In Case You Missed It, corrupt politician Adam Laxalt was caught in a lie when he tried to distance himself from the Trump campaign’s lawsuits and Mitch McConnell at Monday’s GOP primary debate. As summed up by the Las Vegas Review Journal, Laxalt’s attempt to have it both ways doesn’t exactly pass the smell test.
Laxalt has proudly touted his role as Trump’s campaign co-chair, leading the failed efforts to contest the 2020 election results and acting as the “face of” the Big Lie. He is one of the only Republican candidates McConnell personally recruited and endorsed.
Las Vegas Review Journal: PARTY LINES: A lot of distancing in Laxalt-Brown debate
Steve Sebelius // 5.13.22
You had to wake up early on Monday to catch the debate between former Attorney General Adam Laxalt and former Army Capt. Sam Brown on “Nevada Newsmakers.” It was livestreamed at 8 a.m. (You can watch the whole thing here.)
Two things stood out during that exchange: First, Laxalt’s distancing himself from the failed lawsuits filed by the Donald Trump campaign alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election, and second, Laxalt’s distancing himself from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
When Brown blamed Laxalt for the failure of election fraud lawsuits, Laxalt made clear he was not responsible.
“I was not in charge of any lawsuits,” Laxalt said. “I was a co-chair of the campaign. I was not in charge of litigation. That was the Trump campaign. They hired lawyers. They filed the lawsuits.”
Indeed, Laxalt only filed one lawsuit under his own name, accusing the state of failing to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote. That lawsuit was later dropped.
But Laxalt did show up a lot to promote claims of voter fraud. He was the lead speaker at a November 2020 news conference to announce that “we” were filing a lawsuit to stop the counting of allegedly illegal votes. (That action was rejected.) And he showed up on Fox News and Tucker Carlson’s show to repeat claims of voter fraud.
Laxalt’s denial of responsibility did give Brown his best line of the debate: “At the end of the day, this is about, once again, Nevadans deserve better,” Brown said. “And we’re not going to settle for people who blame everyone else when they fail. If you don’t want to be in a position of leadership where you shoulder the burden of executing or failure, you don’t have to pursue it.”
At press time, Laxalt was still pursuing it.
The other notable moment came when host Sam Shad asked both candidates if they’d vote for McConnell for majority or minority leader of the Senate. It’s a double-edged question, since many in the Republican base think McConnell — who has publicly feuded with Trump — isn’t conservative enough.
Both candidates dodged the question. Laxalt said – three times! – “I would vote for the most conservative person that ran for leader.”
As Shad noted, that doesn’t necessarily preclude a vote for McConnell, but it’s certainly not a commitment, either.
Laxalt could have done something different, however, knowing that he was urged to run by McConnell, that McConnell worked to recruit Laxalt to run and that an ex-McConnell staffer is one of Laxalt’s consultants.
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