By Hank Russell
The New York State Democrats said that Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman had met with a person who has been nicknamed “the architect of January 6.”
According to the NYS Dems, Blakeman was the keynote speaker at the Queens Village Republican Club’s Lincoln Dinner honoring attorney John Eastman on March 1. A Politico article mentioned that Eastman “played a central role in President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.”
According to Politico, Eastman provided legal assistance to Trump in helping to get the election results overturned in major swing states. He provided legal filings which were later found to have information that was either false or could not be verified. He also drafted a Supreme Court brief and sought to have then-Vice President Mike Pence use his position to block certification of the election results. On January 6, 2021, when Pence refused, protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Eastman spoke to the crowd that day, the Los Angeles Times reported, saying that the election was stolen from Trump. In 2024, Eastman pleaded not guilty for allegedly joining in a plot to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona, according to CNN.
“Bruce Blakeman is ‘MAGA all the way,’ and he’s proving it by spouting the far-right Great Replacement Theory, spreading conspiracies about ‘rig[ged]’ elections, and hitting the campaign trail with an architect of January 6 itself,” said NYS Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick. “New Yorkers want a governor who brings costs down and fights for their families, not a MAGA lackey like Blakeman putting on a show for Mar-a-Lago.”
In response, Blakeman said, “I have no idea who John Eastman is or what he stands for. This is another desperate attempt from Kathy Hochul to distract from her high taxes and high utility rates that have made New Yorkers miserable.”