Rusty Bowers reveals his strategy for Jan. 6 hearing: 'I don't need to win anything'

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers spoke with a Washington Post reporter as he prepared to testify before the House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"Hours before Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers (R) testified about how he refused to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results, he sat alone in his Capitol Hill hotel room, reading quotes about courage from John F. Kennedy and watching a church elder’s video about being a peacemaker," Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reported Tuesday evening. "Bowers, 69, dressed in a new white shirt and a suit he bought years ago, one he saves for special occasions, like visiting a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though formal, it makes him feel comfortable."

Bowers was praised for his emotional testimony.

"Bowers was subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection to testify about the events that followed Trump’s 10,457-vote loss in Arizona. Bowers had voted for Trump, campaigned for Trump, but would not violate the law for him — and, as a result, his political future was jeopardized, his character was questioned and his family was harassed as his daughter was dying," the newspaper reported. "He awoke early Tuesday to read some of the notes he kept during that time, written in cursive in personal notebooks."

Trump issued a pre-emptive attack on Bowers.

“Am I over-prepared? I have no idea. We’ll find out when I walk in that room," Bowers told the newspaper in an interview. “I would like to, for whatever small part I had, reduce conflict and work toward a more ongoing reconciliation of people. I don’t need to win anything.”

During his testimony, Bowers quoted Rudy Giuliani as saying “He said, ‘We’ve got lots of theories — we just don’t have the evidence.’"

Read the full report.