U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald tried Monday to happily mark his anniversary in Congress.
“One year ago today, I was sworn in and took on the duties of this office,” the Juneau Republican tweeted with a ceremonial picture of him taking his oath at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 3, 2021.
Fitzgerald needs to read that oath again — and take it seriously this time. Fitzgerald swore to “support and defend the Constitution” and “bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” while “faithfully discharging” his responsibilities as a servant of the people.
His commitment to those principles lasted all of three days.
On Jan. 6, 2021, and into the wee hours of the next morning, Fitzgerald shamefully tried to block Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s votes from being counted in the final certification for president. The rookie congressman even said he would have voted to disenfranchise Wisconsin voters if given the chance — objecting to the very election that led to him being sworn in.
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Voters — especially those in Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, which includes Jefferson, Washington and parts of Dodge and Waukesha counties — should never forget his betrayal of American democracy.
The same goes for voters in northern Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, whose U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Minocqua, similarly sought to overturn a free and fair election. Fitzgerald and Tiffany were among more than 100 Republicans who will go down in history as traitors to democracy. Even after violent mobs stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021, Fitzgerald and Tiffany still voted against the election results based on lies and conspiracy theories. They favored the fantasies of a terribly flawed and defeated President Donald Trump over the will of the American people.
Judges — some appointed by Trump — in more than 60 court cases, multiple recounts, election audits and reviews have dismissed Trump’s bogus claims that he won. Yet the huckster reality TV star turned leader of the free world for four long years still refuses to accept his defeat — setting up another potential constitutional crisis in 2024.
Fitzgerald, Tiffany, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and most Republican leaders in Washington seem more than happy to play along with Trump’s falsehoods, undermining trust in our system of government and fomenting division. And their complicity undoubtedly contributed to the misinformed masses who attacked the U.S Capitol one year ago today, following Trump’s orders at a rally outside the White House to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
The Jan. 6 attack was nothing short of an attempted coup. The angry mobs beat police officers with blunt objects, smashed an officer between doors and left more than 100 law enforcement officials injured, eventually ransacking the chambers and offices of Congress. A woman trying to force her way into the House chamber, where members of Congress were sheltering for protection, was shot and later died. One officer died of a stroke. Within days, two officers committed suicide.
The attempt to stop our democracy by brute force even included chants to hang Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, for fulfilling his constitutional duty. Pence certified Biden’s election, just as Biden had certified Trump’s victory in 2016 when Biden was vice president.
Though Johnson changed his mind hours after the Jan. 6 insurgency and voted with most members of Congress to certify Biden’s election, Johnson was one of Trump’s ringleaders in the plot leading up to the Capitol attack. And to this day, Johnson continues to downplay the seriousness of this historic American nightmare.
Voters across Wisconsin should remember Johnson’s failed leadership if he seeks a third term. Johnson only told the truth that Trump lost — “There’s nothing obviously skewed about the results” — when caught on hidden camera at a Republican Party event last August.
If Johnson does seek reelection this fall — even though he told voters during his last campaign that he wouldn’t run again — a principled and honest Republican should challenge him in the GOP primary, joining a bevy of Democratic candidates hoping to defeat him.
The same goes for Fitzgerald and Tiffany, who don’t deserve their positions. Republican voters who want their party to return to its conservative values of respecting tradition, limiting the reach of government and carefully spending money — rather than catering to Trump’s ego, whims and deception — need to stand up. They need to tell Trump’s apologists and enablers in Wisconsin’s congressional delegation it’s time to go. America needs honorable public servants to survive.