WASHINGTON — New footage shows that Arizona Representative Mark Finchem was directly in front of the Capitol building after rioters broke through a series of barricades and police lines, disproving Finchem’s previous claim that he was never within 500 yards of the building. The revelation comes shortly after newly uncovered footage showed that Pennsylvania Senator Doug Mastriano also lied about his proximity to the violence on January 6th.
Republican leaders defended both lawmakers because they claimed they had not engaged in unlawful conduct; the new evidence casts doubt on those justifications. GOP leadership in Pennsylvania has repeatedly refused to comment on the new footage of Mastriano. Now these dangerous insurrectionists are working to sow doubt in our democracy and change our voting laws from inside state legislatures.
“Republican leaders across the country are letting insurrectionists run rampant in their state legislatures and putting us all at risk,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee executive director Heather Williams. “They failed to overturn the election results on January 6th, so now they’re working from inside our state capitols to subvert elections in the future. All Republicans who fail to remove and condemn the dangerous actors in their legislatures stand with them.”
The two lawmakers are having something of a reunion today, with Mastriano joining a delegation of Pennsylvania Republicans — all of whom supported overturning the election — for a tour of the Arizona GOP’s deeply compromised election “fraudit,” a project that Finchem has supported. Another insurrectionist ex-lawmaker, Anthony Kern, served as one of the “audit” volunteers. The crossover event is just the latest example of the effort’s extensive links to conspiracy theorists who tried to overturn the election and is a troubling sign that the GOP’s efforts to subvert our democracy will gain a new speed and spread to more states.
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