Shut Down the Big Lie

 Shut Down the Big Lie

 

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R - Pleasant Prairie) visited with the former president this Summer and came back home to start a completely partisan “audit” of the 2020 presidential election. He earmarked over $676,000.00 of your hard-earned tax dollars for the effort and appointed former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to head it up.

 

Clearly, the former president is thriving on a continuation of the “Big Lie” that the past election was “stolen” and that he is the only legitimate occupant of the White House. Equally clear is that adoption and continued spread of the “Big Lie” is a condition precedent for any conservative politician who wants the former president’s endorsement in upcoming elections.  Vos was only too happy to continue the fight and his election “audit” is proof of his fealty to the lost cause. 

 

Gableman’s appointment to lead the effort gave Vos further alt-right credibility. Gableman ran for the Court as a staunch conservative and continued his far-right march after leaving the Court. He has deep ties to the Republican party and its major donors. Before he was selected by Vos, Gableman made numerous public statements that the 2020 election was “stolen” without ever citing any supporting evidence. 

 

After his appointment, Gableman continued to show his true colors with his hires for investigator and legal positions. He choose people who already expressed belief in the “Big Lie” or worked in the former president’s administration seeking to overturn the election loss. 

 

Gableman and Vos issued subpoenas to election officials and mayors in Wisconsin’s largest cities and the state’s Election Commission requiring them to produce documents and sit for interviews in Gableman’s office in a private building next to a liposuction clinic. Gableman’s emails to other government officials have come from a Gmail account, not a secure governmental email address. His office announced that the mayors would not have to sit for interviews if they produced the requested documents. Gableman almost immediately said the mayors would have to honor the subpoenas and sit for the interviews, contradicting his own staff. Most of the documents Gableman seeks are already in the public domain.

 

After the Arizona “cyber-ninja” election audit failed to produce any credible evidence to support the “Big Lie,” Gableman sought cover by claiming his investigation was not seeking to overturn the last election, just to make sure everything was done properly. 

 

Gableman has not helped his cause in the court of public opinion with admissions that he really does not know how elections work in Wisconsin. His credibility as an election watchdog took another hit with recent revelations that he did not actually vote in seven elections in the past three years. He shows his ignorance of the electoral process by focusing his requests on data in voting machines which do not store data. 

 

Gableman dug more holes in his effort by consulting with the “MyPillow” pitchman, Mike Lindell, who has made repeated claims, without supporting evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen and hacked by the Chinese. Another Gableman consultant has claimed that votes were shaved off the presidential election totals, again without offering any proof to support his claims. 

 

Finally, as news reporters began asking the tough questions, Gableman attacked the news outlets, comparing them to German Nazi propaganda efforts by anti-Semitic zealot Joseph Goebbels who was responsible for the worst atrocities against Jews in Europe before and during World War II. 

 

All the evidence in the public domain and the results of numerous lawsuits here and in other states clearly shows that the last presidential election was fair and free from undue influence or corruption. Joe Biden won the election in Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes and more than 7 million votes nationwide. The “Big Lie” is just that, a whopper. 

 

Governor Evers correctly noted the Vos/Gableman “investigation” is a sham and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has called on Vos to shut it down as a boondoggle and waste of taxpayer dollars. 

 

Newspapers and other media outlets around Wisconsin are calling on Vos to end the farce and wasteful spending. 

 

There are a lot better ways to spend 676,000 than sending a biased and partisan former judge to look for something that does not exist. It is time for our elected representatives to focus on what Wisconsin needs, better roads, fully funded public schools, acceptance of increased Medicaid funding, COVID mask and vaccine mandates, protection of the environment and an end to the culture wars.

 

Contact your representatives and senators in Madison and demand they shut this craziness down.