Republican Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers has been censured by the GOP-controlled state Senate.
The Arizona Senate moved to censure the lawmaker in a bipartisan vote after she spoke at a conference hosted by Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes has been called a “white supremacist pundit.”
The censure resolution passed 24-3, with 3 state senators not voting.
Thirteen Democrats and 11 Republicans voted for the motion.
Reading the censure motion, Sen. Rick Gray said that Rogers engaged in “conduct unbecoming of a senator, including publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messages encouraging violence against and punishment of American citizens and making threatening statements declaring ‘political destruction’ of those who disagree with her views.
“The senator from District 6 has damaged the reputation of the Arizona state Senate by her actions.”
“I do not apologize. I will not back down,” Rogers said, calling the process corrupt.
“In the end, I rejoice in knowing I do and say what is right, and I speak as a free American.”
Rogers was not happy wrote on her Telegram account: “So today is the day where we find out if the Communists in the GOP throw the sweet grandma under the bus for being white.”
She said on Twitter: “Summary of the censure “we don’t like your mean tweets.
“Freedom of speech is one of the most precious rights we have under heaven, and this censure is nothing more than an attempt to limit my speech.
“I represent hundreds of thousands of people and the majority of them are with me and want me to be their voice.
“You are really censuring them.
“I do not apologize, I will not back down and I am sorely disappointed in the leadership of this body for colluding with the Democrats to attempt to destroy my reputation.
“In the end, I rejoice in knowing I do and say what is right and I speak as a free American regardless of the actions of this corrupted process today.
She added, “Disgraceful” after the measure passed.
Disgraceful https://t.co/ibZvDCaTdy
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) March 1, 2022
Final censure vote is 24-3 with 3 not voting. Senator Steele, a democrat, was not in the chamber today due to personal matters. pic.twitter.com/cWA8Ff1uLR
— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) March 1, 2022
From AZ Central:
Senate President Karen Fann said she supports freedom of speech, but cannot condone or tolerate members threatening each other and calling fellow Republicans “communists.”
“This certainly is something I didn’t want to do,” said Fann, R-Prescott, who voted yes on the censure. “It hurts us — it pains us to have to do this.”
Democrats took a much harder tone.
Sen. Rebecca Rios, Senate Democratic leader, said Rogers’ “default behavior” was to utter “racist, bigoted, and antisemitic” statements.
“I don’t believe our action today will have any effect on this behavior, but it must be done,” Rios said, adding that the bipartisan vote sends a “powerful message.”
