Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers was one of the star witnesses in Tuesday’s hearing from the Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection.
Bowers offered detailed and often emotional testimony while explaining the pressure he was under to help Trump overturn the results of the 2020 election. Rudy Giuliani was asking Bowers to support a plan for the Arizona legislature to replace Biden electors with illegal Trump electors.
- The Salt Lake Tribune bragged about Bowers citing his faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and his belief in the U.S. Constitution as reason to resist pressure to violate his oath to the constitution and his religious beliefs.
- With tears in his eyes Bowers described his valiant wife and dying daughter inside his home as protesters harassed his neighbors outside.
But on the day before the hearing, Rusty Bowers explained to the Associated Press his feelings about the insurrection and Trump.
Bowers said it sickened him to watch Trump supporters attacking police officers.
Bowers says he thinks the country needs to see the hearings, to “take stock of ourselves.”
But while Bowers said the efforts by Giuliani and other Trump backers have been hurtful, he does not levy any criticism on Trump directly and would support him if he were on the ballot.
“If he is the nominee, if he was up against Biden, I’d vote for him again,” Bowers said. “Simply because what he did the first time, before COVID, was so good for the country. In my view it was great.”