By Molly Boigon June 24, 2021

Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican, appeared on an antisemitic online TV network last week to promote the state’s baseless 2020 election audit.

The appearance, originally reported by a Twitter account called AZ Right Wing Watch and later covered by the left-leaning watchdog Media Matters, featured Rogers in an interview with the white nationalist Lauren Witzke and a co-host, Edward Szall on TruNews. That network is infamous for a segment about a “Jew coup” against former president Donald Trump, claims that “seditious Jews” were behind the impeachment process and most recently, a statement from the platform’s founder that “the American people are being oppressed by Jewish tyrants.”

Thank you, Lauren Witzke and @realEdwardSzall with @TruNews for having me on to discuss the #AZAudit recently! @HoldTheLinePAC https://t.co/pWJa7fpGbf

Antisemitism Decoded

Arno Rosenfeld helps you separate the signal from the noise about antisemitism and understand current debates over Jewish safety.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) June 22, 2021

Rogers, who represents Arizona’s sixth district in the state senate, which includes Flagstaff, went on the program to discuss the weeks-long review of 2.1 million votes in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which President Joe Biden won by more than 45,000 votes. A Phoenix judge threw out an early effort to audit a larger share of ballots in the county, and Scott Jarrett, the county’s director of election day and emergency voting, said last November that Republicans and Democrats who tested the ballots “themselves found zero variance” in the results.

The Trump White House came under fire in early 2020 for granting TruNews press credentials for Trump’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The then-president also took a question from a TruNews reporter in 2018 during a press conference and Donald Trump Jr. interviewed with TruNews in 2019.

TruNews was formally rebuked by two members of Congress in 2019 after the network’s host, Pastor Rick Wiles, said that “when Jews take over a country,” “they kill millions of Christians.” Rogers, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has said she is a member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group that showed up in force at the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

The June 18 TruNews appearance was highlighted on Rogers’ website, with an invitation to “Watch her appearance below.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount