Wisconsin GOP lawmaker calls for election cheating in video | AP News
By: SCOTT BAUER (AP NEWS)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican Wisconsin state lawmaker was recorded on video saying that Republicans need to "cheat like the Democrats" to win elections and that he'd like to punch Democratic Gov. Tony Evers over pandemic restrictions.
The video of state Rep. Elijah Behnke was posted online Thursday and circulated over Twitter late that night. The Wisconsin State Journal first reported about it Friday.
In the wide-ranging 25-minute video, which appears to have been taken secretly by visitors in Behnke's Capitol office, he disparages Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos as a "swamp creature" and supports debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes. The outcome has withstood recounts, lawsuits and multiple investigations. However, since the loss, Republicans have passed bills to make absentee voting more difficult, ordered their own election investigation led by a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, and called for the resignation of members of the bipartisan elections commission.
The video was posted the same day that Vos stripped Republican state Rep. Timothy Ramthun of his only staff member after Ramthun repeatedly called for the Legislature to undo Biden's win in Wisconsin, which can't be done. Ramthun also spread a false claim that Vos had signed a deal with former attorneys for Hillary Clinton to authorize absentee ballot drop boxes.
Ramthun responded Friday to the action taken against him, saying in a statement that he was disciplined without justification and that his staff member should be restored.
Vos and Behnke did not immediately reply to Friday messages seeking comment. It's not clear who took the video.
Behnke, who owns a cleaning business, also described his anger over Evers' issuing a stay at home order early in the coronavirus pandemic. Behnke said he was "praying to God" that if he ever saw Evers, "I'm going to punch him, right? So here I am, I haven't really seen him face-to-face yet, so we'll see if I do."
Evers' spokeswoman, Britt Cudaback, reacted by saying the governor "believes in doing the right thing and leading with kindness, respect, empathy and compassion. It's a shame those Wisconsin values seem to be lost on Republicans in the Legislature."
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler called on Vos to disavow Behnke's comments and launch an investigation. In the meantime, Wikler said Behnke should be removed from legislative committees he sits on and not be allowed to meet with Republicans in caucus.
Behnke, of Oconto, won a special election in April 2021 after former Rep. John Nygren stepped down.
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How do these people keep getting elected...
like the last election, a little less than half of registered voters in the US are window licking morons. he just happens to live in an area where morons are in the majority.
Most of these people just remind me of a version of the teabaggers during Obama's term.
they're the same people, it's just the teabags that haven't died off yet...
The rest as conservatives!
Admit it, you were a teabagger back during Obama's term...
No I was not a "teabagged". The activity of "teabagging" is a liberal one, as I am sure you know we'll. I did however support many of the things the Tea Party stood for.
I take that as a yes...
By the way, the teabaggers came up with the name all on their own...
= teabags, thumpers, trumpsters, oath keepers, 3pers, neo-nazis, Q-nuts, proud boys, anti-choice scum, anti-proofreaders, all the other right wing domestic terrorists now showing up and marching around dressed in khakis and body armor with desecrated american flags...
LMFAO!
Because they have shit for brains.
The voters are fed a steady diet of fear and lies. They actually listen to what the likes of Tucker Carlson say, but they believe it.
"Socialist"==""Evil"=="Joe Biden" and "Trump"=="Strong"=="Good" and "The Election was rigged" are the lies at the base of the pyramid.
Behnke sounds like a real degenerate. Standard for Republican politicians.
You should check most of the GOP candidates here in Ohio. 'Stop The Steal' is their only platform. They're going for broke. If they win all investigations are ended and the Judiciaries will be filled with like-minded people. This is how Orban, and others did it and of course, Putin. Goebbels made the playbook.
Behnke should go ahead and vote 6 times in the next election. Hell, he should vote 100 times. That way he will learn first hand just how hard it is to commit voter fraud.
What gets me is the way they talk about fraud and the many scenarios they come up with, it is almost like they have thought of ways to commit fraud before.
When you think about how you could vote more than once you realize how hard it would be. All ballots are checked against the voter registration roles. If you vote using someone else's ballot and then that other person votes one of these votes cannot be counted. If you register to vote under a fake name that name would be flagged because people don't just appear out of nowhere triggering an investigation. Since ballots are sent to your home address (not a PO box) it would be pretty easy for them to find the culprit. I honestly don't think it's a viable plan especially since after all that work it's only 1 extra vote.
Anybody else have any ideas how you could vote more than once, have the vote counted, and get away with it?
Nobody has any ideas how to scam the voting system? How can we have rampant fraud if we can't scam the system? Repubs? You got anything? It can't be impossible.
That is how democrats win.
Prove it, admit you are lying or shut the fuck up.
Democrats win by showing up to vote despite republicans gerrymandering, dumping votes and voter suppression.
Yes, Republicans should "cheat" like Democrats do i.e. making it easier for all eligible voters to vote by supporting early voting, more drop boxes, same day registration and vote by mail, none of which have been shown to have any increase in widespread voter fraud which, by every measure to date, does not exist.
So I would support Republicans "cheating" like Democrats do since the only supposed "cheating" they've been able to prove is Democrats making it easier for all eligible voters to vote. Of course Republicans would never do this, they have to cheat their own way because when more Americans access their right to vote, Democrats tend to win the elections. Republicans have to cheat their own way which is to falsely claim voter fraud without any evidence so they can claim they just must add voter protections like cutting early voting, cutting same day registration, cut the number of drop boxes and eliminate vote by mail all to stop non-existent voter fraud.
GOP has problems. Trump existed on laundered, possibly illegal foreign money for at least two decades. He brought and made available to the GOP those same sources. Remember the NRA and their allegations of laundered Russian/Saudi/Chinese money about a year ago----which has now mysteriously disappeared? That was pennies and nickels. This is massive, including the advent of the so called 'conservative media' platforms.
None the less, Trump brought it and the GOP bought it. The GOP as a political party is caught between a rock and a bigger rock. Democratic veto proof majorities could demand records which would prove the GOP is foreign bought and paid for. It would destroy the GOP and they know it which forces the party to engage in anything and everything that might save them.
The cheating in elections is totally committed by the GOP. It is clearly possible that Trump did not win in 2016. Everything the GOP claims happened in 2020, all of which are complete falsehoods, may have happened in 2016. And not one of those votes were ever audited. The real cheating began in 2016.
Democrats must be great at cheating since there’s never any evidence, just accusations.
Not true. Evidence existed during Gregoire's Washington state governors race that illegal votes were cast and that the king county clerk failed and improperly and illegally counted votes that were not counted during the original count contrary to state law. Felons were found to have voted for Frankin. At least 750 illegal votes were cast against. Bob For an in California.
Your typical MAGA dimwit.