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Mark Lamb |
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Mark Lamb is a far right
extremist Republican American sheriff. He was elected Sheriff
of Pinal County, Arizona in 2017. In a 2021
interview, Lamb described his role as sheriff as
involving protecting people from "bad guys" and from
"government overreach", and maintaining the rule of
law. Lamb enforces law selectively, taking an
uncompromising approach to immigration while
adopting anti-government rhetoric in relation to
COVID-19 vaccination mandates and the legitimacy of
the 2020 United States presidential election. He
opposes all restrictions on the right to keep and
bear arms. In May 2020, Lamb stated he would not
enforce a stay-at-home order during the COVID-19
pandemic on the basis that he believed it was
unconstitutional. In June 2020, he tested positive
for COVID-19 a week before his scheduled appearance
at the White House for Donald Trump's signing of
executive order 13925. In 2020, Lamb spoke at a
convention of the
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace
Officers Association, an organization that holds
that sheriffs are the supreme legal authority in the
United States and are not required to enforce laws
they believe to be unconstitutional. He has also
appeared alongside the Federation for American
Immigration Reform, which is described as a hate
group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Lamb is a
supporter of the Stop the Steal movement. Following
the 2021 United States Capitol attack by supporters
of Donald Trump, he spoke at a rally where he said
the riot was not Trump's fault but rather caused by
"the other issues that have happened – the Hillary
Clintons that have gone unpunished". He later
described the rioters as "very loving, Christian
people. Lamb has announced a run for the U.S. Senate
in 2024. |
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No, The U.S. Is Not Giving People Who
Crossed The Border Illegally $5,000 Gift
Cards |
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"Mark Lamb, sheriff of
Arizona’s Pinal County, has campaigned
for the Republican U.S. Senate
nomination on the promise to "secure the
border." He’s posted short videos on X,
formerly Twitter, with what he calls
"truth bombs," mostly about immigration.
When migrants cross the U.S. border
illegally, "They’re being given a
cellphone, a plane ticket to wherever
they want to go in this country … and a
$5,000 Visa card," Lamb said in a Dec. 5
video. "We have our government giving
people who came into this country
illegally $5,000 gift cards. That’s the
truth, folks."" |
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Dec. 27,
2023 |
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Election Agency Questions Arizona Senate Candidate
Spending On ‘Campaign Attire’ |
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"The Federal Election
Commission has questioned why Arizona Senate
candidate Mark Lamb’s campaign spent almost
$28,000 on “campaign attire.” [ . . . ] "Candidates
cannot use campaign money for clothes for political
functions — such as a new suit or dress — but can
buy clothing of de minimis value that’s used in the
campaign like a T-shirt or hat with a campaign
slogan, according to the FEC." |
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Nov. 8, 2023 |
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Sheriff Mark Lamb Tells Pinal County Board Of
Supervisors Guns He Bought Benefit Jail Inmates |
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Pinal County Sheriff and U.S.
Senate candidate Mark Lamb says he did not
misspend at least $217,000 when his office diverted
the money from a fund that Arizona lawmakers
mandated be used “for the benefit and welfare of
inmates” to instead buy a cache of weapons. Lamb
said the expenditure on weapons, ammunition and
ballistic vests is legal because the guns are meant
to protect people who are incarcerated. |
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Oct. 2, 2023 |
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The Podcast Hosted By Sheriff Mark Lamb’s Adult Son
Is A Hotbed Of Far-Right Conspiracy Theories |
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"Cade Lamb’s guests —
including his sheriff father — push election
denialism, QAnon-adjacent messaging, and reactionary
vigilante violence" |
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May 8, 2023 |
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"QAnon Sheriff" Mark Lamb Goes Deep Into Far-Right
Fringe In Arizona Senate Race |
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"Mark Lamb, the sheriff
of Pinal County, Arizona, is no stranger to
conspiracy theories. He first became a celebrity in
right-wing media by refusing to enforce Arizona's
stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 pandemic,
which earned him praise on Fox News and helped him
build a large online following. Now, as Lamb begins
a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat currently held
by Democrat-turned-independent Kyrsten Sinema, the
Republican sheriff is attempting to boost his
political profile by appearing on shows hosted by
QAnon conspiracy theorists, according to Media
Matters. "He's basically spent years trying to build
up his political profile by appearing on these
fringe toxic media outlets, including QAnon," said
Eric Hananoki, a senior investigative reporter at
Media Matters. This is more than a matter of
endorsing unpopular or extreme supporters, Hananoki
continued. "QAnon supporters have a history of
violence, including attacking police officers. You
never want to give fuel to conspiracy theories, but
especially conspiracy theories that have a violent
aspect to them —that's what the concern is."" |
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Apr. 22, 2023 |
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Right-Wing Arizona Sheriff Enters Crowded
Senate Race Against Kyrsten Sinema |
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"Pinal County Sheriff
Mark Lamb filed paperwork to run for
U.S. Senate in Arizona, chasing the seat
currently held by
Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten
Sinema. Lamb, who totes a cowboy hat for
public appearances, is a staunch
conservative heavily aligned with former
President Donald Trump,
who
has promoted a variety of conspiracy
theories. He’s made regular appearances on
Fox News to spew anti-vaccine talking
points, argue for U.S. military intervention
against Mexican drug cartels, and claim
falsely that the 2020 election was stolen
from Trump—before backtracking and saying
he’d seen no evidence of voter fraud during
the 2020 election. Lamb is the first
major Republican candidate to join the race,
but he’s expected to be joined by Kari Lake,
who ran an unsuccessful 2022 Arizona
gubernatorial campaign and floated entering
the field in February." |
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Apr. 11, 2023 |
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Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb Builds His
Right-Wing Media Brand As He Considers A
Senate Run |
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Feb.9, 2023 |
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| "his sizable
presence on right-wing media and broader
forays into self-help and childrens’
books, reality TV, and various
philanthropic endeavors could become all
the more important in building a
statewide constituency. Lamb also has
powerful allies at conservative
institutions: He’s a fellow at
Trump-aligned think tank the Claremont
Institute and spoke at a rally organized
by the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR), an
anti-immigrant organization which the
Southern Poverty Law Center has
designated as a hate group. He has also
worked with election denialist group
True the Vote and expressed an affinity
for QAnon conspiracy theories." |
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[...] |
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| "Lamb gained
notoriety early in his tenure as Pinal
County sheriff by appearing on reality
TV, another point of overlap with Trump.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he
ingratiated himself to right-wing media
by refusing to enforce Arizona’s
stay-at-home order, earning him praise
on Fox News. (He later contracted
COVID-19.) |
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Lamb was
already tied to far-right movements such
as the Constitutional Sheriffs and
Police Officers Association (CSPOA), an
organization founded by former Oath
Keepers board member
Richard Mack that
claims sheriffs are the highest law of
the land, superseding any federal or
state authority. The movement arose from
the far-right “Posse Comitatus” movement
in the 1970s and ‘80s, and its legal
claims have been thoroughly debunked by
legal experts." |
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Pinal Residents Sound Off Over ‘Dangerous’ Sheriff |
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Residents are concerned
rightwing Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is
more
concerned with politics than policing. At a Board of
Supervisors meeting last week, some residents said
they felt Lamb,
a Jan. 6 sympathizer, proponent of
conspiracy theories and a Fox News regular, is only
concerned with power. “Pinal County needs a sheriff,
a law enforcement officer, and not a reality show
character,” said Ralph Atchue, a longtime Pinal
County resident living in Eloy. “It’s become
apparent that Sheriff Lamb is crossing a line that
we consider to be dangerous. ...He does not
represent us, and we fear that he will fail to
uphold his oath of office to serve and protect us.”
Lamb, who runs the rightwing group Protect America
Now, is one of dozens of sheriffs who ascribe to the
idea of "constitutional sheriffs" -- an idea that,
within their jurisdictions, sheriffs have the
ultimate authority including above state and federal
entities. He often wades into political issues. Last
week, Lamb claimed without evidence that mail-in
voting and early ballot drop boxes allow for more
potential fraud. |
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Aug. 11, 2022 |
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Pinal County Sheriff Appears At State Capitol For
Falsehood-Filled Presentation On Election Integrity |
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Republicans in the Arizona
State Legislature on Tuesday hosted a legislative
hearing that contrived to present "evidence" of
massive voter fraud during the 2020 general election
— and Pinal County's chief law enforcement officer
was present. Sheriff Mark Lamb paid a visit to the
Arizona State Capitol for the event, in which some
of the state's top Republicans welcomed members of
the "election integrity watchdog group" True the
Vote for a 90-minute panel session on unverified
claims the group has made regarding voter fraud in
Arizona. |
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Jun. 1, 2022 |
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Amid Sex Trafficking
Probe,
Matt Gaetz Shows
Up In Arizona For A Border Diatribe |
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"Controversial, embattled
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is going native. The
third-term U.S. congressman touched down in Phoenix
not long ago, donning an Arizona State University
Sun Devils cap and following the state’s GOP
kingpins to the U.S.-Mexico border for a screed
about the dangers of illegal immigration. Gaetz
accompanied Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb and
Arizona Congressman
Andy Biggs, who represents Mesa,
Chandler, Gilbert, and Queen Creek, for a stroll"" |
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Mar. 25, 2022 |
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He Calls Himself The
‘American
Sheriff.’ Whose Law
Is He Following? |
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"Lamb
supported the “stop
the steal” campaign
in Arizona and has
expressed sympathy
for the Jan. 6
rioters. He has
called vaccine
mandates “garbage”
and spoke at a
recent anti-vaccine
rally in Phoenix,
where he told
supporters, “We’re
going to find out
what kind of
patriots you are.
We’re going to find
out who is willing
to die for freedom.”
He also makes direct
appeals to citizens,
an effort that looks
more dangerous after
former President
Donald Trump
riled up supporters
on Jan. 6. For
example, Lamb, an
ardent defender of
the Second
Amendment,
has spoken in
support of the
formation of private
militias —
“well within the
Constitution,” he
told a group of
supporters in March
— and emphasized the
power of sheriffs in
Arizona, an
open-carry state, to
call local civilians
into service to
“suppress all
affrays,
insurrections and
riots that comes to
the attention of the
sheriff.” Last year,
as Black Lives
Matter protests
swept across the
country, he formed a
local civilian
“posse” to assist
his office with law
enforcement, even
though there were no
such protests in
Pinal County.
Through Protect
America Now, which
was founded by a
Republican
strategist and two
businesspeople
working with Lamb
and counterparts
nationwide, he is
marshalling dozens
of other elected
sheriffs and citizen
supporters around
these ideas —
“building an army”
as the group puts
it. The message:
Sheriffs are here to
protect your freedom
— including freedom
from your own
democratically
elected government.
Lamb’s advocacy
follows in the
tradition of
“constitutional
sheriffs,” who for
decades have
propagated the idea
— refuted by
constitutional
experts — that
sheriffs are the
supreme legal
authority in
America, above even
the president and
the Supreme Court,
and that they can
choose not to
enforce any law they
consider
unconstitutional.
Former sheriffs
Joe Arpaio and
David Clarke, along
with an estimated
138 currently
serving sheriffs,
are self-declared
adherents of the
philosophy, which
evolved out of the
white nationalist,
anti-Semitic
movement known as
“posse comitatus,”
meaning the “power
of the county.”" |
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Oct. 15, 2021 |
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A 2020 Stop the Steal rally in Phoenix (yes, it featured a gallows and noose). Ali Alexander would help plan the Jan. 6 insurrection, with help from Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. Rep. Anthony Kern attended the Jan. 6 riot. GOP Chair Kelli Ward organized the fake elector plot, and Oathkeeper Rep. Mark Finchem delivered the fake document to Andy Biggs in DC. The dentist hated by many siblings, Paul Gosar, rose on Jan. 6 to issue the first objection to the vote count just before all hell broke loose. He and Biggs ran, then returned to vote with the insurrectionists. |
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Photo: Daily Kos |
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Attorney General Opens Investigation Into Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb |
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Nov. 24, 2020 |
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Prominent Republicans Attended Fundraiser At Home Of Abortion Doctor Accused Of Pointing Gun At Pro-Life Protesters |
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Oct. 27, 2020 |
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"Charity" Founded by Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb Has $18,000 In Unaccounted Spending |
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Aug. 31, 2020 |
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Arizona Sheriff Who Refused To Enforce Lockdown Restrictions Has COVID-19 |
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Jun. 17, 2020 |
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Some Arizona Sheriffs Won't Arrest Or Cite Citizens Violating Governor's Order |
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May 1, 2020 |
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