"Arizona Republicans passed resolutions on Saturday to censure three of the state's most prominent party leaders who have found themselves at odds with former President Trump: Gov. Doug Ducey; former Sen. Jeff Flake; and Cindy McCain, widow of the longtime Sen. John McCain.
The sweeping " yet essentially symbolic " rebuke took place during a meeting to figure out how to move forward after the state flipped blue in November, narrowly giving its 11 electoral votes to now President Joe Biden."
In condemning Ducey, the party cited the governor's decision to enact emergency orders during the pandemic that the committee said are unconstitutional and "restrict personal liberties."
"Much of the meeting was largely a pep rally for state Republicans who support the former president and his baseless claims of election fraud.
State Republicans also narrowly reelected party chair Kelli Ward, an unwavering Trump supporter who had challenged the state's election results in a lawsuit that was rejected for insufficient evidence of fraud."
Speakers also dismissed the idea that silencing Donald Trump will stop the momentum of the 74 million Americans who voted for him. "We will not cede the battlefield to Marxist totalitarians who want to destroy this country," Rep. Andy Biggs told the mostly maskless crowd, which responded with raucous applause. "They want to abrogate your rights and destroy the Constitution of the United States. They want to take away your right to worship. They want to fight us and destroy us."
Both Gosar and Biggs have been criticized by liberal groups for their role in allegedly inciting the Capitol riot.
In response to the censure, Gov. Ducey's political director Sara Mueller said in a statement, "These resolutions are of no consequence whatsoever, and the people behind them have lost whatever little moral authority they may have once had."
Likewise, McCain was unfazed by the vote.
"It is a high honor to be included in a group of Arizonans who have served our state and our nation so well...and who, like my late husband John, have been censured by the AZGOP," she wrote on Twitter. "I'll wear this as a badge of honor."
^Whoops, wrong thread!