WISCONSIN – Today ,former Ambassador Norm Eisen, a leading national expert on issues related to democracy, joined a virtual press briefing hosted by the Defend Democracy Project. Wisconsin State Senator Kelda Roys – along with speakers from BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing Communities) and Law Forward – also discussed recent disclosures about the role of Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and his staff in the fake electors plot.
Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans planned, promoted, and paid for the attacks on January 6th in an attempt to overturn the will of the voters – and they are not done yet.
These hearings are of special interest to Wisconsinites, where Wisconsin Republicans have spent over a year pursuing fraudulent “audits” of the election results and attempting to decertify Joe Biden’s victory in the state. At the urging of Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican-led Assembly funded an extended partisan audit by former state Justice Michael Gableman. Gableman has since been held in contempt of court for refusing to answer for his lack of transparency and mishandling of public records. Sen. Johnson recently pressured Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Dean Knudson to resign, enabling the GOP-controlled legislature to install a more conservative MAGA Republican commissioner.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos reportedly spent hours in a closed-door meeting with Trump lawyer John Eastman, facing pressure to “nullify the 2020 election.” This year, election conspiracy theorists have mounted serious campaigns for Governor in a bid to manipulate future Wisconsin elections. The leading candidates for Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch and Tim Michels, intend to abolish the bipartisan, GOP-designed Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Speakers also discussed a new report outlining the role of Wisconsin Republicans in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump attempted to overturn the election by attacking the refs – by challenging, and pressing, and pushing the people in charge of the 2020 election – and by attacking the rules,” said former Ambassador Norm Eisen. “Trump’s comments about Speaker Vos over the weekend are the same playbook.”
“From the Vos/Gabelman investigation onward we continue to see warning signs for our democracy given the behavior and rhetoric of far too many people either in, or seeking, positions of public trust,” said State Senator Kelda Roys, adding that all three leading Republican candidates for Governor have either shared 2020 election conspiracy theories themselves, or declined to denounce them.
“It’s not surprising news that Senator Ron Johnson was fully committed and prepared to invalidate the votes of over 1 million 6 hundred thousand Wisconsinites,” shared Kyle Johnson, Political Director for BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing Communities). “It comes as no surprise because we at BLOC hear every day in conversations at the doors of our neighbors and community members the recognition that Ron Johnson has not been serving us, if he ever did.”
Watch the news conference here, read the new report highlighting Wisconsin Republicans’ role in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election here, and learn more about the Defend Democracy Project here.
