Over 700 individuals have been arrested for participating in the January 6 riots at the Capitol last year. Al Jazeera has a good round-up of where these cases stand; you can read it and find out what happened to the QAnon Shaman guy, the Confederate flag guy, the guy who got into Nancy Pelosi’s office, etc. But missing from the reporting and remembrances of this horrific event is any mention of Sara McArthur-Pierce, the one-time “friend” of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, who appeared on multiple episodes of the show last season and also in photos taken outside the Capitol on the day of the riots.
McArthur-Pierce, who also sometimes goes by Sara Lea McArthur, was introduced on the show as a friend of cast member Whitney “Wild” Rose. She did not do much to move the storyline along, but in one episode, she showed up to a birthday party in a pink mini-dress and sang a sexy version of “Happy Birthday” to the wrong person. Producers have not explained her absence from season two (currently airing on Bravo), but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that she is an unrepentant Trump fan and QAnon believer.
A few days after the riots, McArthur-Pierce admitted to attending protests in D.C. but denied entering the Capitol building in a series of statements on Instagram (her account has since been deleted). “For the record I NEVER entered the capitol,” she wrote. “The media is lying to you about what ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE!”
Rose attempted to distance herself from her friend at the time, assuring her fans that she did not participate in the insurrection herself.
Since then, McArthur-Pierce has continued to make her presence known at protests in the Salt Lake City area. In May, she was charged with a misdemeanor alongside one Kaleb Pierce (most likely her husband) and ten others for disrupting a Granite School Board meeting to protest the district’s mask mandate. It’s not clear if she has children who attend Granite schools; the district said at the time that many of those charged were not affiliated with the district in any way. The case is ongoing.
On this week’s episode of RHOSLC, Rose remarked that she likes her friends like she likes her skincare: “non-toxic and cruelty free.” Many fans were quick to ask whether this ham-fisted attempt to promote her recently rebranded skincare line applies to her old friend McArthur-Pierce.
So far she has not replied.
