Wendy Rogers investigation continues

State Senator Wendy Rogers is facing an ethics investigation after commenting on social media that the massacre in Buffalo, New York, may have been a false-flag operation, and that the gunman may have been a federal agent. Joining us to talk about what Rogers posted, the subsequent investigation and what it all means in an election year is Chuck Coughlin, president and CEO of the political consulting firm High Ground.

How does this fit among the general state of the Republican Party?

Coughlin described the current Republican Party as “deeply divided.”

“It’s not clear that there’s a one-size-fits-all policy. The party is still struggling to define itself away from the former president.”

What do you make of the Arizona Legislature’s actions?

Coughlin: “I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to have a discussion down there about the decorum of the body. It’s also interesting to see that last night Speaker Bowers won a democracy award from the Kennedy Center, so you have sort of the best of times and the worst of times going on here. We have to go through struggles in order to define ourselves, and that’s what’s going on here.”

Coughlin described Rogers’s online actions as “an embarrassment to the institution.”

“It’s part and parcel of the times we live in. In the Twittersphere, you know, people are thoughtless about their knee-jerk reactions to tragic events and they say foolish things, and this certainly was one of them, where she posted it or somebody posted it on her behalf, it’s her Twitter feed…”

Some candidates heading into the primaries have received endorsements from the former president. Do those mean anything?

Coughlin said there “wasn’t much to begin with,” citing Kari Lake’s steady poll numbers through her time as a candidate, despite receiving an early Trump endorsement.

“I think people want to see what else defines you as a candidate. What else do you bring to the table?”