IA-03 Republican Primary Becomes Race to Prove Who’s Most Unelectable

In case you missed it, the IA-03 Republican primary field is once again trying to outrun each other to the far right in a desperate attempt to gain traction as Zach Nunn, Nicole Hasso, and Gary Leffler’s campaigns have all failed to take off.

The wide open race was on full display yesterday as each candidate shamefully defended the rioters who violently attacked police officers and our democracy in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

• NRCC On The Radar candidate Zach Nunn tried to downplay and whitewash the insurrection, denigrating the officers who defended the Capitol and falsely claiming none of the rioters had been charged or convicted.

• NRCC On The Radar candidate Nicole Hasso falsely claimed there was “no evidence that any of those people have done anything wrong.”

• And candidate Gary Leffler tried to out-fringe the entire field by professing he was at the Capitol on January 6th as rioters stormed and beat police officers.

“Thanks to their own messy efforts to win over the far right, IA-03 Republicans are proving that they’ll be unelectable come November,” said DCCC spokesperson Elena Kuhn. 

READ MORE BELOW:

Des Moines Register: Iowa 3rd District GOP candidates express frustration at prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters
April 27, 2022

• The three Republican candidates running for Congress in Iowa’s 3rd District expressed indignation and frustration at the prosecution of Americans for crimes committed on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol, some arguing those involved have done nothing wrong.

• State Sen. Zach Nunn of Bondurant, businesswoman Nicole Hasso of Johnston and activist Gary Leffler of West Des Moines all spoke at a candidate forum hosted by the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale Wednesday morning.

• The three are vying for their party’s nomination in the June 7 primary, and the winner will take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne in November.

• A moderator asked the candidates what action they would take “to address Americans arrested Jan. 6 at the Capitol.”

• Nunn answered first, asking the crowd how many had heard about the Americans “arrested and sentenced for insurrection.”

• “How many have actually been charged and convicted?” he asked. “Not a single one. Here we are, a year and a half later, and we have a Nancy Pelosi committee determined to find someone that they can hang a noose around — to be able to say, ‘Everything that we have been telling you for the last year and a half is true.’ And they still can’t do it.”

• Federal prosecutors have charged more than 750 people from 48 states with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including at least six Iowans. Of those, 249 people have pleaded guilty, 150 have been sentenced and three have been convicted at trial. At least 11 people have been charged with seditious conspiracy, and an Alabama man has pleaded guilty to the charge. 

• “If a bunch of middle Americans can overwhelm our Capitol, and the Capitol police, who are funded to the tune of billions of dollars, can’t stop a bunch of middle-aged individuals from walking onto the floor, we have a serious problem with our nation’s security,” Nunn continued. “Imagine if that had been a real terrorist attack or a real threat to our country.”

• Video accounts of that day show Capitol police officers dressed in riot gear defending against a violent mob that broke through barriers and windows to enter the building. Body camera footage from the officers shows them involved in physical altercations.

• Other accounts from that day describe the rioters prowling the halls of Congress looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence as they taunted threats. Staffers and elected officials hid in their offices, and Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley was removed to a secure location by security officials.

• “I was there,” Leffler said at the forum Wednesday. “I didn’t go in the building, I want to say that right away. My wife says, ‘I was praying to God that you would not go in that building.'”

• Leffler said Capitol police officers allowed the rioters to enter the building. It’s a defense some of those charged in the riots have used in their criminal proceedings, and at least one person has been acquitted by a judge on that basis.

• “The narrative that has been reported to the American people is wrong,” Leffler said. “Those doors were open from the inside. Those people were let in from the inside while Capitol police stood 25 feet away. Put me in Congress. Put me on that committee. And you’re gonna get some real answers to what happened there that day.”

• Hasso answered last, questioning why “Democrats keep bringing up this Jan. 6 event.”

• “Unfortunately, there’s no support, there’s no evidence that any of those people have done anything wrong,” she said. “And so why do we still have them in jail? That just makes no sense to me.”

• She brought up the protests that racked the country in the summer of 2020 when Americans took to the streets following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer.

• “But yet and still, no one got arrested, because they were peaceful protesters,” she said. “Are you kidding me?”

• Estimates of arrests stemming from those summer protests vary, but the Associated Press tallied at least 10,000.

• “How did we get here?” Hasso asked. “How in the world did we decide to be a lawless nation? We have laws in place. This country has laws in place for a reason. And no one is above the law. No one in Congress, no one in a White House, no one in the Senate is above the law.”

• Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators, who were at the Capitol the day of the attacks, have both said those involved are criminals who should be prosecuted.

• “Whether it’s a capital or a courthouse or wherever it is, they should be prosecuted,” Grassley said on the anniversary of the attack. “People that break the law should be prosecuted. Pretty simple.”

• U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst wrote in a Jan. 11, 2021, column for The Des Moines Register that peaceful protest is a fundamental American freedom. She called what transpired at the Capitol “anarchy — and America and her people cannot stand for it in any form.”

• In a January 2022 statement, her spokesman, Brendan Conley, said that Ernst continued to believe that those who broke the law should be prosecuted.

• “As Sen. Ernst has said, Jan. 6 was a dark day in American history and she believes those who broke the law should be held accountable,” he said.

###