JIM SHARPE

Andy Biggs, Italian satellites and other GOP lunacy came out of Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing

Jun 24, 2022, 1:30 PM | Updated: 1:34 pm

(Twitter Photo/@RepAndyBiggsAZ)...

(Twitter Photo/@RepAndyBiggsAZ)

(Twitter Photo/@RepAndyBiggsAZ)

During Thursday’s Jan. 6 Committee hearing, a portion of a taped deposition of Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, was played.

In it, she mentions U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona as one of several Republican members of Congress who sought a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.

Was Biggs looking for a pardon because he and the others were (illegally) engaged in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election? 

Not too long after that deposition was shown, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said, “The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime.” 

I don’t know if Kinzinger thinks Biggs committed a crime or if he thinks he should be criminally punished but I don’t think Biggs or those other congressmenwill be punished this fall at the ballot box. That’s because they come from fairly-MAGA congressional districts. 

“Right, they won’t be hurt politically but they continue to be [in] the sort-of, marginalized clown car,” Meet The Press Moderator Chuck Todd said Friday on Arizona’s Morning News

But, “…the pardons were the shiny object yesterday,” for Chuck — his big takeaway was learning that we might’ve been “two hours away from a full-blown Constitutional crisis on Jan. 3.” 

He admits that, before Thursday’s hearing, we knew about some of the pressure Donald Trump put on Justice Department officials to launch an investigation into election fraud (despite them saying there was no credible evidence or legal justification to do so), but “…to hear them tell it, it was just chilling at times.” 

Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue, acting attorney general and acting deputy attorney general during the final days of Trump’s presidency, said they were threatened with being fired by Trump for not going along with his “stolen election” narrative. A narrative that included at least one wild-eyed theory that Italian satellites changed votes on voting machines

Chilling indeed. 

Knowing the man who possessed the launch codes for the nation’s nuclear missiles might’ve believed stuff like that makes me almost feel a sense of relief that our current president appears to only be a doddering, feeble old man. 

What might be crazier than Italian satellites picking a president are Arizona Republicans who still cling to the notion the election was stolen — even after learning the lengths that Donald Trump went to to remain in power and the insane theories he wanted others to embrace in order to do so. 

After Thursday’s embarrassing revelations, I’d think some Republicans would be glad Trump lost. 

Heck, Trump has painted the Republican Party in such a poor light, I’m surprised that a couple of Republicans wouldn’t want to keep it quiet if they actually believed the election was stolen. 

Especially if it was stolen by Italian spy satellites. 

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Andy Biggs, Italian satellites and other GOP lunacy came out of Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing