PHOENIX — State senators voted Monday to investigate Sen. Wendy Rogers over whether she violated ethics rules by suggesting the gunman who killed 10 people in Buffalo on Saturday was a federal agent.
But they refused to immediately expel the Flagstaff Republican, although Monday’s decision to investigate her came less than two months after the Senate censured her for comments including speaking to a white supremacist group and calling for public hangings.
The 24-3 vote Monday to refer the latest comment to the Ethics Committee came on a motion by Senate Majority Leader Rick Gray. The Sun City Republican pushed that in hopes of precluding a separate motion to expel Rogers.
Democrats pushed forward with the attempt to expel, however. Sen. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson, said Rogers already got a warning.
“In March, our state Senate voted to censure her because of hateful anti-Semitic comments,’’ Steele said. “Our sincere hope was that the senator from District 6 would have gotten her things together and moved forward to do better. What happened over this weekend was not doing better.’’
The motion to expel gained just 11 votes, far short of the 20-vote margin required.
Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, called the investigation the appropriate way to go. He said expulsion is “the equivalent of a legislative execution.’’
“If we just forego that, we are no better than a mob,’’ Mesnard said.
Rogers made a social media posting Saturday that said “Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo,’’ a comment widely interpreted to mean she was calling the 18-year-old gunman a federal agent and promoting a fringe conspiracy theory that some mass shootings are “false flag’’ operations by the government.
Rogers’ comment came after authorities announced the white gunman deliberately targeted Black victims and appears to have written a racist white supremacist manifesto referring to the “great replacement’’ conspiracy theory that people of color are replacing white Americans.
Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Rios called Rogers’ post a “racist dog whistle ... perpetuating a grotesque conspiracy theory.’’
“We need to ask ourselves as a body, when is enough enough?’’ the Phoenix Democrat said. “When will we no longer be willing to allow one senator to jeopardize the reputation of each and every one of us, of the Senate, of the entire institution, because we know this person, through their tweets, has been actively enabling and supporting white supremacist replacement theory?’’
Rogers made no comment other than voting against the investigation and against expulsion. She also declined to speak with reporters.
The other two votes against investigating came from Sens. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, and Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction. Petersen said he didn’t know what Rogers had posted.
Townsend, who will be Rogers’ foe in the Republican primary because of redistricting, took some verbal slaps at her.
“I can only imagine additional pain brought to those families by the dismissive comments that were made,’’ Townsend said, saying Rogers “became the face of the Alt-Right movement.’’
“But, at the same time, I have to defend person’s right to say ugly things,’’ Townsend said. “That’s why the First Amendment exists.’’
The other senators, however, said that there should at least be an investigation, though their reasons varied.
Sen. Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, said he has “no idea’’ what Rogers’ comment actually means. He said he thinks an investigation by the Ethics Committee will clear Rogers. As evidence, he read a posting that Rogers made Monday morning.
“Of course I condemn the violence in Buffalo, who doesn’t,’’ the posting said.
“I also condemn the #FakeNews and the government promoting violence and then blaming it on regular patriotic Americans as if regular Americans share those despicable views,’’ it continued. “Everything is not what it seems.’’
“So, obviously, she does not condone the heinous acts by a deranged 18-year-old,’’ Borrelli said of Rogers.
Others, however, said there is more than enough evidence not just to justify an investigation but, ultimately, to result in an expulsion vote.
On March 1, the Senate voted to censure Rogers for “conduct unbecoming of a senator” for “publicly issuing and promoting social media and video messaging encouraging violence against and punishment of American citizens.’’ Rogers’ made political threats to fellow Republicans in an effort to avoid that censure.
Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, called Rogers’ statements “racist and bigoted.’’
But Senate President Karen Fann said more inquiry is merited.
“Things that happen over the weekend, sometimes our members don’t even know that they’ve happened,’’ the Prescott Republican said of the earlier post.
“The best way to handle it is through a due process,’’ she said. “Let’s find out what happened, how it happened, who actually did it, what was the intention behind it and then we can make an informed decision at that point.’’
Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, also voted for the investigation but added, “This is not an expel-able offense. It’s for the voters to decide.”
She said expelling would be a “very, very dangerous precedent’’ that could lead to inquiries into what people post on social media, send in emails and say at public events.
