The Arizona Republican Party, in an anticipated move Saturday, passed resolutions calling Gov. Doug Ducey
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The public reprimands, which are largely symbolic, came after both McCain and Flake endorsed President Biden in the 2020 election. The party cited Ducey’s coronavirus restrictions as the reason behind his disapproval.
The Arizona Republic reported that the resolution to convict Ducey argued his emergency safety rules “Restrict personal freedoms and enforce unconstitutional edicts.”
Meanwhile, at its state-wide rally on Saturday, the party argued that McCain “supported globalist policies and candidates” and “condemned President Trump
Donald Trump McCarthy says he has rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has said he disagreed with her impeachment articles against Biden Biden, Trudeau agreed to meet next month Trump planned to impeach acting AG to reverse Georgia’s election results for his criticism of her husband and inappropriately behaviors over and above actual presidential results. “
The state GOP said Flake has “condemned the Republican Party, rejected populism and rejected the interests of the American people over globalist interests,” adding that Flake should join the Democratic Party.
When The Hill got in touch, Flake echoed a statement he posted on Twitter earlier this month, when the resolutions of censure were first announced: “If approving the president’s behavior is necessary to stay in the party’s favor, it’s okay to go the wrong way. “
After Sunday’s party vote, Flake tweeted a photo of herself posing with McCain and Ducey at Biden’s inauguration this week, along with the caption ‘Good company’.
Good business pic.twitter.com/1pdgVGE5Ps
– Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) January 24, 2021
Biden won the state of Arizona in the 2020 election over Trump, the first time a Democrat has done so in more than 20 years. Biden carried Maricopa County, the state’s most populous area, over the Republican incumbent party in a victory that helped him win.
McCain and members of her family have criticized Trump in the past, and the late senator took the ire of the former president when he served in the Senate.
Cindy McCain honored her late husband’s friendship with Biden in a video that aired at the Democratic National Convention in August 2020. Both her husband and Biden’s son Beau have died of the same brain cancer.
Flake, who retired from the Senate in 2019, had previously scrapped a political ad for Biden before the election saying that “ character matters ” to hold the high office.
Sara Mueller, Ducey’s political director, said in a statement to The Hill that she believed the disapproval would weigh little.
“These resolutions are of no consequence, and the people behind them have lost what little moral authority they ever had,” she said.
The McCain Institute did not immediately respond to The Hill’s requests for comment.
However, shortly after the Arizona GOP resolution was passed, McCain tweeted that she bears the censure as a “ badge of honor. ”
“It is a great honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our country so well … and who, like my late husband John, have been censored by AZGOP. I wear this as a badge of honor, ‘she said.
It is a great honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our country so well … and who, like my late husband John, have been censored by AZGOP. I wear this as a badge of honor.
– Cindy McCain (@cindymccain) January 24, 2021
The Arizona GOP also did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for additional comment on the votes.
The disapproval came towards the end of the seven-hour Arizona GOP meeting, at which the party also voted to re-elect Kelli Ward to another two-year term as president of the organization after she played a recorded phone call in which Trump backed, according to The New York Times.
The Arizona GOP, following the 2020 election, repeated claims of voter fraud in the state, although these were later disputed by local courts, and Ward and other Arizona Republicans have increasingly joined Trump.
Updated 10:12 am