COVID-19
In 2020,during the COVID-19 pandemic,Diamond opposed public-health measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Diamond opposed Governor Tom Wolf's statewide mandate requiring the wearing of face coverings in indoor public places (saying that the order promoted "hatred and intolerance across Pennsylvania"),opposed Wolf's closure of non-essential businesses,and called on Wolf to fire Dr. Rachel Levine,the Pennsylvania secretary of health. [21] Diamond spoke at anti-shutdown rallies at the State Capitol and sponsored a resolution seeking to reverse Wolf's closure of nonessential businesses;the resolution passed the Pennsylvania General Assembly,but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that it had no effect. [21] In May 2020,Diamond bragged on social media about shopping without a face covering. [22] In July 2020,Diamond mocked a statement against discrimination against LGBT people issued by Levine,who is transgender,by copying-and-pasting her statement and replacing the term "LGBTQ" with the word "unmasked" to allege discrimination against what he called the "unmasked community" (people who refuse to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic). Governor Tom Wolf condemned Diamond's statement and said,"We need the Republicans to stop spreading misinformation to the general public,and we badly need them to be more responsible and more responsive to the health and wellbeing of all Pennsylvanians. This dangerous,reckless behavior is not welcome in Pennsylvania." [23] [24] Wolf called for the legislature to censure Diamond over the statement,but the Republican-controlled legislature chose not to do so. [21]
Scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential Election
On December 4,2020,John Eastman,a Trump adviser,law professor,and senior member of the conservative legal group,the Federalist Society,emailed to Diamond instructions for an illegal scheme to allow Pennsylvania's legislature to award Pennsylvania's electoral votes to Trump,despite Trump having lost the state by over 80,000 votes. Politico published the email in May,2022. [25] Diamond was one of 26 Pennsylvania House Republicans who called for the state's certification of presidential electors to be withdrawn and supported a resolution calling on Congress to consider Pennsylvania electors to be "in dispute."
The resolution echoed Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud and his unsuccessful attempt to overturn the election results. Diamond made his call even after litigation brought by Trump's campaign were dismissed due to lack of evidence. [26] Diamond also joined eight other Republican state representatives,led by Daryl Metcalfe,who filed a lawsuit asking a Pennsylvania court to invalidate the state's final vote count;this claim was based on debunked conspiracy theories and claims that had already been rejected by state and federal courts in earlier litigation. [27] The suit was swiftly dismissed. [28]
In 2019 and 2020,Diamond proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Constitution that would eliminate statewide elections for state appellate judges (the judges of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,Commonwealth Court,and Superior Court) would no longer be elected in statewide elections,but would be instead by elected by districts. If adopted,the proposal would tilt the composition of the courts in favor of Republicans. The Republican-controlled General Assembly advanced the proposal for geographic districts for state supreme court districts,on a largely party-line vote,with all Democrats and a few Republicans opposed. [29] [30] [31]
