212 House Republicans vote against securing the Capitol

Every House Republican on Thursday voted against a bill that would authorize funding to both repair the damage Donald Trump-supporting rioters inflicted upon the Capitol, as well as increase security to prevent similar attacks in the future.

The $1.9 billion emergency security supplemental — which allots money for Capitol Police equipment and training, as well as to harden the Capitol complex’s security for the future — passed by a vote of 213 to 212. No Republican lawmakers voted in favor. Three progressive Democrats voted no, while three other progressive Democrats voted present — apparently in protest of increasing funding to policing, according to Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman.

House Republican leaders urged GOP lawmakers to vote against the bill, according to a report from the Hill.

The vote came two days after Republicans tried and failed to weaken the security funding bill, with GOP Rep. Bob Good of Virginia trying to take money meant to strengthen the Capitol emergency response and redirect it to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico.

It also came less than one day after 175 Republicans voted against creating a commission to get to the bottom of how the Jan. 6 attack — in which the pro-Trump mob broke into the Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s win — happened, and how to prevent attacks like it down the road.

Republicans are against the commission because they fear the review could keep attention on the attack, and imperil the GOP’s chances in the 2022 midterm elections.

“I want our midterm message to be on the kinds of things that the American people are dealing with: That’s jobs and wages and the economy and national security, safe streets and strong borders — not relitigating the 2020 elections,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told CNN.

“A lot of our members, and I think this is true of a lot of House Republicans, want to be moving forward and not looking backward. Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 elections I think is a day lost on being able to draw a contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda,” he added.

Republicans have been trying to whitewash the insurrection, lying about its severity and who was behind it.

Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) compared the insurrection to a “normal tourist visit.” And Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) said the attack was a “beautiful day of peaceful, faith-filled support for free elections.”

With the two votes this week, Republicans said they both don’t want to look into how the insurrection happened, nor do they want to provide funding for security to fix the damage from the attack or patch the security and preparedness issues the attack exposed.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.