Just yesterday, the TPM report on Mark Meadows’ text messages revealed grim new deals showing how Rep. Andy Biggs schemed to reverse the 2020 vote in Arizona. Now, Biggs is calling for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached. After working extensively to overturn the 2020 election, Biggs lacks the credibility to be seriously involved in any investigations. Yet Kevin McCarthy and the House GOP seated him on the two most powerful investigative committees: Oversight and Judiciary. Andy Biggs may be a thorn in McCarthy’s side, but his lies and conspiracies are exactly the kind of political stunts MAGA Republicans in the House will do for more power.
Biggs Is Mounting a Far-Right Challenge For the House Speakership. Biggs believes Kevin McCarthy isn’t planning enough partisan investigations, and is mounting a speakership challenge joined by at least five other MAGA Republicans. In an op-ed to the Washington Examiner, Biggs wrote, “McCarthy not too long ago was on record saying he didn’t believe impeaching anyone in the Biden administration was a good idea, but now, he’s said an impeachment inquiry into Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’s abysmal handling of the border crisis might be possible. That’s adding at least a little thickener to weak sauce — but it’s not good enough.” [Washington Examiner, 12/13/22]
TPM: As The 2020 Election Slipped Away, Andy Biggs And Mark Meadows Schemed To Reverse The Vote In Arizona. Last night, TPM released an exclusive report detailing more than 2,319 text messages between former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and MAGA Republicans – including at least 34 members of Congress – about plans to overturn the 2020 election. Investigators revealed that Biggs was “one of Meadow’s most frequent congressional correspondents,” and described “increasingly frantic” texts after Election Night. His exchanges with Rep. Andy Biggs are a harrowing exposé into the Arizona Representative’s tireless efforts to fight the results of a free and fair election in his home state. [Talking Points Memo, 12/12/22]
Rep. Andy Biggs Plotted January 6, Voted To Overturn The Election. Rep. Andy Biggs was a ringleader in the plot to overturn the election far beyond his vote not to certify electors on January 6. On November 6, 2020, before the election was even called for Joe Biden, Biggs texted White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, to suggest that state legislatures should appoint separate slates of Trump electors, “in the various states where there’s been shenanigans” At the same time, Biggs mounted a pressure campaign on Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers to change or challenge the state’s election results after they were certified. Biggs was also part of a December White House meeting that discussed plans to have Mike Pence reject Electoral College votes of some states when Congress met on January 6 to certify the election and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander has repeatedly credited Biggs with being one of “the four guys who came up with a January 6 event.” During a January 6 committee hearing, former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchison identified Biggs as one of a number of lawmakers who sought a pardon from Trump before he left office, a charge Biggs has denied. [Republican Accountability Project, Accessed 12/13/22; CNN, 4/25/22; The Arizona Republic, 5/12/22; PBS Arizona, 7/12/22; The Intercept, 1/11/21]
The January 6 Committee Investigated Rep. Andy Biggs For His Involvement With Trump. Rep. Andy Biggs faced a subpoena by the January 6th Committee for his involvement in “plans to bring protestors to Washington on January 6th and efforts to persuade state officials that the 2020 election was stolen,” as well as ‘potential involvement’ in “the former President’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.” He asked Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers to sign a letter decertifying Arizona’s electors. Biggs has denied any involvement with Ali Alexander. In December 2020, the congressman met with Trump (alongside 11 House Republicans) to discuss “efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to help overturn the 2020 election,” by challenging Arizona’s Electoral College delegation. [U.S. House, Select Committee to Investigate January 6th, 5/12/22, 5/12/22; The Hill, 6/21/22; Washington Post, 1/13/21; The Arizona Republic, 1/10/21; Axios, 7/12/22]
House Incumbent Andy Biggs Continues to Spread Election Fraud Lies. Rep. Andy Biggs, who worked to overturn the election in 2020, has continued to spread lies about the election nearly two years later. In July 2022, he circulated a letter to House Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), asking her to “immediately hold hearings” to investigate false allegations made in the widely-debunked film 2000 Mules, which baselessly claims that hundreds of thousands of ballots in Arizona were falsified during the election. As independent fact-checkers found, “The documentary “2000 Mules” does not provide any concrete, verifiable evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.” At CPAC 2022, Biggs suggested defunding the FBI and Department of Justice amid investigations into his own involvement in Jan. 6. Just days later, after federal agents lawfully executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, he reiterated those demands. [Rep. Andy Biggs Twitter, 7/13/22; CNN, 7/12/22; Reuters, 5/27/22; MSNBC, 8/8/22]
Biggs Was “Long Among Trump’s Most-Ardent Supporters in Congress.” Biggs was “long among Trump’s most-ardent supporters in Congress, and he has assailed the committee as a Democratic-led attack on Republicans.” [The Arizona Republic, 5/2/22]
Biggs is Known for His “Unwavering Loyalty to Former President Donald Trump.” “While Biggs has always been known in Arizona as a conservative, his unwavering loyalty to former President Donald Trump, his potentially dangerous counter-programming on coronavirus measures and other moments have introduced his thinking to a wider audience.” [The Arizona Republic, 2/19/21]