Related video: Arizona GOP censures Rusty Bowers after Jan. 6 testimony
Guy Reffitt, the 6 January rioter found guilty on five felony charges earlier this year, is set to be sentenced today – with the Department of Justice seeking a sentence enhancement on the grounds that he committed an act of domestic terrorism.
Reffitt was the first accused Capitol rioter to be tried before a jury after pleading not guilty. A member of the so-called militia group the Three Percenters, he threatened his family with violence if they turned him in to authorities – but his son nonetheless did just that.
Meanwhile, Republican Arizona state house speaker Rusty Bowers has vowed to never vote for former president Donald Trump – and said “America’s tired” of him.
Mr Bowers, who drew the ire of the Arizona GOP for testifying to the Jan 6 committee, explained in an interview that those supporting the former president “rule by thuggery and intimidation”.
“So you know, they found a niche, they found a way and it’s fear, and people can use fear, demagogues like to use fear as a weapon,” he said. “And they weaponise everything, and we all know it. But that’s not leadership to me to use thuggery”.
