Earlier this month, Shelby Busch — chair of Arizona’s delegation to the Republican convention — was in court trying to learn the identities of local elections workers. Under oath, she said she was unaware of any threats that had been made against the people who helped run the last presidential election and the midterm election that followed.
This week, video emerged that showed Busch saying she would “lynch” the official who helps oversee elections in Maricopa County: Stephen Richer, a fellow Republican.
“Let’s pretend that this gentleman over here was running for county recorder,” Busch said, seeming to refer to someone off-camera in the video, which was recorded at a public meeting in March. “And he’s a good Christian man that believes what we believe. We can work with that, right? That, that’s unity.”
“But,” she said moments later, “if Stephen Richer walked in this room, I would lynch him. I don’t unify with people who don’t believe the principles we believe in and the American cause that founded this country. And so, I want to make that clear when we talk about what it means to unify.”
Richer, who posted the video on social media this week, is Jewish.
Busch said Thursday that “the statement was a joke and was said in jest.” She did not address additional questions.
“I do not condone and would never condone violence against anyone,” Busch said in a statement. “It was political hyperbole and no way meant as a threat of violence.”