Arizona State Rep Walter Blackman: ‘America is Under Attack’

Arizona legislator Walter Blackman addressing a crowd at a rally to decertify Arizona’s 2020 presidential election. (Youtube screenshot)

PHOENIX, AZ – The following is a transcript of the brief remarks made by Arizona Representative Walter Blackman on Monday, at a rally calling for the desertification of the 2020 election. The rally was held in front of the Arizona War Heroes Monument at the state house in Phoenix.

“This is the deal: We are in a war right now. Our country, our state, is under attack. We’re in a war ladies and gentlemen. If we don’t think that this is serious, then we need to do a self assessment.

“In want to tell you a story real quick, because I’m a veteran.

“When I was in Iraq – we were there in 2004 – one of my primary tasks as a tank commander was to over-watch their polling places. 2004 was the first year that Iraqis were able to vote. So while I’m sitting on my tank, about eight or nine in the morning, I see this older gentleman come walking by. So I jumped down off my tank and I asked him, ‘Sir, where are you going?’ and in his broken English he says, ‘I’m going to vote for the first time.’

“This is a man who is 80 years old — who lived under oppression and tyranny.

“The 15th Amendment gave Black Americans and newly freed slaves, the right to vote.

“Democrats didn’t want any of that. As a matter of fact, every democrat said ‘NO’ when every Republican said ‘YES.’

“Why do I tell you that? Because the Democrats are trying to take your vote away again. They’re not just trying to take away Black Americans votes — they’re trying to take away American votes.

“What we need to see here is the beginning of something that is sinister.

“There are men and women who fought for our country. This day – on December 7 – Pearl Harbor happened. That’s why we see these flags at half mast. That’s why we have a namesake, USS Arizona.

“There are folks that were buried in that ship. There are folks that have lost their lives in the fields of Vietnam. There are people who have lost their lives in Korea, Desert Storm, Grenada, Iraqi Freedom – all the wars, that the United States have fought.

“We have men and women that have bled for this country. And not only bled for the freedom and democracy and a republic, but bled for the right for people to vote. And when that is taken – that basic, fundamental right to ensure that who we want is in the office – when that is taken, it’s an attack on all of us.

“Not just those folks who think that they won.

“Because what we’re going to see, if they get away with this, is we’re going to see down the road that somebody more sinister than the leftists that stole this election is going to come along and take the vote from everybody to include them.

“But they’re not looking at that.

“The leftists only believe in power.

“They don’t believe in making sure that Americans — and Arizonians — have the right to live a life the way they want to live. Arizonians and Americans have a right to stand up when there is tyranny, or there is something going wrong with their elections. Americans have a right to be out front of these issues; these basic issues that move our country forward. And years from now, our children are gonna look at us, and they’re gonna say one of two things.

“They’re gonna say, ‘Thank you for fighting for a cause so I can live in the type of country you did.’

“Or they’re going to say, ‘Why didn’t you fight?’

“Now before I get off this mic, I want you to think of something. Some of y’all may remember this.

“In 1962, President John F. Kennedy – who would be a conservative today – was asked, ‘Why go to the moon?’ And President Kennedy said, ‘We go to the moon and do the other things that are hard in life, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’

“This, what we are doing – protecting our Republic, our vote, our right – is a hard thing that we are doing.

“Don’t feel like it’s for loss.

“Keep God in your lives as you go and pray at night for our country, for our president. Keep God in your life as you pray for representatives and senators to do the right thing. Keep God in life when you bend down tonight, and let Him know how thankful you are for this country, and the men and women who defend it. And you today who are fighting for it still.

“God bless you.

“God bless Arizona and God bless the United States.”

(U.S. Army veteran Walter Blackman is the first Black Republican elected to the Arizona Legislature.)