Arizona State Senate Censures GOP Lawmaker Who Called for Political Rivals to Be Hung

Members of the Arizona Senate Committee On Government voted to recommend passage of eight more election related bills to the full state Senate at a hearing in Phoenix on Jan. 31, 2022. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

The Arizona State Senate on Tuesday voted to censure a Republican lawmaker after she called for her political opponents to be hung.

The Senate voted 24–3 to censure state Senator Wendy Rogers, with 11 of the chamber’s 16 Republicans siding with the chamber’s 13 Democratic members who were in attendance.

Lawmakers said Rogers’s comments had damaged the reputation of the Arizona State Senate and accused her of engaging in “conduct unbecoming of a senator.”

“This included 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 state senate said.

However, the censure has no practical effect and is more of a formal statement of disapproval from Senate members.

The vote to censure Rogers came shortly after she gave a speech at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) in Florida over the weekend.

During her speech, the Republican lawmaker called for public hangings of her perceived enemies in the gallows.

“I’ve said we need to build more gallows. If we try some of these high-level criminals, convict them and use a newly built set of gallows, it’ll make an example of these traitors who have betrayed our country,” Rogers said on Feb. 25.

She also called those in attendance at the event “patriots” and said she “admires them” while claiming that the event’s organizer, Nick Fuentes, had been “de-platformed everywhere” because he has been vocal in saying things that upset “the media and the far left.”

“I truly respect Nick because he’s the most persecuted man in America,” she said adding later that he was “standing up to tyranny” by creating AFPAC.

Rogers, who was elected to represent Arizona Legislative District 6 in November 2020, also took aim at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Twitter, writing that he is a “globalist puppet for Soros and the Clintons” and that ”Macron, Ardern, Trudeau, Zelensky…. they all report to the same Satanic masters.”

“The West is trying to deplatform and debank Russia. This is just as wrong as invading Ukraine,” she wrote in another tweet.

After Tuesday’s vote, Rogers called the censure an attempt to limit her freedom of speech and her right to express opinions with censorship or restraint.

She also refused to issue an apology for her comments, while accusing GOP lawmakers of “colluding” with Democrats to tarnish her standing in the Senate.

“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 they want me to be their voice,” Rogers said on Twitter.

“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,” Rogers said.

“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.”

However, state Senate President Karen Fann said the censure wasn’t about freedom of speech but about the specific comments made by Rogers.

“We do support First Amendment freedom of speech. We absolutely support it. We fight battles over it. But what we do not condone is members threatening each other, to ruin each other, to incite violence, to call us communists. We don’t do that to each other,” said Fann, a Republican. “We, as elected officials, are held to a higher standard.”

State Sen. Lisa Otondo, (D-Yuma) said Rogers’ comments were “not freedom of speech” but instead amounted to “bullying and dehumanization.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Senator Wendy Rogers and the Arizona State Senate for comment.