Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers Says Faith Compelled Him To Refuse Trump’s Effort To Overturn Election

Arizona House Speaker and President Donald Trump supporter Rusty Bowers (R) testified at Tuesday’s public hearings conducted by the House select committee that has been investigating the January 6 Capitol attack that he could not support efforts to overturn the 2020 election because he refused to “play with laws I swore allegiance to.”

“How else will I ever approach [God] in the wilderness of life, knowing that I ask of this guidance only to show myself a coward in defending the course he led me to take?” he added.

Bowers testified that Trump asked him to hold an official committee hearing at the Arizona Capitol and utilize a legal ability in Arizona to remove the electors of President Joe Biden and replace them.

“That’s totally new to me,” Bowers recalled telling the former President. “I’ve never heard of any such thing.”

“You are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath, when I swore to the Constitution to uphold it,” he added. “I also swore to the Constitution and the laws of the state of Arizona. This is totally foreign theory to me and I would never do anything of such magnitude without deep consultation with qualified attorneys … You’re asking me to do something against my oath and I will not break my oath.”

Arizona had been key to Trump and attorney John Eastman‘s plan to utilize Vice President Mike Pence‘s position as overseer of the joint session of Congress that certifies electoral votes to overturn the election. Biden won the state by a slim 10,000 votes.