Laxalt “Refuses To Back FBI” & “Took Donation From Accused Arms Smuggler”

NBC News: Republican challenger in Nevada Senate race refuses to back FBI, calls it ‘far too political’
The American Independent: ‘Tough on crime’ Nevada GOP Senate nominee Laxalt took donation from accused arms smuggler

Reports are highlighting how Adam Laxalt is attacking law enforcement – telling NBC News he “refused to support the FBI” – while new reporting revealed he “took the legal maximum from Curtis Debord, who was indicted for illegal weapons trafficking.”

See for yourself:

NBC News: Republican challenger in Nevada Senate race refuses to back FBI, calls it ‘far too political’
By Natasha Korecki
September 28, 2022

• Laxalt, a Republican who was once Nevada’s top law enforcement official, refused to support the FBI.

• Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general, who is now locked in a margin-of-error race with Cortez Masto, tweeted last month that the FBI’s actions in Florida were “just another example of the growing weaponization of our federal agencies by the Left.”

• Cortez Masto’s campaign spokesman, Josh Marcus-Blank, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that Laxalt has “attacked federal law enforcement” and “sided with insurrectionists who went after Capitol Police.”

The American Independent: ‘Tough on crime’ Nevada GOP Senate nominee Laxalt took donation from accused arms smuggler
The Nevada Republican took the legal maximum from Curtis Debord, who was indicted for illegal weapons trafficking in the late 1990s.
By Josh Israel
September 29, 2022

• Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt, who is running as a tough-on-crime candidate, has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from a donor who was once indicted for illegally importing and selling weapons.

• Debord, an executive at the Nevada-based defense contractor U.S. Ordnance, gave Laxalt the legal maximum contribution of $5,800 in September 2021, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

• State campaign finance records show that since 2018, Debord has given a total of $55,000 to Laxalt’s state campaigns and to Morning in Nevada PAC, a conservative political action committee.

• In 1997, Debord and another individual were indicted in a federal court on charges of conspiracy to smuggle $5 million worth of illegal weapons and weapons parts from Vietnam into the United States. In 1998, the two were also charged with witness tampering and selling arms without a license.

MSNBC: The biggest problem with Nevada’s Laxalt slamming the FBI
The biggest problem with Nevada’s Adam Laxalt slamming the FBI is that he doesn’t appear to have any idea what he’s talking about.
By Steve Benen
September 29, 2022

• More than a few GOP lawmakers have been unsubtle in their criticisms of the FBI, falsely accusing the bureau of being politicized, peddling odd conspiracy theories and, in some instances, even calling for the agency to be defunded by Congress.

• Let’s not overlook the Republican candidates who read from a similarly partisan script.

• Part of what makes rhetoric like Laxalt’s so problematic is the irony… perhaps he should show greater caution before failing to show support for law enforcement.

• If Laxalt genuinely believes that “the Left” has politicized the FBI, then the Nevadan has no idea what he’s talking about.
  

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