Russell Pearce, author of SB 1070: 'It may take the shedding of blood' to save U.S.

Russell Pearce, the hard-right conservative who helped write Arizona’s toughest-in-the-nation law to curb illegal immigration years ago, said the U.S. may have to confront a violent chapter to save itself.

Pearce, the former president of the Arizona State Senate, made the remarks during a right-wing rally Monday dubbed “Patriotism Over Socialism.”

The rally included speeches by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Arizona Republican Party chairwoman Kelli Ward, and right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who was banned from Twitter and for using Uber and Lyft over her anti-Muslim posts. 

“And it may take the shedding of blood to keep this Republic,” said Pearce, who is employed by the Maricopa County Treasurer. “And I, for one, am willing to do whatever it takes.”

It is unclear what Pearce was speaking about leading up to the quote, which was captured on video.

He did not immediately respond to an interview request. 

Pearce's comments come against the backdrop of a deeply pessimistic electorate and amid the presidency of Donald Trump, who has said he'd like to punch a protester in the face and has labeled reporters "the enemy of the people."

American University professor Susan Benesch said comments such as Pearce’s lower the normal barriers to violence that people have.

It is difficult to quantitatively measure whether there has been an uptick in this sort of rhetoric, she said.

Benesch said incendiary language is linked to the pipe bombs sent to Democrats last year, and the 2018 murders of 11 Jewish people at the Pittsburgh synagogue.

“Both of these men were heavily influenced by other people who made violence seem not only acceptable, but necessary or justified because they were invariably describing threats,” she said. 

Benesch added of Pearce: “By talking this way, he increases the chance that other people will” engage in violence.

Groups labeled "extremist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist and hate groups, also attended the rally. They included Patriot Movement AZ, which has posed for pictures with Ward during her unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2018 and has disrupted various Democratic events by protesting, waving flags and shouting.

Recently, Patriot Movement AZ has protested outside of Phoenix-area churches that have agreed to provide temporary housing and humanitarian assistance to large groups of families being released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being apprehended at the border.

Pearce, who is employed by the Maricopa County Treasurer, has come under fire for anti-immigrant emails and comments he has made since voters recalled him from office eight years ago. He lashed out against today’s state legislators during his remarks Monday, according to a video published by azfamily.com.

“We have stupid leaders, stupid politicians, and it’s time we start replacing those that refuse to stand up for the values that we have shed blood for,” he said.

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Pearce, a Mesa Republican, lambasted lawmakers for repealing the decades-old law forbidding sexual education in public district and charter schools that promotes a “homosexual lifestyle.”

“They took all that away,” he said, appearing incredulous. “Why would they do that? Why would they put my children at risk?”

Video shows him saying, “...in fact, I’m so old, I can remember when there were only two genders.”

His comment provoked a round of laughter.

Pearce, best known for his role in passing the state's hard-line immigration law Senate Bill 1070, served as state Senate president before he was removed in a recall election in 2011. 

Back in 2014, GOP candidates swiftly distanced themselves from him after he said on his radio show that women on public assistance should be forced to go on birth control. The remarks cost him his position as first vice chairman of the state GOP. A year later, he caught heat for using his county-issued email to send send immigration-related missives, against the county’s email policies.

Have news about Arizona's U.S. senators or national politics?  Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com and 602-444-4712.

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