GOP is running multiple 'Jan. 6 truthers' in purple districts -- and it could cost them: report

A forum just outside of Des Moines, IA, last week demonstrated how Republican congressional candidates are espousing extremist views to attract votes.

State Sen. Zach Nunn told the crowd that the criminal prosecutions of insurrectionists who took part in the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol are a sham.

“We have a Nancy Pelosi committee determined to find someone that they can hang a noose around,” Nunn said, according to a report in The Daily Beast.

Businesswoman Nicole Hasso said “no one is above the law” as she railed against “lawless” activity. But she was referring to the 2020 riots over police brutality, not the violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Activist Gary Leffler told the gathering that he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 but insisted he did not go inside. He beseeched them: “Put me in Congress. Put me on that committee and you're gonna get some real answers to what happened there that day.”

What's notable is that Nunn, Hasso and Leffler "aren’t running to be the next Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA champion of a deep-red district. Instead, they’re running to unseat an incumbent Democrat in one of the most competitive swing seats in the entire country," The Daily Beast writes. "Iowa’s 3rd District, currently represented by second-term Rep. Cindy Axne, is the least Republican district in this state. Donald Trump barely carried it in 2020, by a margin of 0.4 percent."

GOP candidates across the country are using similar rhetoric. According to The Daily Beast, "In at least nine of the swing districts that are at the top of the GOP’s target list, top recruits and leading candidates have amplified voter fraud conspiracies, denied the outcome of the 2020 election, and touted their own trips to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"One candidate in Virginia called for the 'execution' of people convicted of voter fraud; one in Nevada called for the execution of General Mark Milley; another in Nevada contacted former 'Kraken' lawyer Sidney Powell to help her overturn her own 2020 election loss."