More than 30 Republicans supported Andy Biggs’ failed speaker bid – here’s how strange that makes them

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was easily elected Speaker today in a 188-31 romp over Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

But lost in the main story was one that’s perhaps just as significant: A large chunk of Republicans cast their secret ballots for one of the weirdest-of-the-weird members of the House Freedom Caucus.

Biggs has compiled an extremist resume that few can match, even as it has flown under the radar relative to the likes of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert. Biggs takes a back seat to no one in the clown car of wingnut world.

The fact that he got any votes for House Speaker – much less almost 15 percent of them – is a statement, however unsurprising, that certifies the freakishness of the Republicans’ right flank. Biggs, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, is off the grid.

Here are some of Biggs’ credits:

Biggs is the ultimate homophobe. Biggs voted against the 2020 COVID-19 relief bill because it “redefined family” by providing benefits for same-sex couples. He has called same-sex marriage “an affront to millions of Americans. As Arizona Senate President, he supported a bill that would have allowed business owner to refuse service to LGBT people by citing their religiously-based opposition to homosexuality or same-sex marriage. Biggs served as a policy advisor to United Families International, so virulently homophobic that it has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “hate group.” His wife, Cindy Biggs, was the treasurer of that organization, which has previously lobbied against expansions of LGBTQ rights.

He was a leading insurrectionist. Biggs was accused of having helped plan the events of January 6 by confessed organizer Ali Alexander, a conspiracy theorist and right-wing activist. Before that, an 80-second message from Biggs was played at a “Stop the Steal” rally on December 19 in Arizona.

His own brothers attacked him as “at least partially to blame” for the January 6 riot. He was among a small handle of members refusing to wear a COVID mask while Congress was locked down during the riot.

• He was a prominent anti-vaxxer, having introduced a bill prohibiting businesses that received COVID-19 from mandating vaccines within their own companies.

• He was among the first perpetrators of the Big Lie, having tweeted just 10 days after the election an invented falsehood that 10,000 Maricopa County voters were disenfranchised by “the green button.” Biggs tried to advance the lie that antifa were partly to blame for the January 6 riot. He went on national conservative media to call Pennsylvania’s election “fraud, pure and simple,” and demand its results be invalidated.

• He found the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul to be humorous, saying “Nancy is losing the gavel but finding the hammer” at a GOP election watch party in Arizona.

• He loves a good conspiracy. Representative Andy Biggs accused former President Obama of attempting to orchestrate a “coup” against his successor, saying the previous administration engaged in a conspiracy to undermine then President-elect Trump while investigating national security adviser Michael Flynn.
• He’s a leading hater of Dr. Anthony Fauci. “Dr. Fauci is conveniently resigning from his position in December before House Republicans have an opportunity to hold him accountable for destroying our country over these past three years. This guy is a coward.”

• He’s cool with hate. Biggs was among just 233 Republicans to vote against a 2019 resolution condemning anti-Semitism and others forms of hatred. He was one of just 12 Republicans to vote against the “Never Forget the Heroes” 9/11 victims’ compensation bill in the same year.

• He gave sweepstakes a bad name. If Biggs hadn’t become independently wealthy in 1993 by winning $10 million in the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, it’s likely no one would have ever heard of him today.