Republicans spark controversy after asking supporters if ‘they are willing to die’ to overturn votes

The Arizona Republican Party has landed itself in hot water after it appeared to encourage Trump supporters to give their lives in order to overturn the election results. 

On Tuesday the group retweeted Ali Alexander, the leader of a conspiracy theory group called ‘Stop the Steal’ which is pushing the completely baseless claim that the president was somehow cheated out of the election. 

Alexander’s tweet read “I am willing to give my life for this fight.” The Republicans quoted him, adding: “He is. Are you?”

To make matters worse, they later shared a clip from the 2008 Sylvester Stallone movie Rambo, which is a ridiculously violent film, and quoted the character, who is a highly-skilled soldier:“This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something.”

Perhaps seeing sense, they later deleted this tweet as it had caused a considerable amount of backlash for appearing to incite violence and death for the sake of a conspiracy theory.

However, as it would turn out it wasn’t removed because it was the sensible thing to do but because of copyright laws. Zachary Henry, a spokesman for the Arizona GOP, was quoted as saying there were “concerns about copyright and fair use law” when asked about the tweet being deleted. He later added, “The Republican Party of Arizona condemns all forms of violence in the strongest terms. Fictional movie scenes should be weighed in their proper context.”

Arizona was one of a number of states which Biden managed to successfully flip during the election after a long and protracted balloting process, much to Trump’s annoyance.

Results like this, which were mostly brought about thanks to a huge amount of mail-in ballots which were counted after in-person ballots had been cast has lead the president to claim the election has been rigged and that the Democrats committed fraud.

So far, the president’s legal team fronted by Rudi Giuliani has been unable to present any substantial evidence of voter fraud and has had numerous cases dismissed by courts across the United States. Some officials, including Republicans, have asked the president to stop these baseless accusations.

Gabriel Sterling who is a voting implementation manager in the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and a Republican warned Trump what these wild claims could lead to. Talking during a press conference that Stirling gave last week, he said, “It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

Truth is that even some of Trump’s team can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction anymore. A few days ago, one of the president’s former lawyers, Sidney Powell, shared a story about Trump ballots being dumped in a lake that not only wasn’t true it was from a satire website. 

More: What Trump acting like a 6-year-old and refusing to concede will mean for Biden's transition