US Rep. Tom Tiffany, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, has been accused of trying to scrub his political record to downplay extreme stances on issues like abortion and gun safety, but he demonstrated this week no intention to modify his words and actions that serve to undermine confidence in the 2020 presidential election.
Appearing in Elm Grove on Monday, Tiffany was asked who won the 2020 presidential election. He again refused to acknowledge Joe Biden defeated President Trump that day.
“The problem with the 2020 election was the improprieties that happened,” was all Tiffany would say about the results, despite no evidence of any improprieties that would potentially change the votes of a presidential election, either nationwide or in a state like Wisconsin.
Tiffany went a step further in his efforts to cast doubt on Trump’s defeat, endorsing the president’s recent unleashing of FBI activity that had agents seeking out Milwaukee-area elections officials for interviews, including a home visit in at least one instance.
“Whatever they’re searching for, the investigation should be allowed to continue and let’s find out what happened there,” Tiffany said. “If there’s improprieties that happened then there should be charges filed. If not, then you let the investigation cease.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democratic candidate for governor, said a legitimate investigation was never Trump’s intent.
“Quite frankly, it was an act of intimidation,” Crowley told UpNorthNews. “when you’re having FBI agents approaching Milwaukee County’s election director at her home versus actually contacting Milwaukee County [and] meeting her in her place of employment. Instead of us focusing on how we address the rising costs that we’re seeing across the entire country, we’re continually litigating and relitigating the 2020 election.”
Misinformation vs. disinformation
There is no shortage of investigations, audits, reviews, and studies that show Trump, Tiffany, and others have presented no evidence to back their claims of fraud or manipulation—to the point where it moves beyond the definition of misinformation (spreading falsehoods without meaning to cause malice) into intentional misinformation.
“Participatory disinformation” is how Steven Livingston and Michael Miller describe the ongoing actions that explain democratic backsliding in the 21st century. In “Connective Action and the Rise of the Far-Right: Platforms, Politics, and the Crisis of Democracy,” they outline the people, groups, and tactics that led to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol
“Mobilizing on false narratives,” Livingston and Miller wrote, “removes constraints of reality and provides infinite possibilities for crafting and mobilizing on top of grievances.”
The false grievances spread by Trump and his supporters exploded into violence on a day that saw Tiffany and other Republicans in Congress vote against certifying the state-approved vote totals in two states. Tiffany said at the time that he would have also voted against certifying Biden’s Wisconsin win, if a vote had come up.
It wasn’t Tiffany’s only attempt to overturn the will of Wisconsin voters, who awarded their electoral votes to Biden by a margin of just over 20,000 ballots.
Tiffany would have overturned WI election
While many Wisconsin Republicans tried to help Trump cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, only Tiffany signed on to a longshot Texas lawsuit that unsuccessfully sought to have election results thrown out in Wisconsin and four other states and have electors chosen by their Republican-controlled legislatures.
Last fall, Tiffany also appeared at a Green Bay political dinner with Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who lied to investigators about Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor.
Last week, retired political consultant Bill Christofferson called on Wisconsin journalists to ask Tiffany if he supports the FBI investigation. Now that he has addressed that query, other questions from Christoffson may be asked of Tiffany.
“Gov. Tony Evers says he will resist any FBI efforts to seize voting documents in Wisconsin. What is Tiffany’s position? Would he hand them over? If he loses the governor’s race, will he accept the results? If he wins, will he refrain from interfering with the 2028 presidential race?”
It is that 2028 presidential vote count that has Democrats worried about the potential of Tiffany serving as governor.
“He will do everything he can to undermine our elections and to eliminate our most powerful tool, which is voting and getting rid of what’s happening in Washington right now,” said Missy Hughes, another Democratic candidate for governor and former director of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation in an UpNorthNews interview. “He is telegraphing to us that he doesn’t believe that free and fair elections exist in Wisconsin. It is a complete telegraphing of what we can expect in 2028 with Tiffany as governor.”
“Wisconsinites deserve a governor who will stand up for them, not someone who will gleefully stand by as the leader of the free world sics the FBI on them,” said candidate Joel Brennan.
“Election denier Tom Tiffany continues to parrot the big lie because he does whatever Trump tells him to,” former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes posted. “He’s proven it in Congress by voting with him 100% of the time.”
The criticisms are unlikely to change Tiffany’s strategy of using conspiracy theories to raise unsupported suspicions about vote counting in Wisconsin’s larger cities.
