Source: Politics<\/p>\n
A Republican in Arizona\u2019s largest county threatened to \u201clynch\u201d the top county election official during a public event three months ago, according to a newly unearthed video clip circulating on social media.<\/p>\n
The election official, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, posted a video of the comment to X on Monday<\/a>. In it, Maricopa Republican Party Vice Chair Shelby Busch points to one of Richer\u2019s reelection campaign opponents and calls him a \u201cgood Christian man.\u201d She then contrasts him with Richer, who is Jewish.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Stephen Richer walked in this room, I would lynch him,\u201d Busch says in the video. \u201cI don’t unify with people who don’t believe in the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to POLITICO Tuesday, Busch said the remark \u201cwas a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone knows that I don’t like Richer,\u201d Busch wrote. \u201cThe statement was a joke and made in jest. I do not condone and would never condone violence against anyone. It was hyberbole.\u201d<\/p>\n The remark was made during a March 20 campaign event in Mesa, Ariz., for Republican Jerone Davison, who is running for a U.S. House seat, and was first live streamed on the conservative social media platform Rumble<\/a>. Davison on Monday defended Busch on X<\/a> as a \u201cwoman of faith\u201d and said she was not expressing \u201cany kind of racial hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo one ever knew or cared if you were Jewish or not,\u201d Davison wrote to Richer.<\/p>\n Richer was made aware of the video of Busch\u2019s remark over the weekend. He told POLITICO that he has not received any outreach or apology from her since the video made it online.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think the word lynching should be part of your vocabulary,\u201d Richer said in an interview Tuesday, emphasizing that Busch\u2019s sentiment should not be supported by the Republican Party.<\/p>\n Busch\u2019s comments drew condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Phoenix, which noted that Richer is Jewish and condemned \u201cextremists\u201d on X<\/a> for amplifying \u201cher Jew-hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n The opponent of Richer who Busch singled out as a \u201cgood Christian\u201d at the event, Don Hiatt, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Busch\u2019s remarks come amid intensifying rhetoric against election officials in Arizona, who have been \u201cin the crosshairs\u201d of continuing threats, the state U.S. Attorney’s Office said earlier this year<\/a>. Busch is an activist with We the People AZ Alliance, a conservative group that has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and which has been cited in the past by Senate candidate Kari Lake<\/a>. Richer has worked publicly to combat conspiracy theories about elections in Arizona, including through an alliance with the state\u2019s Democratic secretary of state<\/a>.<\/p>\n Richer noted that Busch\u2019s rhetoric was especially sensitive in Maricopa County, after an Iowa man was imprisoned last year after threatening to lynch the Republican county supervisor because he did not investigate false allegations of voter fraud.<\/p>\n Busch\u2019s remarks, Richer said, underline how public officials need to be conscious of how what they view as a \u201cjoke\u201d or \u201chyperbole\u201d can spread online.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir words have reach, and they have impact,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n