Coalition to Expel Alaska Rep. David Eastman Forms

A group calling themselves The Coalition to Expel David Eastman has formed. The group is comprised of members of the public and several organizations that include the Anchorage NAACP, Sol de Medianoche, Growing Alaskan Leaders and the Party for Socialism and Liberation who seek Alaska Rep. David Eastman's, R-Wasilla, expulsion from the Alaska Legislature.

"Rep. Eastman violated the constitution and has publicly admitted that he is a member of the Oath Keepers. He has defended the Oath Keepers. He also has made public statements that can only be categorized as admiration for Adolph Hitler. The legislature must remove Rep. Eastman to protect the integrity of the AK Constitution," the Coalition said in a press release issued today.

Eastman went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC last year and photographed himself standing next to a quote attributed to mass murderer Adolf Hitler, which he used to compare President Biden's vaccine mandate to Nazism. On September 16, Eastman shared a link to social media that directed individuals to a Holocaust-denial website.

Eastman was revealed to be a lifetime member of the far-right anti-government militia group Oath Keepers after a data leak last year. The founder of the Oath Keepers militia and ten alleged co-conspirators will be the first to stand trial on seditious conspiracy charges in connection with the Capitol insurgency.

Eastman's Oath Keeper membership is the Coalition's basis for seeking his expulsion. Article XII, Section 4 of the Alaska Constitution states that nobody who aids or belongs to any party or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States or of the State shall be qualified to hold any public office of trust or profit under this constitution.

A petition seeking signatures in support of Eastman's expulsion was launched last year and collected just under 1,500 signatures. A second recently launched online petition started by the Party for Socialism and Liberation - Anchorage has obtained nearly 2,800 signatures.

A website serving as the focal point for expelling the Alaska representative is a compendium of news and media articles written about Eastman's support of the Oath Keepers group, his continual references to Adolf Hitler and his attendance at a Stop the Steal rally that served as the prelude to the January 6 insurrection.

Eastman, who has previously said the violence carried out at the US Capitol was the work of Antifa, claimed in a statement posted to his website over the weekend that he was a victim of "Cancel Culture wolves," and that he was refusing to step aside. In the same statement, Eastman claimed rather incredibly that Ashli Babbitt had intervened to stop the violence at the destruction of property at the Capitol on January 6.

Babbitt was a supporter of Donald Trump and a follower of QAnon conspiracy theorist L. Lin Wood and was part of a horde of supporters of Donald Trump who attacked the Capitol Building seeking to overturn his tremendous defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Her death became a rallying cry for the far right, who have described Babbitt as some kind of martyr. Trump has stated that she was murdered and suggested, falsely, that the officer who shot her worked for a high-ranking Democrat.

Alaska Rep. and Save Anchorage member Kevin McCabe said over the weekend that while he was "very concerned about the alleged issues surrounding Rep. David Eastman and his membership in the Oath Keepers," he was far more concerned with the consequences of any contemplated action to expel Eastman and alleged that many of those calling for Eastman’s ouster do not even know, or have never seen, the Oath Keepers manifesto, rules, platform or ideals. McCabe claimed that Alaskans believed in "hysterical left bloggers, the left-leaning mainstream media, and the Twitter warriors instead of reading the Oath Keepers constitution themselves."

The Oath Keepers website is still available but contains limited information. Oath Keeper leader Stuart Rhodes has been charged with seditious conspiracy for allegedly orchestrating a months-long campaign of politically motivated violence to block President Biden's inauguration, which culminated in the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Rhodes, who has been jailed pending trial, has raised $80 out of a $250,00 goal for his legal defense fund.

More information from the non-partisan Coalition that seeks Eastman's expulsion should be coming down the pike soon. The group says they've received a large show of public support since launching their initiative.

You can follow the Coalition to Expel Eastman on Twitter and join their associated Facebook group here.