US Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona expected Trump supporters ‘to go nuts’ on Jan. 6

PHOENIX — U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona expected supporters of then-President Donald Trump “to go nuts” on Jan. 6 if the election wasn’t overturned, according to a recording played Tuesday by the House Committee investigating the attack.

“I’m actually very concerned about this because we have who knows how many hundreds of thousands of people coming here,” Lesko said on the recording from the eve of the Capitol attack. “We have Antifa. We also have, quite honestly, Trump supporters who actually believe that we are going to overturn the election.

“And when that doesn’t happen — most likely will not happen — they are going to go nuts.”

Lesko was one of four Arizona Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, which saw Democrat Joe Biden defeat Trump.

Lesko told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad on Jan. 6, 2021, that she knew protests would occur but didn’t anticipate the severity of the situation.

“I really did predict that there was going to be a problem, but I did not predict that they were going to break into the U.S. Capitol,” Lesko said at the time.

The recording played Tuesday also shows Lesko asking for a safety plan for House members in preparation.

Lesko told Gaydos and Chad at the time she watched the events on the House floor unfold from a television in her office when people started to be whisked off the floor to safety.

“I thought for sure that the police were going to stop them, so this is a truly a lesson that they should have beefed up the police a lot more in advance because, you know, I’m not even a police officer, and I knew that there was gonna, I predicted there was going to be some unrest,” Lesko said at the time.

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