The House of Representatives started debating impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time Wednesday – a historic first – on a single article of ‘inciting an insurrection,’ just one week after the MAGA mob stormed Capitol Hill.
Democrats said they were standing in a ‘crime scene’ and that Trump had to pay a price for a campaign of ‘lies and conspiracy theories’ which had fomented violence.
And Trump’s Republican allies did not defend Trump’s behavior, but instead pitched censuring the president or launching a 9/11-style commission, more fitting punishments they argued for someone who was already leaving office.
Later Wednesday, at least five Republicans are certain to vote for impeachment, led by Liz Cheney, the number three in the caucus, who issued a fiery denunciation of Trump when she announced her vote, saying he ‘lit the flame on insurrection.’
Members of the House walked into the chamber past rows of National Guard members sleeping holding their rifles, while outside thousands of troops surrounded the building, the first time troops have been stationed in it since the Civil War.
In the Senate, which will have to hold a trial of Trump in the wake of the vote as soon as it receives the article, Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell is said to be leaning ‘more than 50/50’ towards convicting Trump, to ‘purge’ the party of him.
McConnell’s spokesman confirmed that in a call made to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the GOP Senate leader said he would not bring the Senate back on Friday, which means the earliest a trial could kick-off is January 19, the day before Trump exits office.
How many other Republicans are on board is unknown, with only Mitt Romney certain so far to back impeachment, while on Wednesday Lindsey Graham accused McConnell of risking more violence by backing impeachment.
In the first procedural vote of the day in the House, Democrats voted en masse 221 to 205 against a Republican effort to install a commission.
A second procedural hurdle was also passed with only Democratic votes.
Rep. Tom Cole, the first GOP lawmaker to speak, argued against a hasty impeachment vote ‘not because of the president’s inappropriate and reckless words are deserving of defense but because the presidency itself demands due process.’ Cole had himself voted to overturn the election results.
Republicans also warned impeaching Trump for a second time would only make partisan hostilities worse.
‘This is a reckless impeachment,’ complained Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri. ‘This will only bring up the hate and fire more than ever before.’
Democrats described the terror of last week’s attack.
‘We are debating this resolution at an actual crime scene and we wouldn’t be here if not for the president of the United States,’ said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat.
‘People were sending text messages to their loved ones, telling them they loved them. They thought they were saying goodbye,’ he added.
The House of Representatives began debating impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time Wednesday morning – which marks a historic first
‘We are debating this resolution at an actual crime scene and we wouldn’t be here if not for the president of the United States,’ said Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern
The House’s No. 3 Democrat, Rep. Jim Clyburn, walks into the Capitol Building surrounded by members of the National Guard
Armed National Guard troops are seen outside the U.S. Capitol Building as members inside debate impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time in 13 months
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally, speaks on the House floor Wednesday as impeachment proceedings began
The Democrats also pointed to the Republicans’ high-profile defection: the No. 3 House Republican, Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney, the Republican Conference Chair, laced into Trump in her statement, saying he ‘lit the flame’ of insurrection – and Democrats repeated her words back to the Republicans.
‘There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,’ she said.
The decision to back impeachment by Cheney, a member of Republican royalty as the daughter of Dick Cheney, and seen as a future contender for the party’s House leadership and the Speaker’s chair, means that impeachment will be bipartisan.
On the floor Wednesday, Democrats pointed to Cheney’s statement as evidence they were in the right.
The Democrats’ No. 2, Rep. Steny Hoyer, recited Cheney’s words during his turn to speak.
‘That is not some irresponsible new member of Congress of the United States,’ Hoyer said. ‘This is the daughter of the former Republican whip and former vice president of the United States of America.’
‘She knows of which she speaks,’ Hoyer argued.
Reps. Jim Jordan and Paul Gosar, two of Trump’s top GOP House allies, were pushing to have Cheney removed from her leadership position.
JIM JORDAN SAYS DEMOCRATS WANT TO ‘CANCEL’ THE PRESIDENT
Jordan gave two fiery floor speeches Wednesday.
He yelled ’19 minutes!’ into the microphone Wednesday afternoon, charging Democrats with waiting just 19 minutes into the Trump administration to start their impeachment hunt.
He said Democrats were pursuing removal again because of ‘politics and the fact that they want to, they want to cancel the president.’
‘This is about getting the president of the United States,’ Jordan said.
‘They spied on his campaign before he was elected, 19 minutes into his presidency they started the impeachment push, three year Mueller investigation, 19 lawyers, 40 agents, 500 witnesses, 2,500 subpoenas, $40 million to find nothing,’ Jordan went on.
The Ohio Republican said impeachment ’round one’ was based on information from a ‘biased’ whistleblower.
‘Now it’s impeachment round two,’ he said. ‘It’s always been about getting the president, no matter what. It’s an obsession, an obsession that’s now broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore it’s about canceling … canceling the president,’ Jordan argued.
‘IT BREAKS MY HEART’ SAYS HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who opened the formal impeachment articles debate, said she wasn’t pursuing the measure with glee.
‘It gives me no pleasure to say this, it breaks my heart. It should break your heart. It should break all of our hearts,’ the top Democrat said.
Pelosi encouraged the Senate to act.
‘I believe the president must be convicted by the Senate, a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man, that was so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear, and hold us together,’ she said.
She also slammed those who engaged in the riot.
‘Those insurrectionists were not patriots. They were not part of a political base to be catered to and managed. They were domestic terrorists and justice must prevail,’ the House speaker said.
(SOME) REPUBLICANS REVOLT
Also joining Cheney in voting for the Democratic-prepared article of impeachment will be Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York, Fred Upton of Michigan and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington.
The White House was bracing for more.
Cheney’s decision came minutes after McConnell was revealed to believe that Trump had committed impeachable offenses.
Reuters reported mid-day Wednesday that a Senate trial could start as early as Friday, despite the Senate currently being out of session until January 19.
The New York Times’ bombshell was still echoing in Washington D.C. when the House started its debate – and as it dragged to a close Tuesday night, Axios reported that McConnell was leaning towards a vote to convict the president and was ‘more than 50/50’ on it.
She was seen speaking to Raskin on Tuesday night as he led the Democrats arguing for a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment removing Trump from power.
The House passed it late Tuesday despite Pence sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he’ll refuse.
Hundreds of National Guard troops wer sleeping on the stone floor of the US Capitol on Wednesday morning as security in Washington intensified a week out from Joe Biden’s inauguration
The troops could be seen spreading out inside the Rotunda of the US Capitol on Wednesday morning
The troops cradled their weapons and huddled together as they slept inside the Capitol on Wednesday
In a vote that wrapped up around 11.30pm Tuesday, the House voted 223-205 to approve the resolution, which can’t actually force the vice president’s hand.
‘I do not believe that such a course of action is in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with the Constitution,’ Pence said in his letter to Pelosi, refusing to pull the trigger on the 25th.
‘Last week, I did not yield to pressure to exert beyond my constitutional authority to determine the outcome of the election, and I will not now yield to efforts in the House of Representatives to play political games at a time so serious in the life of our Nation,’ Pence added.
Pence’s letter came as the House was holding procedural votes on the resolution.
No Republicans joined on until the final vote – with Rep. Adam Kinzinger joining Democrats in the push to have Pence to use the 25th.
Bipartisan and united: Jamie Raskin, the House Democrat who led the successful demand for a resolution telling Mike Pence to remove Donald Trump, held talks with Liz Cheney, the House Republican number three after she said she would vote for impeachment
The House voted 223 to 205 in favor of a resolution that urges Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office after he incited Wednesday’s Capitol Hill riot. GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger voted alongside Democrats
U.S. President Donald Trump disembarks from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, after visiting the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Harlingen, Texas, Tuesday
That set the scene for an impeachment debate and vote Wednesday entirely different from the first impeachment vote on October 31, 2019.
Then the only non-Democratic vote was from Justin Amash, who was essentially forced out of the Republican party before he even cast it.
But after a day in which they feared for their lives, the mood in Congress had changed rapidly.
Tuesday’s debate saw pro-Trump Republicans line up to back him – but party moderates conspicuously silent, and the Minority leader and his deputy Steve Scalise silent.
The resolution blamed Trump for the violent MAGA mob that broke into Capitol Hill Wednesday, laying out how he ‘broadly encouraged’ his supporters to come to Washington on January 6, saying that the day would be ‘wild.’
‘Donald Trump has demonstrated repeatedly, continuously, and spectacularly his absolute inability to discharge the most basic and fundamental powers and duties of his office, including most recently the duty to respect the legitimate results of the Presidential election, the duty to respect the peaceful transfer of democratic power under the Constitution, the duty to participate in legally defined transition activities, the duty to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States, including the counting of Electoral College votes by Congress, the duty to protect the people of the United States and their elected representatives against domestic insurrection, mob rule, and seditious violence, and generally the duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ the resolution says.
Despite being targets in the violent incident, House Republicans lined up against passing the resolution.
Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma, called the resolution ‘an attempt to pressure the vice president into performing a duty he clearly does not believe is necessary at this time.’
As exasperated Rep. Pat Fallon, a new GOP lawmaker from Texas, said Trump held a ‘permitted, legal and peaceful rally,’ refusing to blame him for the group of Trump supporters who mobbed the Capitol.
Jordan, the Ohio Republican who recently was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump, lambasted the effort – and also the new fines for not wearing masks in the House chamber and the metal detectors that were installed Tuesday outside the doors of the House floor.
In his letter to Pelosi, Pence argued that the 25th Amendment was supposed to address ‘incapacity or disability.’
The vice president pointed to the Democrats own effort to create a 25th Amendment Commission, which said a president’s fitness must be determined by ‘science and facts’ and ‘[v]ery respectful of not making a judgment on the basis of a comment or behavior we don’t like, but based on a medical decision.’
Pence also pledged that the administration’s energy was dedicated to ‘ensuring an orderly transition.’
The vice president repeated an argument being pushed by a number of Capitol Hill Republicans – that pursuing removal of Trump would only make things worse.
‘I urge you and every member of Congress to avoid actions that would further divide and inflame the passions of the moment,’ Pence said. ‘Work with us to lower the temperature and unite our country as we prepare to inauguration President-elect Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was informed by Vice President Mike Pence that he would not invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from office as the House was taking its first vote Tuesday night on a resolution that urges him to do so
The House of Representatives voted late into the night Wednesday on a resolution that encourages Vice President Mike Pence to use the 25th Amendment and remove President Donald Trump from power
Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, criticized the Democrats’ effort to have Vice President Mike Pence utilize the 25th Amendment. He also complained about the House’s new fines for lawmakers who don’t wear masks – and the metal detectors outside the House chamber
During Tuesday night’s debate of the 25th Amendment resolution, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also announced her impeachment managers, saying Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland would be leading the charge. Raskin tragically lost his son to suicide just days ago
Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who recently was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump, lambasted the effort
In the hours after the riot, Pence did his Constitutional duty and certified President-elect Joe Biden, something he had been pressured by Trump not to do.
‘You can either go down in history as a patriot,’ Trump had told Pence by phone before he headed to the Capitol Wednesday, according to The New York Times. ‘Or you can go down in history as a p****.’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled his support for impeachment, The New York Times reported Tuesday evening
Pence was inside when the violent mobbed attacked, with some Trump supporters calling out, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’
The Times reported that Trump had invited Pence to the Oval Office Monday night to try to smooth things over in the run-up to the House’s 25th Amendment vote.
The official description of the meeting was ‘good,’ according to the newspaper.
Unofficially sources called it ‘nonsubstantive’ and ‘stilted.’
Tuesday night’s vote on the 25th Amendment is considered the appetizer for Wednesday’s main course: the House pursuing impeachment again.
Nowhere in his letter did Pence say he objected to that move.
Shortly after Pence sent out his letter, Pelosi sent out the names of impeachment managers.
She picked Rep. Jamie Raskin, who introduced the 25th Amendment resolution, as the head manager.
‘I think every member of this body should be able to agree that this president is not meeting the most minimal duties of office,’ Raskin argued Tuesday night.
Raskin also warned his fellow lawmakers that Trump could pardon the Capitol Hill attackers during his waning days.
Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, recently lost his son.
Additionally, Democratic Reps. Diana DeGette, David Cicilline, Joaquin Castro, Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, Stacey Plaskett, Joe Neguse and Madeleine Dean were also chosen.
Earlier Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled his support for the impeachment effort that includes an article charging the president with ‘incitement of insurrection.’
The view of the GOP powerbroker emerged shortly before Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House GOP leadership, announced that she would vote for impeaching President Trump.
‘On January 6, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes. This insurrection caused injury, death and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic,’ wrote Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president.
‘Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,’ she continued.
‘I will vote to impeach the President,’ Cheney concluded.
Neither Cheney nor McConnell backed Democrats impeachment effort a year ago.
McConnell worked successfully to scuttle the impeachment effort during a trial last year on different charges.
His current view follows reports that McConnell never wants to speak to Trump again after the Capitol riots that had Trump supporters invading the Capitol, trashing leadership offices, and endangering the lives of lawmakers.
McConnell backs the effort because it will make it easier to purge Trump from the party, the New York Times reports.
One feature of impeachment – which can grind the Senate to a halt and lead to furious partisan arguments – is that it allows lawmakers to vote to prohibit the person being impeached from ever holding public office with the U.S. government.
Trump may run for president in 2024, and many of his potential rivals happen to hold Senate seats.
McConnell has made clear in private discussions that ‘now is the moment to move on the weakened lame duck, whom he blames for Republicans losing the Senate,’ according to the report.
Trump ignored McConnell’s advice and launched his election challenge despite two run-off elections in Georgia which the GOP lost – stripping the party of its majority.
A source told CNN McConnell ‘hates’ Trump and is ‘furious’ with him after the Capitol riots.
The siege left five people dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was based on the Senate side.
McConnell’s wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, quit the Trump cabinet after the riots, which included an angry mob getting blocked steps from the door to the Senate chamber that McConnell uses when he normally strolls from his leadership office.
It was not immediately clear how McConnell might vote on impeachment.
McConnell’s view emerged as Trump, rather than express contrition, called impeachment a ‘hoax’ and a ‘witch hunt,’ and defended his pre-riot comments that Democrats have already said was incitement. Trump called his speech minutes before the siege ‘totally appropriate.’
Cheney’s statement denouncing the president comes after Trump told supporters they need to ‘get rid’ of people like her.
‘We got to get rid of the weak Congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world. We got to get rid of them,’ Trump said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised her, amid speculation numerous House Republicans might follow her lead.
‘Good for her for honoring her oath of us. Would that more Republicans would honor their oaths of office,’ Pelosi said.
GOP Rep. John Katko also announced he would back impeachment Tuesday night.
‘To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy,’ Katko said in a statement, Syracuse.com reported. ‘For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this president,’ he said.
During floor debate, Katko said he wasn’t supporting the 25th Amendment resolution because it was ‘non-binding,’ calling it ‘merely a symbolic gesture.’
Katko confirmed his plans to vote for impeachment.
Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton also told Forbes he would vote to impeach.
As midnight approached, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler also said she was a yes.
Convicting Trump on an impeachment article requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate, where Republicans hold 50 votes – a high bar to meet.
Assuming passage in the House, it has not been determined when Democratic leaders will transmit the impeachment article, or when the Senate might take it up.
A McConnell memo that emerged over the weekend cited scheduling challenges for impeachment – a trial might not even begin until after Jan. 19th, since the Senate is not in session.
President-elect Joe Biden said Monday there was the possibility of dual-tracking an impeachment and Senate session that would be needed to get his cabinet confirmed.
Biden phoned McConnell on Monday, according to the Times on the subject of a trial, and McConnell said he would consult the Senate parliamentarian and get back.
There are Senate rules and precedents governing impeachment, but leaders also might be able to negotiate a way to handle it, with the possibility of a special impeachment committee taking up some of the burden.
Trump has continued his usual pattern of lashing out at political adversaries when under attack.
‘Free speech is under assault like never before. The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden Administration. As the expression goes, be careful what you wish for,’ Trump said Tuesday, before lawmakers cast their votes Tuesday night.
Post-riot accounts from last Wednesday reveal that not only did President Trump egg on supporters who wreaked havoc in the Capitol – but he was glued to the television as the events unfolded, incapable of responding to desperate pleas to use influence to stop it and enjoying seeing it unfold.
There were two major areas where the president fell dramatically short of what was being asked of him: using his personal popularity with his followers to urge them to vacate the Capitol immediately; and using the vast powers of his office to try to speed a federal response.
But when key current and former aides and family members tried to reach him, he was ‘busy enjoying the spectacle,’ according to a Washington Post account.
As the historic mob invasion of the U.S. seat of legislative government unfolded, a variety of people with influence over Trump sought to get to him to urge action.
The routes they took were typical of the loosely organized web of influence within the Trump White House.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham – who only after the riot firmly declared Joe Biden the winner of the election – reached out to the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump.
‘It took him a while to appreciate the gravity of the situation,’ Graham told the Post. ‘The president saw these people as his allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen,’ Graham said of the rioters who took the Capitol.
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who Trump believes is so much under his wing that he has publicly called him ‘My Kevin,’ was pleading for action.
Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Protesters attempt to enter the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building after mass demonstrations in the nation’s capital during a joint session Congress to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. One Capitol Police officer died in the action
Police officers in riot gear line up as protesters gather on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. It took hours to regain control of the building
McCarthy phoned Trump directly to try to plead for assistance – but also called the president’s son in law, Jared Kushner, who was returning form a trip to the Middle East.
Former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, who doesn’t even work for Trump anymore, tried to get through to him to urge action.
She phoned an aide she knew was in close proximity to Trump.
The office of the Mayor of Washington, desperate to get more National Guard forces amid logistical and jurisdictional hurdles, also reached out to Conway.
Chief of staff Mark Meadows urged Trump to speak out after an aide told him: ‘They are going to kill people,’ in reference to the rioters.
A primary area of the pleas related to something Trump was capable of doing on his own without engaging with the bureaucracy: issuing simple Twitter or video pleas for protesters to get out of the Capitol.
The appeals he finally made either lacked a direct call to fall back, or sprinkled in approving language even as the riot that would become deadly unfolded.
At 2:30 pm, about half an hour after the Capitol breach, Trump told his supporters to ‘Please support our Capitol Police’ and to ‘Stay peaceful!’
His next message was more explicit, writing ‘No violence!’ – but claimed ‘WE are the Party of Law & Order.’
After he finally put out a video at about 4 pm, Trump finally told his backers to ‘go home.’ But he also called them ‘very special,’ called the election ‘fraudulent,’ and said: ‘You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.’
Trump himself had egged on his supporters with demands that they ‘fight,’ calling the election fraudulent, and putting pressure on Vice President Mike Pence, whose only role was ceremonial and involved opening and reading from envelopes containing electoral votes.
Trump was glued to the television as the storming of the Capitol was broadcast.
Prior reporting has revealed that the Washington D.C. government had requested a National Guard presence, but Guard were assigned to traffic and other assistance and weren’t issued ammo or riot gear.
The now resigned chief of Capitol Police says he wanted more Guard support in advance of Wednesday but had been told by superiors to ask for it informally. The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, says there were delays getting approval to send Guard forces from the Pentagon.
But it wasn’t mere distraction that kept Trump from springing into action. It’s not atht he was too busy because he was so consumed, which he was,’ the New York Times reported.
‘He was pleased because it was people fighting on his behalf. He was pleased because he liked the scene. And he was pleased because it was delaying the certification of the Electoral College vote,’ the New York Times reported. ‘He knew what was happening… He just didn’t want to do anything.’
Although McCarthy told colleagues on a call Monday Trump had accepted ‘some responsibility’ for the riot, on Tuesday the president was back to his defiant posture familiar from impeachment and the Russia probe.
Trump said a second impeachment Democrats are lining up is a ‘continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics.’
House Democrat accuses Republican lawmakers of leading MAGA rioters on Capitol ‘reconnaissance’ before riot as Stop the Steal organizer revealed to have boasted of help from three GOP congressmen
Rep. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday she saw lawmakers giving tours she perceived to be ‘a reconnaissance to groups Tuesday, January 5
A Democratic representative revealed Tuesday she witnessed members of Congress leading ‘reconnaissance’ tours through the Capitol the day before the mob stormed the building – as more details emerged over the attack indicating three Republican lawmakers may have helped protesters get inside.
Mikie Sherrill, who represents New Jersey’s 11th district, said during a Facebook Live video Tuesday night that she wants members of Congress who ‘abetted’ President Donald Trump and the violent crowd who descended on the Capitol to be held accountable and prevented from running for office in the future.
‘We can’t have a democracy if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the elections results,’ Sherrill said of her colleagues she claims assisted Trump in inciting a crowd to storm the Capitol last Wednesday, January 6.
‘Not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn’t have access to classified material,’ she continued in her straight-to-camera remarks.
‘I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him; those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 – a reconnaissance for the next day; those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd; those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy – I’m going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don’t serve in Congress.’
At the same time, new revelations are surfacing that a pro-Trump activist, Ali Alexander, claimed he was assisted by three GOP representatives to help organize the January 6 assault on the Capitol to disrupt the election certification.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram Live video Tuesday night that she feared for her life during the riots, specifically expressing her concerns that some GOP lawmakers would give away her location to the mob.
Sherrill’s comments come as pro-Trump activist Ali Alexander revealed in a video on Periscope that three GOP lawmakers helped in organizing the disruption of Congress certifying the election for Joe Biden on January 6
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn walks past members of the National Guard Wednesday morning as they try to get some sleep inside the U.S. Capitol
‘I did not know if I was going to make it to the end of that day alive, and not just in a general sense but also in a very, very specific sense,’ the progressive lawmaker said during the hour-long live stream.
She called the close encounter ‘traumatizing’ and claimed her ‘near assassination’ is ‘not an exaggeration’.
‘There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers, and frankly white supremacist members of Congress, in that extraction point who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.
She did not name any of the lawmakers she felt could have jeopardized her situation.
It is now known that Alexander told his followers on Periscope late last month that Republican Representatives Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama were planning something big.
Alexander helped organize one of the demonstrations that converged on the Capitol lawn Wednesday – since then, his Facebook and Twitter accounts have been locked and he is banned from the social media platforms.
He said in a since-deleted video: ‘I want to let you guys know how we’re responding because I was the person who came up with the January 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks and then Congressman Andy Biggs.’
All three lawmakers are hard-line Trump supporters.
‘We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside,’ Alexander detailed.
In the video to Periscope, he said the purpose of the rally was ‘to build momentum and pressure’ on the day Congress moved to certify the election for Joe Biden. He also vowed that his group ‘Stop the Steal’ would find rooms in the nation’s capital if hotels shut down in the midst of the unrest.
Alexander, pictured here with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones during a demonstration in Georgia in November, helped organize the ‘Stop the Steal’ protesters who gathered near the Capitol before the chaos broke out last Wednesday
WHO IS ALI ALEXANDER?
Ali Alexander pleaded guilty to two separate felony charges in 2007 and 2008 in Forth Worth Texas
Ali Abdul-Razaq Ali, 35, is a far-right activist who who goes by Ali Alexander. He identifies as black and Arab, according to Politico.
He helped organize ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, which oppose Joe Biden’s election win and is pushing to prove that President Donald Trump won reelection on November 3.
Ali also takes responsibility for organizing the January 6 rally that convened outside the Capitol before it was stormed by thousands of pro-Trump protesters. He said in a live-streamed video that GOP Representatives Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks assisted with the effort to disrupt the join session of Congress moving to certify the Electoral College results for Biden.
‘I want to let you guys know how we’re responding because I was the person who came up with the January 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks and then Congressman Andy Biggs,’ Ali said in the now-deleted video.
‘We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that who we couldn’t lobby, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside,’ he continued.
The activist runs with with Trump’s circle. In the summer of 2019 he gathered at the White House for the president’s ‘social media summit’ to bash platforms for their supposed anti-conservative and anti-Trump bias.
This week, following reports of his involvement in the storming of the Capitol, Ali was banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and his accounts were removed.
Ali Abdul-Razaq Ali, 35, who goes by Ali Alexander, is a far-right activist from Fort Worth, Texas
Ali raised questions during the Democratic primary race over then-candidate Kamal Harris’s ‘black-ness’, sparking speculation he was waging a ‘birther’-like campaign against her. The now vice president-elect is half Indian and half Jamaican.
‘Kamala Harris is implying she is descended from American Black Slaves,’ he wrote on Twitter in June 2019. ‘She’s not. She comes from Jamaican Slave Owners. That’s fine. She’s not an American Black. Period.’ Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. retweeted and then deleted the post, asking if it was true, and helping it go viral.
Ali resides in Forth Worth, Texas. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to felony property theft in the Lone Star state and the next year also pleaded guilty to to a credit card abuse felony – also in Texas.
Alexander did not specifically call for violence and instead claimed the left is ‘trying to push us to war.’
Biggs’ office sent out a statement claiming the congressman has not met or spoken with Alexander.
Biggs’ office responded to CNN, claiming he has not met or spoken with Alexander.
‘Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,’ the representative’s spokesperson said.
‘He did not have any contact with protestors or rioters, nor did he ever encourage or foster the rally or protests,’ they continued. ‘He was focused on his research and arguments to work within the confines of the law and established precedent to restore integrity to our elections, and to ensure that all Americans — regardless of party affiliation — can again have complete trust in our elections systems.’
Biggs, Gosar and Brooks all came under fire after going forward with objecting to the election results even after the violent Capitol riot forced them to evacuate the chamber and delayed proceedings for hours.
Sherrill, in her thirteen-and-a-half minute video posted to Facebook Tuesday, did not reveal which lawmakers she saw showing constituents around the Capitol last week – but she did make the shocking claim that the January 5 tours were part of some effort to get protesters familiar with the building before storming it the next day.
While some GOP lawmakers have come under fire for inciting the riots – whether directly or indirectly – or standing idly by as they unfolded, this is the most serious charge yet against sitting members of Congress regarding the unprecedented attack last week.
The six-hour riot resulted in hundreds of injuries and five deaths, including one Capitol Police officer and a female Trump supporter.
The House voted Tuesday evening on a non-binding resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to get Trump out of office now. The vote passed 223-205, with Sherrill voting in favor of it, even though Pence notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier Tuesday that he would not comply with the measure.
With the 25th Amendment off the table, and no hope of Trump resigning before his last seven days are up, House Democrats are likely to move forward Wednesday on impeaching the president for the second time.
Sherrill said in her video that she intends to support the effort.
She also voiced the sharp divide, which is widening in Congress, claiming those who do not agree with Democratic ideals of democracy are ‘now on different sides of this line.’