On Friday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes was accused of weaponizing her office on behalf of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mayes advised media outlets that her office is investigating whether the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, may have made a “death threat” against failed Republican candidate for Congress, the former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Democratic Party operatives have floated the claim that Trump threatened Cheney during a discussion he had on Thursday night at a sold-out event with Tucker Carlson at Glendale’s Desert Arena.
Trump was discussing the Cheney family’s bloody history of support for “nation-building” foreign wars that have benefitted mostly defense contractors in the name of democracy.
“She’s a radical war hawk,” said Trump. “Let’s put her with a rifle, standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it, when the guns are trained on her face. They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, “Gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”
Elections legal expert and attorney for the Arizona GOP tweeted, “There’s nothing to investigate. Mayes has no jurisdiction. This is professional misconduct.”
There’s nothing to investigate
Mayes has no jurisdiction
This is professional misconduct https://t.co/e0aULmYAzm— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 1, 2024
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen also called out Mayes for her decision to attack Trump and the First Amendment.
“Just learned that Kris Mayes is investigating @realDonaldTrump over what he said about Liz Cheney. First of all, his comment was clearly not a threat. He said if she had to go to war instead of our kids then she would not be a war hawk. She has it completely backwards! She should have told the media what he said was protected by the 1st amendment. Protect the Constitution instead of weaponizing your office to harass and censure!”
Just learned that Kris Mayes is investigating @realDonaldTrump over what he said about Liz Cheney. First of all his comment was clearly not a threat. He said if she had to go to war instead of our kids then she would not be a warhawk. She has it completely backwards! Cont…
— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) November 1, 2024
This isn’t the first time Mayes is accused of weaponizing her office. Just recently she had to walk back an attack on Arizona’s school choice program after attorneys with the Goldwater Institute sued her office.
Because Mayes often does not properly fulfill her duties, including defending Arizona law, Petersen in his leadership position has had to act in her place, like suing to defend the “Save Women’s Sports Act” and the recently passed House Bill 492, that addressed concerns that non-U.S. citizens were registered to vote in Arizona, many as Federal Only Voters who can cast ballots for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and President, without verification of their citizenship status.
“As a former Republican, Mayes is still trying to prove herself to the left-most fringe in her party,” said GOP consultant Constantin Querard, “but this is stupid, like goofy stupid. And it puts her employees in a miserable spot because they have to follow orders, but now they’re spending time on this instead of going after actual crimes. They will hate it.”
My statement on the illegitimate Arizona AG’s political interference. 👇 pic.twitter.com/6Rob54e8Z3
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 2, 2024
“Kris Mayes is once again weaponizing her illegitimate office for political gain, using baseless investigations as a tool to distract and mislead,” candidate for Congress, Abe Hamadeh told the Arizona Globe. “This is nothing more than a publicity stunt with zero merit solely done to politically interfere in our elections. These radicals must and will be stopped on November 5.”
