to make are patently absurd, but there are many people who believe them. They believe the lies, and they continue to threaten retribution because we dispute them. They believe those lies because a State Representative, Liz Harris, platformed and legitimized them in a televised legislative hearing – where they were immediately picked up by partisan media and social media influencers — and then she congratulated her guest speaker as ‘brave’ for her presentation,” he said.
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