Riggleman: My MOM texted me and said ‘I’m sorry you were ever elected’ after Trump criticism

Former Republican Representative Denver Riggleman said his mother practically disowned him after he criticized former President Donald Trump for retweeting a QAnon believer’s account on CNN before the 2020 election.

“You are now part of the swamp… I’m sorry you were ever elected… You are officially a politician… I cried for you and my heart was broken because of you,” Riggleman wrote that his mother texted him in his upcoming book, The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation to January 6.

The Hill newspaper got an early copy of the book, in which Riggleman wrote about his mother’s reaction when he became a public critic of the ex-president over Trump’s habit of spreading conspiracy theories.

During the October 2020 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Riggleman called it a “dangerous tweet” after Trump shared a post promoting a conspiracy theory about Bin Laden’s raid making its way through QAnon circles.

“What does it take to wake you up, son…I love you so much, but I can’t stand by and listen to your elitist attitude and be praised by elite journalists and Democrats,” he said. texted after his appearance on CNN.

Denver Riggleman’s book, The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into Janyary 6 to be released Tuesday

Prior to the CNN appearance, Riggleman co-sponsored a House resolution condemning QAnon, which received bipartisan support, but 17 Republicans did not vote.

On CNN, he called some of the theories put forth by QAnon supporters “bats aren’t crazy.”

“I knew my mom and I weren’t on the same page politically, but this is something else,” Riggleman said. “The hope for a mostly normal relationship seemed vague.”

“She would almost deny me,” he added.

Riggleman wrote that the relationship between him and his mother had soured earlier when he left the Mormon church.

They got closer when he got into Republican politics — unsuccessfully for the governor of Virginia in 2016 and then defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn – who happens to be actress Olivia Wilde’s mother – during a colorful congress race in 2018.

Cockburn accused Riggleman of being obsessed with “Bigfoot erotica,” among other things, after posting several funny drawings of the faux forest giant, including genitalia, on social media.

In 2020, Riggleman lost a Republican primary in his rural district of Charlottesville, Virginia, after leading a same-sex marriage.

He has since left the Republican Party.

“My relationship with my mother survived my break with her Mormon church,” Riggleman wrote. “I wasn’t sure it would survive the Church of Trump.”

Riggleman appeared on CBS Mornings Monday and hinted that things were better.

He said he believed that ‘The love for my mother and her love for me will overcome that. And it has overcome it.’

Riggleman also used his mother as an example of how “this kind of information warfare, this digital metastasis of madness, can get everywhere, right?”

“If it’s the president telling me and all the people around him, then that’s obvious.” [has] to be true,” he said. “It’s just not, it’s bullshit.”

“But what I wanted to explain to people is that there are so many families who are almost traumatized and trying to talk to individuals about something that is absolutely not true, right? It is a lie. It’s just not true. There’s no—there’s no analysis,” he continued.

Riggleman’s new book focuses primarily on his experience on the January 6 House selection committee, which he did after leaving Congress in January 2021 — his service ended just three days before the Capitol attack.

Riggleman, who was previously with military intelligence, served on the committee as a senior staff member from August 2021 to April.

Riggleman said he left the GOP in part because of some text messages he sent Trump-aligned officials for his work on the Jan. 6 committee.

“If QAnon or these conspiracy theories have saturated the GOP at the highest leadership level, I think it might be time for me to leave this kind of career,” Riggleman said.