Frederica Freyberg:

In the last week, the Republican National Committee called the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 “legitimate political discourse.” Later walking that back some to say they didn’t mean the rioters. The RNC also censured two of their colleagues for participating in a congressional committee investigating January 6. This drew condemnation and a joint statement from more than 100 Republicans, including leaders and former officials who said, “There can be no justifying the horrific attack that day, and we condemn the committee for excusing the actions of men and women who battered police officers, ransacked our nation’s Capitol, calling for hanging the Vice President of the United States, and sought to overturn a free and fair election.” Wisconsin’s own former Republican U.S. Representative Reid Ribble, who served the 8th congressional district, was among those who signed the letter. He joins me now from his home in Tennessee. And Mr. Ribble, very nice to see you again.

Reid Ribble:

It’s good to see you. Glad to be with you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So was the censure of two members of Congress kind of the last straw for you here?

Reid Ribble:

Well, I’ve been fairly outspoken about it, on a number of the media cases as well as on my own Twitter account, about January 6th. The censure just had a tendency to rub me the wrong way because A) the RNC really doesn’t get involved much with congressional races and B) the language of the censure where they act like it was normal political discourse was just offensive to me. That’s not what political discourse looks like in this country. I served six years in the House of Representatives and not a single person ever came in and tried to beat down my door or threaten me when I was in Congress. That’s what real discourse looks like, when voters come in and they talk with their elected officials about what concerns them and try to address any grievance they might have. Breaking windows, injuring police officers, violently attacking people, there’s no place for that in our country.

Frederica Freyberg:

The letter that you signed off on described the RNC of ceding control to “grifters and extremists.” Do you believe that the party has turned to that?

Reid Ribble:

Well, there are certain elements of it for sure. I mean, I would say that former president Trump is leading the pack in that regard. I don’t think that language was too subtle. And this sense of as long as we keep up the victimhood and making people feel like they’ve been victimized here, they’ll keep sending in their money, it’s pretty obvious that’s a strategy that’s been going on.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the RNC statement that the January 6 attack was “legitimate political discourse” sparked outrage, as you just mentioned, but what about the fact that they walked that back then and said that, you know, they weren’t talking about the kinds of people who broke windows or injured police officers?

Reid Ribble:

I can’t help but that — every single time you make a statement, walking it back is always less covered than the actual statement itself. And what they realized, and I think what Ronna McDaniel realized is they kind of stepped in it with that statement, and they wanted to distract away from what they said the January 6th committee was doing, while simultaneously shining this bright spotlight on it for political — for people who live in the political world, that was practically political malpractice.

Frederica Freyberg:

Should ordinary citizens and voters just accept that this is the kind of the new or at least faction of the new Republican Party?

Reid Ribble:

It sure feels like that to me. And even as I’m out and about and I talk with a lot of folks, there’s kind of a ho-hum attitude about the extremes on both sides of the party. Whether it’s the AOC-Bernie Sanders wing wanting to spend $6 trillion that everybody knows is never going to happen, or the hard right wing, you know, in flaming up passions the way they did that caused January 6 and saying the election was stolen. Most Americans, they want professionals to deal with this stuff and be civil one toward another, and it’s this small fringe on both sides of the parties that make the most noise. It’s unfortunate.

Frederica Freyberg:

And there is a lot of noise. So what would you tell your former constituents here in Wisconsin who may now follow and support the words and deeds of Republican leaders who may disregard the violence and the outcome of the election in fealty to Donald Trump, what would you tell your former constituents?

Reid Ribble:

I would tell them that they need to look at the facts. President Trump challenged this election 60 times in the courts. He lost. He challenged it with numerous recounts. He lost. He’s challenged it with several audits. He’s lost. The fact of the matter is, there was not significant enough fraud in this election to have a different result. And whether they like it or not, President Joe Biden is the president of the United States and their best chance of changing the discussion would be at the polls in November to give the Congress to their preferred candidates so that the policies that they’re hoping to see achieved get done through a normal political means in this country, but not through violence or threats of intimidation. I don’t think that’s how Americans should operate.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your response or reaction to the ongoing investigation into the 2020 election here in Wisconsin?

Reid Ribble:

I think they ought to put to bed. I mean, the fact of the matter is, President Biden won the election because too many Republicans decided to split their vote. They voted for their Republican state assembly member. They voted for their Republican senators in the state of Wisconsin. They voted for Republican members of Congress, and then they voted for somebody else or didn’t vote for president. There were enough of those people who split their votes that caused president Trump to lose the election. And the count’s been done. It’s been certified. It’s been recounted. If they have a concern about election integrity, they should deal with that from a legal standpoint, but hanging on to what happened there and trying to say it was fraudulent doesn’t help anybody. Doesn’t change anything.

Frederica Freyberg:

We leave it there, former congressman Reid Ribble. Thanks very much for joining us.

Reid Ribble:

You’re welcome. Thank you, Frederica.