House committee report shows GOP lawmakers' role in Capitol insurrection

The House already impeached Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, saying his months of lies about voter fraud, his call for his supporters to get “wild” in order to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory, and then his comments supporting the insurrectionists’ behavior both during and after the attack, made him culpable for inciting the riot that ensued.

But now, a Democratic House committee chair wants a review to determine whether any GOP members of Congress are similarly culpable for spreading the lie about voter fraud and a stolen election that helped rile up the Trump-supporting mob that attacked the Capitol in order to stop Congress from voting to certify the Electoral College results.

That member, House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren, released a report Thursday night that examined the social media postings of GOP lawmakers who questioned the results of the Electoral College.

In a forward of the report, Lofgren said, “Many of former President Trump’s false statements were made in very public settings. Had Members made similar public statements in the weeks and months before the January 6th attack?”

The report found 120 GOP lawmakers told similar lies and hyped their plan to stop certification of Biden’s win.

“Like former President Trump, any elected Member of Congress who aided and abetted the insurrection or incited the attack seriously threatened our democratic government,” Lofgren wrote in the report. “They would have betrayed their oath of office and would be implicated in the same constitutional provision cited in the Article of Impeachment. That provision prohibits any person who has previously taken an oath as a member of Congress to support the Constitution but subsequently engaged in insurrection or rebellion from serving in Congress.”

Among the list of members who spread the lie about voter fraud and pushed the effort to overturn Biden’s victory is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

It includes his tweet promoting a Nov. 5 appearance on Fox News where he falsely says Trump won the election and urged Republicans to “stop” Biden from being sworn in.

“President Trump won this election so everyone who’s listening, do not be quiet,” McCarthy said in the video he tweeted. “Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes. We need to unite together. You don’t need to be a Republican. If you believe in every legal vote needs to count, you believe in the American process, join together and let’s stop this.”

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is also in the report.

On the day of the insurrection, Scalise tweeted that, “Many states didn’t carry out elections according to the rules set by their legislatures, as the Constitution requires” — a claim dozens of judges said was false as they threw out Trump and his GOP allies’ failed efforts to overturn Trump’s loss.

Scalise used that false claim to say he was going to vote to block certification of Biden’s win — something he did even after the insurrectionists waged their attack.

Also included in the report is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who has already been removed from her committee assignments for her violent calls to execute House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among other offensive comments.

Greene tweeted about a stolen election multiple times, and used the same “fight” language Trump did. She even attended “stop the steal” rallies — and urged her followers multiple times to go to the Jan. 6 “stop the steal” rally that preceded the attack.

“The time to STAND UP for @realDonaldTrump is RIGHT NOW! Republicans can’t back down. This loser mindset is how the Democrats win. President Trump has fought for us, we have to fight for him. We won’t forget. Trust me,” Greene tweeted on Nov. 6. 

It’s unclear what the next step is following Lofgren’s report.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) already filed a resolution in January calling for the expulsion of members of Congress who lied about fraud and voted to overturn the 2020 election even after the insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.

“Tomorrow, I’m introducing my resolution to expel the members of Congress who tried to overturn the election and incited a white supremacist coup attempt that has left people dead,” Bush tweeted on Jan. 10, four days after the insurrection. “They have violated the 14th Amendment. We can’t have unity without accountability.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.