In Arizona, a MAGA victory party takes a sour turn
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> Has there ever been a more rage-filled celebration?
Arizona Republicans up and down the ballot gathered at a resort here for a unified election night “party.” But even after the last vote was cast, the MAGA crowd could not help themselves.
They eschewed basic decency. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is “losing the gavel but finding the hammer,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told the crowd, laughing about the attack on Pelosi’s husband that left him with a fractured skull — just as GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake did a week earlier. The crowd laughed.
They stoked paranoia. “By attending this event you have increased your chance of an FBI raid by about 50 percent,” the emcee, Benny Johnson, told the Republicans.
They hurled insults every which way. “Merrick Garland needs some new pantyhose.” “Beto is a furry.” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is a “little man” whose “ears don’t match.” President Biden is a “lost child” with a “very dirty diaper.”
At a time that typically calls for magnanimity and reconciliation, they cried out for vengeance. When Anthony Fauci’s name was invoked, they chanted “Lock him up!” They vowed to be a “nightmare to Joe Biden” and to impeach his aides. “Sorry libs,” sneered the emcee. “Sucks to suck.”
They boasted about the radicalism they represented.
“We have remade this party in our image,” said state party chair Kelli Ward, “of people who aren’t going to take any crap.”
“Who’s ready to elect a bunch of radical Republican conservatives?” asked another speaker. The crowd roared.
And they repeatedly invoked the latest MAGA conspiracy, debuted on Election Day, that glitches with voting tabulators in Maricopa, the behemoth Phoenix-area county, were a “criminal” attempt to commit “fraud” against Republicans.
Never mind that the glitch didn’t cause a single ballot not to be counted, nor a single voter to be denied the right to vote. And never mind that the county officials overseeing the election (lustily booed by the MAGA crowd) are Republicans.
It was appropriately ugly end to this grotesque campaign, just one last attempt to generate disgust — not just toward Democrats but toward the democratic process.
Armed men in tactical gear staked out ballot drop boxes in Democratic areas of Maricopa in a blatant attempt to intimidate voters. In Cochise County, GOP leaders attacked a judge for political bias after their scheme to hand-count all ballots was shot down. There was a break-in at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs’s office, followed by receipt of white powder by mail at the office of Lake. Maricopa’s sheriff, warning political leaders not “to incite violence or riots” with false claims, sent extra police to polling places, and barricades went up around elections offices.
At the Arizona GOP’s “Election Night Watch Party,” Lake, GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters and other Republicans arranged a joint celebration at the Scottsdale Resort at McCormick Ranch here, a conference resort in this upscale suburb.
After a campaign against supposed Democratic “elites,” Republican elites celebrated in style. A procession of luxury cars — BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Tesla, even a Rolls-Royce — dotted the valet line in the resort’s manicured driveway, lined with palm trees. VIPs who paid $500 a head were whisked off to a private reception, and higher rollers who shelled out $1,000 for the “private experience package” to another. “Gold” and “Silver” ticket holders had reserved spots in the front of the ballroom, where a suspended net full of inflatables awaited the balloon drop.
The hoi polloi, for $20 a ticket, squeezed into the back of the ballroom near the media or watched on jumbo screens in two courtyards (“Paradise Park Lawn”) strung with bistro lights. They could partake of the included pizza bar and a crudite display worthy of Mehmet Oz, but the 12-year-old Glenlivet at the cash bar was $12 a shot.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who has flirted with white supremacists, carried around a pile of his own yard signs. A man wearing a brickpatterned novelty suit explained his costume to me: “It’s a border wall!” Others wore Uncle Sam-themed outfits, and, for one night at least, Kari Lake baseball caps replaced the usual MAGA hats.
Nationally, the early returns pointed to something less than the oft-predicted “red wave,” a theme relayed to the quiet attendees here via Fox News on the jumbo screens. In Arizona, it was too early to make any sort of judgment about the outcome.
But, at the GOP party here, speaker after speaker outlined their own, alternative, facts.
“We’re going to see a red tsunami!”
“This is a red tide coming in.” “We’re riding the red wave here.” It’s an ominous sign. If MAGA Republicans can’t quit the rage and the lies even during their election night “celebration,” how would they handle power for the next two years?