GOP senator heads to border with sheriff who blamed Hillary Clinton for Capitol riot

Over the weekend, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) visited the U.S.-Mexico border alongside a sheriff who has claimed the Jan. 6 attack by supporters of Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol was the fault of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Blackburn went to the border with the sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, Mark Lamb. She posted videos and pictures of their visit online and streamed video for an interview with Fox News, tweeting, “Cartels are using human smugglers as mules to take drugs across the border and push them into our neighborhoods.”

Blackburn falsely claimed that President Joe Biden has an “open border policy” and called for the border between the two countries to be closed.

Lamb has made multiple appearances on Fox News in which he has attacked immigrants, echoing Republicans and hate groups who have described the situation as a “border crisis.”

“There are a lot of good people, but there are a lot of wolves coming into this country too,” Lamb said. “It’s our job to figure who the wolves and the sheep are.”

In addition to his comments on immigration, Lamb has parroted right-wing talking points about the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters.

At a rally that same day at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix, Lamb said the riot was not Trump’s fault.

“This is about the other issues that have happened — the Hillary Clintons that have gone unpunished,” he told the crowd.

Trump was impeached on Jan. 13 for his role in inciting the riot, which resulted in the deaths of five people.

In his speech on Jan. 6, Lamb also lamented that the Supreme Court had not taken up Trump’s case to overturn the results of the election in his favor: “This is about the fact that our Supreme Court isn’t hearing our voices. This is the fact that our governor and our governments are not hearing our voices.”

Biden defeated Trump in the state by 49.4 % to 49.1%, the first time the state was won by a Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1996.

Lamb has also lashed out at people protesting against police brutality as part of the Black Lives Matter movement after the killing of George Floyd.

“We have a lot of people chime in on things they don’t have any clue about,” Lamb told the Arizona Republic last July. “I see so many people talking about police work, and they don’t have the slightest clue about what it’s like to go out and do the job, yet they’re out there running their mouth about it.”

Lamb attracted national media coverage last year after he refused to enforce a stay-at-home order put in place by Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey when the state was experiencing a spike in the number of new coronavirus infections.

He called the order “government overreach.”

After that, he tested positive for the virus when he arrived at the White House to attend a Trump event.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.