Fact Checking Rep. Andy Biggs

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) chairs the GQP House Freedom (sic) Caucus – which truth in advertising would require it to be called the GQP House Fascist Caucus – and after the January 6 insurrection has been dubbed the GQP Sedition Caucus.

Just to review, Rep. Andy Biggs has some splainin’ to do to the new House Select Committee on the January 6 Insurrection (as does his seat mate, Rep. Paul Gosar):

FREEDOM CAUCUS CHAIR ANDY BIGGS HELPED PLAN JANUARY 6 EVENT, LEAD ORGANIZER SAYS (The Intercept).

A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally (The Washington Post).

Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated by activist in Capitol insurrection (The Arizona Republic).

Reps. Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs credited in video with organizing Trump crowd in DC on day of riot (The Arizona Republic).

Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar implicated in Seditious Conspiracy (Blog For Arizona).

This right-wing provocateur Ali Alexander is in hiding after the January 6 insurrection, and when the FBI finds him, I would imagine that Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar are going to be in deep shit trouble with the law because this guy is going to squeal like a pig.

Note: Ali Alexander resurfaced on social media last month (the FBI must not be looking for him too hard), Forbes reported: Jan. 6 Rally Organizer Ali Alexander Reappears And Urges Followers To ‘Gather Together Once Again To Fight’:

Ali Alexander, a long-time right-wing provocateur and organizer of Stop the Steal, one of the groups behind the rally preceding the January 6 Capitol riot, reappeared after staying out of the spotlight to urge supporters to join together to fight “once again” in a video announcing his return to political activism.

Alexander, who is reportedly among those the FBI is investigating for a possible connection to the Capitol rioters, has mostly remained out of the spotlight since January, when he was instrumental in organizing the rally to overturn the election.

In a video posted to his Telegram account Monday [June 14], Alexander promised to “return” to political activity “soon,” and urged his followers to “gather together once again to fight, as the remnant, for our republic.”

Alexander said he was planning to schedule a “meet up” within the “next 7-14 days,” without specifying what he meant.

Rep. Andy Biggs, as chair of the GQP House Sedition Caucus, was one of 139 House Republicans and 8 Republican Senators who voted not to certify the Electoral College vote even after the violent MAGA/QAnon insurrection on January 6, 147 Republican lawmakers still objected to the election results after the Capitol attack, providing aid and comfort to the MAGA/QAnon domestic terrorists. And if Ali Alexander’s claims are verified, he aided and abetted the seditious insurrection as one of the key planners of the insurrection.

It is a fair characterization that Rep. Andy Biggs is an “enemy of the state” – the lawful U.S. government – that he sought to overthrow on January 6.

Lauren Windsor from the Undercurrent has posted this new video of Rep. Andy Biggs in which he accuses others of being “enemies of the state” (some serious psychological projection going on here).

NEW–> House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs: "[Democrats] are enemies of the state," 5-10 of them probably lied when they vowed to honor the Constitution pic.twitter.com/B2xhJ4bRoz

— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) July 7, 2021

A member of the audience asks Rep. Andy Biggs about Democrats “practicing socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Communism, whatever” – proving my point that Republicans use these terms interchangeably, totally clueless about what any of these terms mean, nor do they care. It is simply an invective that they use to describe anyone who does not share their MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump.

This would include more than 81 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden, not just Democrats, but also Republicans and Independents.

Rep. Andy Biggs responds to the audience member’s question with “My own opinion is that they are enemies of the state.”

Would that be Trumpistan, the “state” in exile in Mar-a-Lago? And by “state” he means his “Dear Leader,” “Orange Julius” Caesar, who like King Louis the XIV of France, sees himself as the state: ‘L’etat c’est moi’ (‘I am the state’).

Biggs goes on, “There are a handful of moderates left, I can name you several of them. But by and large, if you’re moderate and a Democrat right now, you are hunkering down hoping that he shrapnel that’s being sprayed by the hard left will not land on you, They are very, very hard left.

Note: The House Democratic Caucus has demonstrated remarkable unity voting in favor of any bill that Nancy Pelosi brings to the floor. The conservative Blue Dog Democrats and Progressive Caucus have stood together to pass Democratic priorities. Doesn’t sound to me like anyone is “hunkering down,” you ignorant dumbass.

It’s always amusing how far-right radical extremist Republicans, in this case a cult member of the MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump, who was purportedly an organizer of the violent seditious insurrection on January 6 that sought to overthrow American democracy and to replace it with GQP authoritarianism under Donald Trump and “Trumpism,” the new American fascism, dare to accuse mainstream Democrats of being”far left” or “hard left.” Apparently this now means anyone who is not a true believer in the MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump.

Just yesterday, John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, revealed in a new book he is publishing, Trump allegedly praised Hitler as doing ‘a lot of good things,’ new book claims:

Then-President Donald Trump allegedly praised Adolf Hitler during a discussion with his White House chief of staff John Kelly in 2018 while on a trip to Paris to commemorate the armistice after World War I, according to excerpts of an upcoming book, obtained by CNN, from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender.

“Well, Hitler did a lot of good things,” Trump reportedly told Kelly, who was explaining to the 45th President who the allies and adversaries were in both World Wars, according to Bender.

Bender also writes in the book, titled “Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost,” that Trump was “undeterred” and persisted in his defense of the German dictator by claiming the country made economic gains under Hitler’s leadership.

Trump denied the comments and that the conversation happened when asked about it by Bender.

What doesn’t he deny? His own first wife threw him under the bus as a Hitler lover in a 1990 interview in Vanity Fair. 7 TAKEAWAYS FROM VANITY FAIR’S 1990 PROFILE OF DONALD TRUMP:

4. When pressed on awkward topics—such as whether or not he regularly read Adolf Hitler’s speeches—he turns skittish and, perhaps, inventive.

Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

“Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?” I asked Trump.

Trump hesitated. “Who told you that?”

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” (“I did give him a book about Hitler,” Marty Davis said. “But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”)

Later, Trump returned to this subject. “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

Trump’s Nuremberg-style campaign rallies sure as hell sounded like they were lifted directly from his role model, Adolph. To paraphrase Molly Ivins, maybe “it sounded better in the original German.”

Rep. Andy Biggs continues: “All you have to do to get a picture of that is look who the committee chairmen are, on their committees. I sit on a committee with Jerry Nadler. That’s outrageous.”

The long-serving Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has been in Congress since 1993 – the same year that Andy Biggs won $10 million in the American Family Publishers sweepstakes. Nadler is Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. What is “outrageous” to Biggs? That a New York Jew who is a gifted constitutional scholar is Chair of the House Judiciary Committee instead of some American Family Publishers sweepstakes winner? Do anti-Semitism much, Andy?

Rep. Andy Biggs continues: “Maxine Waters chairs a powerful committee.”

The long-serving Maxine Waters has been in Congress since 1991. Congresswoman Waters made history when she became the first woman and first African-American Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Waters is a favorite boogeyman of the right-wing media because of her her no-nonsense, no-holds-barred style of politics. These white supremacists can’t handle an “uppity” black woman giving them lip, like calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump long before it was cool.

John Nichols of The Nation explained in a piece earlier this year, These Attacks on Maxine Waters Reveal the Grifter Politics of Republican Dog-Whistlers. Crystal Marie Fleming explained at Vox in 2018, Maxine Waters and the trope of the “angry black woman”. White nationalist Andy Biggs can’t abide a strong, outspoken Black woman who is a fearless and outspoken advocate for women, children, people of color and the poor.

Rep. Andy Biggs continues: “Carol Maloney, if you want an instance of total left-wing snowflake meltdown, look at he hearing last week, when the ranking member had the temerity to suggest that we didn’t need to extend benefits anymore for the Feds. They, there is a cadre in there that really believe that. And they are pushing that agenda enormously.”

The long-serving Carol Maloney has been in Congress since 1993. In addition to serving as Chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Maloney is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.

Biggs’ smear leaves out all the critical context so that his audience has no idea of what he is actually talking about, other than taking away his smear of Democrats. Here is the context: Lawmakers spar over paid family and medical leave for feds:

Democrats and Republicans sparred over a bill that would provide feds with paid family and medical leave during a Thursday hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

The bill, championed by committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), would give feds 12 weeks of paid leave for needs related to medical issues, family caregiving and military deployments. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced a companion bill in April.

The effort is part of Democrats’ broader push for nationwide paid family and medical leave, a goal included in Biden’s proposed American Families Plan.

“The Comprehensive Paid Leave for Federal Employees Act is one piece of the vision the administration has laid out,” Maloney said during the hearing. “It will strengthen the federal workforce over the long term, and it is a roadmap of the federal government to lead by example in creating a fair and safe work place for American families.”

During the hearing, Republican committee members expressed skepticism with expanding the federal benefits package. They also pointed to the lack of a cost estimate for the bill from the Congressional Budget Office.

“We’ve already dramatically expanded paid leave for the federal workforce,” said ranking member of the committee, James Comer (R-Ky.). “We need to put the American people first, not the special interests of federal bureaucrats.”

Other Democrats and witnesses at the hearing said that paid family and medical leave would help the agencies with recruitment and retention and pointed to the positive impact the change could have on individual feds.

Although some paid leave benefits were included for federal employees in COVID-19 relief packages, Maloney’s bill would be the biggest expansion of federal employee benefits since feds received 12 weeks of paid parental leave in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

“I have heard countless stories from [American Federation of Government Employees] members who have had to make the impossible choice between a paycheck or taking care of a loved one or themselves before they are ready to return to work,” said national AFGE president Everett Kelley. “Paid family leave will undoubtedly improve recruitment and retention of talented workers who might leave for other jobs that provide such leave.”

Democrats also pushed back against reticence on the part of Republicans to expand the federal employee benefits package, saying that the provision of paid family and medical leave is an overdue necessity.

Having a child “is not a ‘perk,'” Maloney said. “If your child is sick, what’s wrong with giving them paid leave to be there to be with them?”

So what we have here is a self-described “pro-family” Republican saying that he is opposed to paid family and medical leave even during a global pandemic when more than two million women left the workforce in 2020 in order to care for their children or a family member, dubbed the “shecession” by economists. Women provided 3 times more child care than men during pandemic, analysis finds:

During the coronavirus pandemic, a working-age woman, on average, provided 173 additional unpaid hours of child care, according to a new analysis.

That is nearly three times the amount of additional unpaid hours of child care taken on by a working-age man, according to the analysis from the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce global poverty.

“We knew there was a gap, but the immense inequality on who is providing unpaid care is staggering,” Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, said in a statement. “Unpaid care burdens continue to pile up for women, and every hour women provide childcare for free is an hour that they can’t build their own businesses, work in formal jobs, and secure their economic futures.”

In total, the closures of schools and preschools around the world during the pandemic created the need for 672 billion hours of additional unpaid child care, the equivalent of about a million lifetimes, according to the analysis.

The data “suggests many families, and in particular sisters, aunts, and mothers, were left trying to juggle work and child-care simultaneously. The consequences will surely outlive school re-openings,” the authors wrote in the analysis.

What the sexist Andy Biggs is really saying with his smear of Rep Carol Maloney is “you ladies don’t worry your pretty little heads off, you don’t need any paid family and medical leave from your jobs, because you lost your job and you aren’t going back to work.” I wonder how many women in that audience, had they understood what the hell this sexist pig was actually talking about, would have offered to tear him a new one afterwards.

Rep. Andy Biggs continues: “I think you’ve got 65 or so hard, hard left people, and probably 5 or 10, that probably lied when they took the oath to honor and obey the Constitution.”

I don’t know what the hell this fool is talking about, but I do know that House Republicans, in particular, every member of the GQP House Freedom (sic) Caucus that Biggs chairs, violated their oaths of office when they twice voted not to impeach the most corrupt and criminal president in the history of the United States, and voted not to certify the Electoral College vote  in order to overturn the 2020 election, and to overturn American constitutional democracy.

Rep. Andy Biggs continues: “[T]he reality is they are pushing as far left as they can. Fortunately, for us the filibuster is still in effect in the Senate. Without that we would be dead meat and this thing would be done. The we’d be having a little bit more frantic discussion than we are having today. But thank goodness for [Sens.] Sinema and Joe Manchin.

First of all, President Biden’s agenda has consistently polled extremely well among Americans, including garnering about a third of self-described Republicans. A solid majority of Americans want what Biden has proposed. So are the majority of Americans far left? A majority is the very definition of mainstream.

An anti-democratic, anti-majoritarian radicalized Republican Party, or more accurately the Party of Trump, stands opposed to what the majority of Americans  want. They believe in a tyranny of the minority denying the popular vote and the popular will.

Biggs gives up the ghost when he admits that Sens. Sinema and Manchin are aiding and abetting this GQP tyranny of the minority with their support of the Senate filibuster rule. Otherwise he would be “dead meat.”

When Biggs speaks with affection for Sen. Sinema, is this because Sinema once endorsed him for Congress?

The Phoenix New Times wrote in a May, 2016, article that:

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema raised eyebrows at a recent East Valley Partnership luncheon in Mesa, by stating that she hopes right-wing ideologue and Republican state Senate president Andy Biggs wins in Arizona’s deeply red Fifth Congressional District this year….

“I can’t wait to sit here and do this with Andy next year,” Sinema enthused, according to one businessperson present at the event, who spoke with New Times on condition of anonymity….

By the way, Rep. Andy Biggs told the East Valley Tribune when it was still in publication back in 2018:

Sinema said that she believes in retaining the Senate’s cloture rule, by which 60 senators can circumvent a filibuster and quickly end debate on a bill.

Instead of doing away with the oft-used maneuver, she said the country needs more senators who won’t invoke cloture in order to avoid debate.

“I think the solution is to get senators who are more willing to work together across the aisle to solve problems and get things done, because we used to have a Senate that worked,” Sinema said.

Biggs disagreed, arguing that cloture “dilutes representation” and is an arcane rule that “needs to go.”

He blamed cloture for the last-minute spending additions that ballooned the price tag for Congress’ $1.3 trillion omnibus budget bill and the fact that hundreds of other bills passed by the House currently sit untouched in the Senate.

The bills, he said, “are sitting there with no action, and it’s because of the 60-vote cloture rule.”

So Biggs is a cynical hypocrite t boot.

Insurrectionist Andy Biggs needs to be removed from Congress, and soon forgotten.