See ya later, Liz! (Or maybe not.)
Arizona state Rep. Liz Harris, an election denier and a spreader of the QAnon conspiracy theory, was expelled from the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday after a bipartisan vote booted her for using a hearing to spread conspiracy theories about fellow Arizona officials being involved in crime.
The Republican, who in November was elected to the GOP-controlled Legislature for the first time, served three months before being kicked out.
A report from the Arizona House Ethics Committee found that Harris had engaged in “disorderly behavior” in February, when she invited a local insurance agent to testify before a joint committee of House and Senate members to falsely accuse multiple Arizona officials of taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel to affect the outcomes of the 2020 and 2022 elections. The agent, Jacqueline Breger, also accused the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of controlling government agencies and being involved in money laundering.
One of the lawmakers falsely accused of taking bribes was House Speaker Ben Toma, a Republican who introduced the resolution to expel Harris. Here’s how The Arizona Republic newspaper described Breger’s Feb. 23 testimony:
In the 41-minute presentation at the joint House and Senate Election Committee hearing in February, Scottsdale insurance agent Jacqueline Breger shocked officials with accusations that Gov. Katie Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma, lawmakers, judges, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and others conspired with a Mexican drug cartel and received bribes through a scheme using property deeds.
Breger failed to mention that two women she claimed were key players in the scheme were the ex-wife and former mother-in-law of her boyfriend, John Thaler, a lawyer with a suspended license, who was the source of the claims. Thaler had previously outlined the same bribery scheme in court proceedings related to this divorce and child custody case; two separate judges in federal and Maricopa County Superior courts called the narrative “delusional.”
The vote to expel Harris was 46-13 (including 18 Republicans), which met the two-thirds threshold needed for expulsion. (This is a key difference from the Tennessee Legislature’s party-line vote last week to oust two Black Democrats who had protested gun violence.)
Arizona law requires that precinct committee members in Harris’ district submit three potential replacements, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will select from that group.
The House ethics probe found that Harris had lied to investigators when she said she didn’t know what Breger would say during her testimony; in fact, the ethics report concluded that Harris “knew or was at least aware that Breger would present criminal allegations.” The report also says Harris “took steps to prevent disclosure” of the presentation’s content before the hearing.
Phoenix’s NBC affiliate grabbed some video of Harris’ lonely walk to her car, belongings in hand, after she was ousted.
Here is the full video of Liz Harris leaving the state house after her fellow members voted to expel her. pic.twitter.com/GhRi4jzzMb
— Michael Doudna (@MichaelDoudna) April 12, 2023
Gotta laugh at the Harris supporter in the video who says the ousted lawmaker is now free from the “vipers” in the Arizona Legislature. Ironically, it was Harris who spewed conspiratorial venom from her elected position, and allowed others to do so at her behest.
And now that poison appears to have killed her political career.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.