James Rowen
Op Ed

Scott Fitzgerald Has Very Bad Week

First he violates congressional oath, then says he doesn’t know if Trump to blame for Capitol takeover.

By - Jan 17th, 2021 02:36 pm
Scott Fitzgerald. Emily Hamer/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Scott Fitzgerald. Emily Hamer/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

Wisconsin’s newest Republican U.S. Representative Scott Fitzgerald may have set the record with the fastest violation of a Member of Congress’s swearing-in-oath.

It was after the rioters had occupied and trashed the Capitol, injured scores of police officers, endangered all members of Congress and left dead bodies behind that Fitzgerald voted to give Donald Trump and the rioters what they wanted, as Wisconsin Public Radio reported:

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, were among 121 House Republicans who voted to object to counting Biden’s electors from Arizona, a vote made possible by several Republican U.S. senators, including Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson.

Tiffany and Fitzgerald were later among 138 Republicans who voted to object to Biden’s Pennsylvania electors.

Their votes came hours after the U.S. Capitol was cleared by law enforcement, and after lawmakers returned to the House and Senate chambers under heavy armed guard.

Yes, the challenges inspired by Johnson and the others in the Senate sedition caucus did fail, and all the electoral votes were counted just as they had been submitted, but by then Fitzgerald had violated his congressional oath,, including those parts about swearing and in good faith to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic (like election-subverting Senators and murderous Capitol invaders):

“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

It was not long after officially joining the GOP’s US Capitol Insurrectionist Caucus that Fitzgerald declared that he wasn’t sure whether Trump was to blame for the Capitol riot:

“‘I don’t think we know yet,’ Fitzgerald said when asked at a virtual WisPolitics.com and Milwaukee Press Club event if Trump was to blame, as the Journal Times reported.

Fitzgerald called for an investigation of “who was involved and exactly what motivated them to get to where we were, which was a very, very frightening day.” Perhaps he’s expecting that Hunter Biden or sunspots were to blame for the fatal Capitol Hill riot.

Fitzgerald was one of the Trump’s earliest and loudest advocates in Wisconsin before being elected to Congress in November,” as the Journal Times reported. “Fitzgerald, who estimated he has attended about a dozen Trump rallies, said he understands the feelings of the president’s supporters and that 99% of them are ‘very good people.’”

And of course he voted against Trump’s impeachment.

James Rowen, a former journalist and mayoral staffer in Milwaukee and Madison, writes a regular blog, The Political Environment.

Categories: Op-Ed, Politics

6 thoughts on “Op Ed: Scott Fitzgerald Has Very Bad Week”

  1. GodzillakingMKE says:

    Toxic Tom & Sedition Scott

  2. tornado75 says:

    fitzgerald screwed wisconsin and now he’d like to take that to the nation. he should step down and do an honorable thing which may be the first one in his life.

  3. lccfccoop2 says:

    I agree with your analysis – as usual. But it won’t make any difference to Fitzgerald or Tiffany as long as they enjoy overwhelming support in their districts. Any idea – besides getting better maps in 2022- of how to promote inroads there?

  4. gerrybroderick says:

    Scott Fitzgerald’s crypto-fascist adoration of any policy that favors power over social justice says all we need to know about whose interests he has, and will continue to represent, for as long as he serves in public office. Given his legislative history this current supplication before the altar of factless assertions should not surprise anyone.

  5. Douglas Johnson says:

    4 years of toxic rhetoric from Trump and Fitzgerald doesn’t know if Trump is culpable or complicit in the assault on the Capitol! 4 years of promises to pay the legal fees of those he encourages his supporters to assault protestors at his rallies! 4 years of abhorrent, unethical, immoral behaviors that no parent would want their child to emulate! 4 years of stocking the fires of racism with ambiguous statements with a specific statement addressed to the Proud Boys ‘stand down, stand by’! 4 years of blatant lies and conspiracy theories! It’s as if Fitzgerald has been tone deaf for the past 4 years, and claims that he doesn’t know that Trump has been building to this moment, lit the match, pulled the trigger and claims no responsibility. His (Trump’s) ONE and ONLY clear and unambiguous statement was days after the insurrection that he read from a teleprompter that he condemned violence, destruction and anyone involved needs to be prosecuted, not during the insurrection and not right after the violence had already transpired.

  6. Thomas Martinsen says:

    Post # 4 said it well. Fitzgerald’s “cyypto-fascist adoration of any policy that favors power over social justice says all we need to know … “

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