Update: this article originally stated that Steve Pearce represents Arizona rather than New Mexico. We apologize for the error.
On Tuesday, Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico announced the hiring of a new press secretary named Rebekah Stevens. On Wednesday, a progressive New Mexico blog outed Stevens as the woman behind @PolitixFireball, a right wing blog and Twitter account known for unhinged and vitriolic attacks against just about everybody.
Stevens is also the elected Vice Chair of the Grant County Republican Party, making her not only a Congressional staffer but a high-profile elected party official in the state.
Taxpayer dollars will now be used to fund the salary of Ms. Stevens who, while running a far-right Twitter account and accompanying blog, was well known for her myriad racist, xenophobic, and defamatory tirades against everyone from public school teachers to respected journalists to political campaign consultants to President Obama himself.
In her tweets, she also makes light of the holocaust (“Jews went up in smoke”), says all Muslims are “blood-lust” conquerors, equates slavery to abortion, compares political reporters to war criminals and compares President Obama to Hitler…
The @PolitixFireball account has been locked since yesterday, but it has been suspended by Twitter more than once in the past. Of course, @PolitixFireball has always denounced those suspensions as liberal attacks on free speech rather than the consequences of her deranged and abusive behavior.
While looking at her associated RedState diary, we noticed that Stevens has tagged all of her complaints about “Twitter Gulag” with Brett Kimberlin‘s name, while at the associated WordPress blog, Stevens seems to regard Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs as the bogeyman behind the social media conspiracy against her free speech. This dissonance does not matter to Stevens, of course, because one devil is as good as another when you want to feel persecuted. And who needs to feel persecution more than a disinhibited Republican?
Confirming that Stevens is behind @PolitixFireball yesterday, Justin Horwath of the Santa Fe Reporter — who has endured his share of attacks from her — got a quote that speaks volumes about the low standards of conservative politicians.
(Todd) Willens, the Pearce chief of staff, stopped short of saying he knew Stevens was behind account, but he did say this:
“And she took the job knowing that that stuff—if she was behind it or any employee was behind it—they can’t continue doing that,” Willens adds. “It’d be an employee of the House of Representatives. So as far as going forward, I have no concerns whatsoever.”
As Progress Now New Mexico points out, Stevens’s tweets as @PolitixFireball are far more extreme than anything the “Southern Avenger” wrote before serving on Senator Rand Paul’s staff. Like many trolls with whom we have dealt in the right wing Kimberlin “scene,” Stevens has used anonymity as an opportunity to be a terrible person. But she no longer has that luxury, and we will be keeping a very close eye on her career.
Rep. Pearce is a Representative of New Mexico – FYI
Steve Pearce is a congressman in New Mexico, not Arizona!
New Mexico, not Arizona.
Steve Pearce is from New Mexico not Arizona.
The Steve Pearce who hired Rebekah Stevens is the one who represents New Mexico’s Second Congressional district, not the Arizonan Steve Pierce who serves in the Arizona state legislature.
Great post, Xenophon. Just one little edit: Steve Pearce is an incumbent congressman from New Mexico, not Arizona. Thanks!
We apologize for the late-night editing flub, which we have now fixed.
Rebekah Stevens can now be sued. I’m sure @KathleenSweets will love to drain Rebekah Stevens dry after the constant harassment from her after her daughter died. Rebekah Stevens’ family can now expect the same bit of karma coming their way considering what she put other people’s families through. Is Rebekah the same one with a murderer in her family? A brother? Or am I confusing her with another unhinged wingnut?