AZ GOP Chair Kelli Ward's pathetically unpatriotic flight from Jan. 6 committee

Arizona Republicans under state Chair Kelli Ward often claim to be old-fashioned patriots, in the manner of the Founding Fathers.

But that doesn’t particularly jibe with how Ward has been running and hiding from the select congressional committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.

America’s original patriots, the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, did not hide and did not run. They ended the Declaration of Independence by saying “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

That hasn’t happened here.

Ward equivocates, then pleads the Fifth

Ward and 10 other members of her bungling band of election thieves filed a phony slate of presidential electors and sent it to Washington, D.C., hoping to cast Arizona’s ballots for Donald Trump instead of rightful winner Joe Biden. When that failed they pretended they didn’t actually mean what they did.

They claimed their fake document only mattered “in the event that the legal challenges to the Arizona results succeeded,” even though the document falsely asserted that the 11 Republicans were the “duly elected and qualified” presidential electors, with no conditional language.

Would the Founders have equivocated in such a way?

No more Jan. 6 events: Congress aims to amend electoral count law

Then, when Ward appeared before the Jan. 6 committee she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in order to avoid answering questions.

Would the Founders have so wavered?

Who was on the other end of the line?

Since then, Ward has fought tooth and nail to prevent the committee from seeing her subpoenaed telephone records.

The committee isn’t looking to read actual conversations. The request, according to the committee’s attorneys, does “not include the content of any communications or any location information.” All the committee is looking for is “information such as when a call was made or message was sent, its duration (if a call), and which phone numbers were involved.”

Several of these calls we already know about.

Like when Ward tried to pressure Maricopa County supervisors into not certifying our already verified election results.

Like her text to then-Chairman Clint Hickman saying Trump wanted to talk, telling Hickman, “POTUS (Trump) will probably be calling you.”

Hickman texted Ward that he didn’t think he would be available.

Ward persisted. “Just a check in from the President of the United States,” she wrote. “...  So I guess that means you could/should take the call.”

The original patriots wouldn't run or hide

Ward’s lawyers now want the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the committee from seeing her phone records.

“These records,” the committee says, “will shed light on how Dr. Ward contributed to the multi-part effort to interfere with the peaceful transition of power and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

Ward wants the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent that from happening.

I can’t help but wonder why.

If Ward believed in what she was doing, believed that it was justified, believed that she and the individuals she communicated with were being patriots, why run and hide? Why equivocate? Why take the Fifth?

I can’t imagine that our original patriots would have done such a thing.

But then, that is the difference between those who possess “sacred honor” and those for whom nothing is sacred.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kelli Ward's pathetically unpatriotic flight from Jan. 6 committee