Wisconsin Assembly Speaker disciplines GOP lawmaker who criticized Republicans for not trying to void 2020 election

[ad_1]

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos stripped a GOP lawmaker of his only staffer after the lawmaker repeatedly blasted Vos for not doing more to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Wisconsin.

Vos, R-Rochester’s decision to punish Rep. Timothy Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, was first reported Thursday morning by WisPolitics.com. Several hours later, the rest of the Assembly GOP leadership team and all Assembly Republican members of the Legislative Budget Committee released a written statement supporting the decision.

Ramthun gained national attention in November when he sponsored a resolution calling on the Legislature to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin, citing widely discredited fraud reports. Former President Donald Trump released a statement praising the decision, calling the resolution “powerful and wildly popular” and encouraging the Wisconsin Legislature to pass it.

Vos criticized the way the 2020 election was conducted, endorsing what turned into a sweeping investigation led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. But Vos rejected calls to decertify the 2020 race, a move nonpartisan lawyers in the Legislative Assembly have said is legally impossible.

In recent weeks, Ramthun has issued a series of press releases under the title “Let there be light” from his office in the State Capitol. On January 14, the day after a Waukesha County judge ruled that drop boxes were not permitted under state law, Ramthun accused Vos of acting unlawfully when his attorney approved the use of drop boxes in the 2020 elections.

Ramthun’s press release also criticized Vos’s role at the National Conference of State Legislatures, where the speaker is a former president, suggesting that the conference’s support for drop boxes led to their use in Wisconsin. . According to WisPolitics, Vos said Ramthun falsely accused Republicans of signing a deal with Hillary Clinton’s lawyers to allow drop boxes.

Vos, who is the longest-serving speaker in Wisconsin Assembly history, has previously come under fire from the GOP rank and file. At the 2021 state GOP Convention, some Republican activists circulated a petition calling for his removal as president, but the measure never received a vote.

At a Thursday news conference in Madison, Vos was asked about criticism from some Republicans for firing the Ramthun staffer.

Sign up for daily news!

Stay informed with WPR’s email newsletter.

“I think I’m in pretty good shape,” Vos said. “I think most people appreciate what we’re doing and that we need to focus on the future, not trying to decertify the election and focus on the past.”

Ramthun did not return a message left at his state capitol office seeking comment.

The written statement from GOP leaders, including Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, backed Vos and criticized Ramthun.

“Rep Ramthun and his team are spreading misinformation,” the statement read. “We support President Vos’ actions. No matter how much Rep. Ramthun and his team believe what they say is true, that doesn’t make it true.”

Yet Vos’ decision barely ended false claims by some Wisconsin Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen. Gableman’s investigation has shown no signs of letting up, having been officially endorsed again this week by the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.

“And what action does Gableman expect for similar behavior?” Governor Tony Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a tweet. “Just your eternal reminder that Vos could end this circus today like he could have done any day before now. He still chooses not to.”

Both Ramthun and Gableman attended an event symposium last year in South Dakota by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who repeatedly claimed that Trump had won the 2020 election.

Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, a victory that withstood a partial recount and multiple legal challenges in state and federal courts.

[ad_2]