Rep. Alexander Kolodin goes full-on kook with 'deep state' assassination plot

And the prize for the crackpot conspiracy theory of the day goes to state Rep. Alexander Kolodin.

Give this Scottsdale lawyer a tinfoil cowboy hat.

Kolodin is likely not the first member of the Arizona Legislature to embrace his inner kook – given the makeup of our illustrious Legislature – but he’s certainly the boldest.

During an interview Wednesday with reporter Amy Goodman for left-leaning Democracy Now!, the first-term legislator let loose with the crazy at the Republican National Convention.

Kolodin was expounding on his opinion of Nikki Haley (“poison within the blood of the Republican Party") when Goodman asked his opinion about what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed the nation’s Capitol to try to stop certification of the 2020 presidential vote.

'You literally tried to shoot our president, right?'

That’s when he asked for whom she worked.

“Oooooh …,” he said, when she told him.

“I think that you guys have lost your privileges to talk about Jan. 6th after you tried to assassinate our president. I’ll leave it at that,” Kolodin said.

“Excuse me?” Goodman asked.

“You guys. You Democrats have lost your privileges to go on and on and on  – I know who Democracy Now! is – to go on and on and on and on about. Jan. 6 when you literally tried to shoot our president, right?” Kolodin replied.

“First, you tried to throw him in jail. Then you called him a fascist. Then you literally tried to strip Secret Service protection from him and then you tried to use the deep state to kill the guy. So yeah, you’ve lost your privileges to talk about Jan. 6.”

How Kolodin drew his conclusion, God only knows

The investigation into how 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks came to be on that roof just outside Trump’s Butler, Penn., campaign rally, armed with the assault-style rifle so popular with mass shooters, is massive and it is ongoing. The FBI has cracked into the shooter’s cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people, but no motive has been announced.

Unless maybe Kolodin divined the plot by consulting his Ouija board?

One might think that a licensed attorney would await actual evidence before shooting off his mouth and looking – how shall I put this? – like a lunatic.

Then again, this is Rep. Kolodin.

He has a history of subscribing to crackpot theories

He’s the election lawyer who worked with Sidney Powell to file Arizona’s now-infamous “kraken” lawsuit in which they claimed “massive fraud” in Arizona’s 2020 the election. It was tossed out of court by a federal judge who noted that “gossip and innuendo cannot be a substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure in federal court.”

Kolodin was placed on probation by the State Bar of Arizona late last year after state regulators found four of his elections lawsuits violated rules for attorneys. As part of a settlement, he has to take classes on attorney ethics.

And lest you forget, Kolodin also is the lawmaker who distinguished himself in March by flaming the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor as he voted against a bill to honor her with a statue inside the U.S. Capitol.

“We cannot allow the distinguished members of this body to have to suffer walking by such an undistinguished jurist when they enter here in the morning,” he sneered, apparently having not even read the two-page resolution to know that the statue would not have been at the Arizona Capitol.

The biggest shock is not that Kolodin is tossing grenades when all of America is trying to grasp what has happened in and to our country.

The biggest shock is that Scottsdale, a district considered fairly moderate by Republican standards, is likely going to reelect this guy. He and seatmate, Rep. Joseph Chaplik, are unchallenged in the July 30 Republican primary. They’ll face Democrat Richard Corles in the Nov. 5 general election.

Kolodin doubles down on claim of assassination plot

Lest you think Kolodin has had second thoughts about his unhinged rant, think again.

When Republican political strategist Tyler Montague called him out Thursday on social media, asking why he wouldn’t await facts before accusing Democrats of trying to murder the former and likely future president, Kolodin doubled down on the delirium.

“C'mon man, you aren't credulous enough to believe that a 20 year old with no training managed to get on the nearest roof to the President and point a rifle at him for two minutes right in the open without that being an inside job,” Kolodin wrote.

“I believe the government has enormous capacity for incompetence,” Montague replied. “That's the beginning and end of the story as far as government involvement goes. No freaking way that was a coordinated attempt. That's crazy talk. It will be interesting to see if anyone worked him.”

Kolodin clapped back: “You’re telling me the same government that tried to kill Castro with an exploding cigar and also tried to send Trump to jail right before the general election wouldn't *dare* try to take a crack at him? I find that implausible.”

You know what else seems implausible?

That this guy is represents Scottsdale.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alexander Kolodin goes all-in on 'inside job' in shooting of Trump