WASHINGTON – As chaos raged on the floor of the House of Representatives this week and Republicans struggled to choose a speaker, some lawmakers could not see the link to the violence of January 6, 2021, an uprising that occurred here two years earlier. .
Many of the same right-wing Republicans who supported or played a key role in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false claims of fraud are now engaged in a historic speaker’s blockade that has delayed the formation of the House and stalled all legislative business. stop. President Joe Biden called the episode “shameful” and warned it would tarnish America’s image around the world.
On Friday, the second anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol, the House will try for the 11th time to elect a speaker. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who also voted to cancel the 2020 presidential election, has failed to win a majority 10 times — more than any speaker election since the Civil War.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former House speaker, has watched the show unfold on the House floor this week along with other rank-and-file Democrats. He told reporters “thank God” the Republicans didn’t have a majority two years ago “because that day you had to be organized to prevent that from happening.” Pelosi defeated McCarthy, 216–209, in the first vote for speaker on January 3, 2021, an election that allowed the lower house to govern itself and, a few days later, certified the results of the 2020 election after hours of armed fighting in the Capitol.
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Pelosi isn’t the only Democrat to draw parallels between this week’s chaos and the Jan. 6 uprising. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) has noted that Republicans have a bad track record when it comes to governing, saying that in 2018 the GOP government shutdown was instigated over immigration and 2021 riots in the Capitol.
“Two years ago, tomorrow, I stood here with many of you in this room, because our democracy was under attack, because my friends on the other side tried to cancel the election,” Neguse said in his speech in the House. the floor.
“This isn’t the first rodeo, it’s been dysfunctional,” he said.
When Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) nominated former President Donald Trump for speaker, the man who pressured officials to overturn the 2020 presidential election and incited violent mobs to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) could not hold back
“They’re trying to overthrow our government!” Cohen shouted on the House floor. Gaetz didn’t respond, and Trump ended up losing another election — badly.
Republicans, meanwhile, have avoided making any mention of the anniversary of the January 6 attack. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus that opposed McCarthy’s speaker bid, claimed he and his fellow rabble-rousers were doing it to save the republic. “It’s not about a timeline, it’s about democracy,” Perry told reporters who asked about his next step.
Perry is leading efforts to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results on Trump’s behalf. He also requested a presidential pardon, according to the House select committee investigating the January 6 uprising.
A pair of police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 also weighed in among this week’s failed speakers. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who faced racial slurs and harassment from rioters on January 6, responded to some Republican lawmakers who sought to downplay the drama by calling democracy “messy.” In a tweet, Dunn called the line “ironic,” adding that defending democracy on Jan. 6 was actually the bad part.
Former Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and shocked with a stun gun during the attack on the Capitol, paid for McCarthy’s new office in the Capitol.
“I heard he was in trouble… I just came here to rub it in,” Fanone toward reporter, pointing to the place where the speaker’s name is usually written on a wooden plaque.
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Fanone also spoke at a rally Thursday outside the Capitol, where he criticized McCarthy for making major concessions to far-right lawmakers, including offering him the chairmanship and more power, as part of his bid to become speaker.
“This is just the beginning. This type of chaos will happen every day in the House because some of the most extreme politicians in our country are holding our democracy hostage,” Fanone said in a public meeting. “The elected leaders allowed this to happen, but this week the people who supported and even participated in the rebellion are now the leaders of the new House majority.”
Biden will present Dunn, Fanone and 10 others who “demonstrated courage and selflessness” in defense of democracy on January 6, 2021, with the Presidential Citizens Medal at the White House on Friday. The award is one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, and it will be Biden’s first.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.), the Democratic nominee for speaker, will also hold an event at the Capitol on Friday morning commemorating the second anniversary of the attack.