Wisconsin's Top Republican Blasts Recall Effort Against Him

Thursday, March 21st, 2024 -- 2:00 PM

(AP) Wisconsin’s top Republican derided supporters of former President Donald Trump who are trying to recall him from office as “whack jobs and morons,” predicting Tuesday that their effort would fail and they would be subject to fraud charges.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is being targeted for recall because he refused to impeach the state's top elections official or proceed with attempting to decertify President Joe Biden's 2020 victory in Wisconsin.

His actions angered Trump, who accused Vos of covering up election corruption, while Trump's followers mounted an unsuccessful primary challenge in 2022 and are now trying to force a recall election. Vos lashed out at recall organizers at a WisPolitics.com luncheon Tuesday, saying organizers are "so out of touch with reality."

“The people who did this? Whack jobs and morons,” he said. They submitted petitions last week. An initial review by the Wisconsin Elections Commission determined they did not have enough valid signatures from the district Vos was most recently elected to serve in 2022.

Also, numerous people have said their signatures were forged, leading to an investigation by the Racine County district attorney. Recall organizers on Monday said that some “unverified petitions slipped through due to a volunteer oversight,” but they called it an isolated mistake.

Vos has until Thursday to challenge signatures. Vos said he has found “a ton of fraud,” including up to 400 duplicated signatures, missing and misspelled information, and the names of people who didn’t actually sign, including his own.

He predicted fewer than half the nearly 11,000 signatures submitted will be found to be valid. Vos said he hoped the elections commission would refer to local prosecutors anyone determined to have committed a crime related to the petition circulation.

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