Reveles: Beginning of the end for the 'big lie'

The following statement was given at the June 5, 2024, meeting of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors:

In the spirit of transparency, I want to say I’m a previous president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and continue being an active ACLU member.

This past week 12 fellow Americans helped restore faith in the power of truth, transparency and accountability.

The jurors who found the former president guilty on all 34 felony counts signaled the resurgence of truth and the beginning of the end for the “big lie.”

It brought into focus the answer to who is destroying our country. A question that has been raised here in this room when Sheriff Lamb accused me and others of destroying our nation.

This week Sheriff Lamb on TV grudgingly admitted there’s no evidence to support the big lie.

No, I and other colleagues did not question the integrity of our elections without evidence, no we did not substitute lies for truth, no we did not doubt our courts’ decisions.

Let’s remember, it is MAGA Republicans who have been pushing conspiracies, conducted fake partisan election audits, filed endless and ongoing lawsuits that have been universally rejected for lack of evidence.

The judicial process continues to move slowly. Arizona’s fraudulent presidential electors have yet to face judicial trial.

Now, following conviction of the former president, MAGA Republicans are pushing to prevent accountability for the big lie.

Their big hope is to rev up their anti-immigrant base by placing on the ballot the most debased anti-immigrant measure, hoping to take away focus from the criminal leader of the previously Grand Old Party.

But history will repeat itself when the so-called Border Security Act is found to be yet another racist unconstitutional gasp, and we’re left to deal with the debris left behind by the big lie proponents.

I urge principled Republicans and Independents don’t let them steal your integrity.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.