Twitter users were quick to fire back at an incendiary tweet posted by the Arizona Republican Party early Tuesday morning boosting President Trump’s flailing efforts to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s legitimate victory in the battleground state.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, the party retweeted a post from a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” organizer declaring: “I am willing to give my life for this fight.”
“He is. Are you?” the Arizona GOP’s account quote-tweeted.
He is. Are you? https://t.co/OY8qxNMPxm
— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) December 8, 2020
About an hour later, the party posted a clip from the action movie “Rambo” in a now-deleted tweet. In the clip, Rambo threatens to shoot another character in the face with an arrow.
The tweet also quoted Rambo’s line in the clip: “This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.”
Trump has continued waging his fruitless legal battles in battleground states that Biden won amid his refusal to concede.
Last week, Trump attacked Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) for certifying the election results, which spurred the Republican governor to debunk the sitting president’s falsehoods on mass voter fraud.
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who served as the talking head of Trump’s efforts to overturn election results, held both a hearing and a meeting mask-free with Republicans in Arizona just days before Trump announced that the former New York City mayor tested positive COVID-19 on Sunday.
Hours after Trump announced Giuliani’s COVID-19 diagnosis, the entire state legislature decided to shut down this week.
Twitter users, including Ducey, swiftly torched the Arizona GOP’s incendiary tweet that appeared to encourage violence to push for Trump’s long-shot chances of a second term:
The Republican Party is the party of the Constitution and the rule of law. We prioritize public safety, law & order, and we respect the law enforcement officers who keep us safe. We don’t burn stuff down. We build things up.
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) December 8, 2020
WTF is wrong with you? You are calling for violence against fellow Americans over conspiracy theories? You will never understand the seriousness of taking a life or laying do one’s life. Don’t joke about this. https://t.co/7mrJWaCJM3
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) December 8, 2020
If you guys need me to jump in and take over your twitter account for the day so you're not nationally trending for embarrassing reasons, I'm here…. https://t.co/dbC91uPYoH
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) December 8, 2020
To make it clear, hundreds of AZ GOP activists — precinct committeemen — placed Kelli Ward atop @AZGOP in Jan '19. This was an active pivot by these party activists to remove the McCain allies in the state party & turn toward Ward following McSally's loss/McCain's passing. https://t.co/9NIrDS1Uqk
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) December 8, 2020
The Arizona GOP is telling people to die for Donald Trump, who lost the election by 7 million votes and who, in two tries, never managed to get more than 47% of the vote.
Really healthy. https://t.co/2Bw35Bk5EY
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) December 8, 2020
So embarrassed to be an American with Republicans tweeting shit like this… https://t.co/o0eBfdX9Zz
— Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) December 8, 2020
You are a political party. Stop with the stupid tough guy shit.
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) December 8, 2020
Seems scary @AZGOP but I would simply step 6 inches to the side. pic.twitter.com/ZwPbc2iMlZ
— luke oneil (@lukeoneil47) December 8, 2020
In a country with healthy political parties, these tweets alone would get Kelli Ward pelted off the public stage, never mind fecal-canistered from her job running the @AZGOP. On the other hand, if you're willing to give your life on her say so, I can't say it'd be a huge loss. pic.twitter.com/unVOWZAwdA
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) December 8, 2020
Reaching new levels of dangerous toxicity here. pic.twitter.com/937ze7AXqW
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) December 8, 2020
This is terrifying and strange. Screenshot of two tweets sent by @AZGOP which read almost exactly extremist terrorist tracts encouraging suicide bombers. What is this? pic.twitter.com/yTYIXShyaU
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) December 8, 2020
While people may be willing to carry guns to demonstrations to support Trump, I don’t think his supporters are willing to die for him.
I think they enjoy demonstrating too much to put an end to it all.
It’s been said before, you can’t spell crazy without R and AZ.
ETA. Are they challenging Texas for some Over the Top award?
And here I just think how oppressively omnipresent a single software platform is throughout the discussion.
Otherwise, this level of discussion is being boosted worldwide, in every country with some level of freedom of the press and broadband, all the authoritarians are buoyed. You’d hope we could project outward the levity of President Obama coming into office as the worldwide economy was utterly wrecked, but it’s like we’re a nuthouse with borders now. There is no economic solution to this crazy.
How anyone could ever re-up these lunatics ever again is beyond me. You’ll never extract them from the rabbit hole…