Dems suggest rioters had inside help
Democratic lawmakers leveled a series of stunning allegations that their GOP colleagues – none of whom they named – may have conspired with rioters before they attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election that President Donald Trump lost.
Though they offered few specifics and little evidence, their claims represent the culmination of months of warnings and frustrations over the relationship between some prominent Republicans and members of violent fringe groups, including white nation
alists, animated by lies about voter fraud and a stolen election.
Democrats did not directly name GOP lawmakers they suspected of being involved, citing ongoing investigations. Some suggested rioters seemed too good at navigating the building’s hallways and noted that there were unusually large groups of visitors the day before.
Black lawmakers, who have long warned of nationalist rhetoric from some in the GOP and the Trump administration, said they weren’t surprised that many of those who raided the Capitol waved Confederate flags and have been said by authorities to belong to right-wing hate groups. The violence left at least five people dead.
“From the highest office in the land, Donald Trump provided white supremacists, right-wing extremists, and conspiracy theorists validation and free reign to spew hatred, bigotry, and racism, and yes – commit extreme violence,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-calif., said Wednesday before she voted to impeach the president a second time. “Last year, he gave an order to the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by,’ and that – they did.”
Other members of the Congressional Black Caucus raised the specter of being targeted in the riot. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said Sunday on CNN that rioters went to the unmarked office in the Capitol where he does most of his work rather than his office in one of the Capitol office buildings, which “indicates something untoward may have been going on.” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-mass., said her office’s panic alarm system had been ripped out before the riot.
Offices throughout the Capitol were ransacked.
The Inspector General of the Capitol Police is investigating last week’s security failures, according to a congressional aide familiar with the matter but not authorized to speak on the record.
Some lawmakers questioned how insurgents knew where to go when they breached the building, although maps of the layout of each floor inside the Capitol are easily located on the internet, and some mark the House speaker’s and other leaders’ offices.
Jane Campbell, president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, said that while the bowels of the building can be confusing to navigate even for staff, the main areas penetrated on Jan. 6 are not difficult to locate.
“Once you’re in the building you could find the chambers and you could find the speaker’s office,” she said. “That’s pretty well marked.”
Still, there is wide sentiment among Democrats that their Republican colleagues in Congress played a role in the violence, at best by inciting the mob into action or, at worst, by providing them access to the building.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-colo., a former U.S. Army captain, last week requested a wide-ranging investigation – that includes reviewing actions of congressional colleagues – by Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who leads the Government Accountability Office.
In a letter co-signed by 107 House Democrats, Crow asked the agency to review the “impact of rhetoric by government and elected officials that contributed to or led to the insurrection” as well as “efforts by government and/or elected officials to limit preparation, coordination, or response, particularly regarding the use of force and arrests.”
Chuck Young, a spokesman at the Government Accountability Office, said Crow’s request “needs to go through our formal review process before decisions are made.” He noted in an email that the GAO does not usually duplicate efforts by other investigators.
Some Democrats have raised questions about groups of visitors that came to the Capitol complex the day before the riots.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., and over 30 of her fellow lawmakers wrote to the Capitol Police and both the House and Senate Sergeants at Arms demanding investigations into colleagues she did not name who led people through the Capitol on Jan. 5 in what she called a “reconnaissance for the next day.”
“This is unusual for several reasons, including the fact that access to the Capitol Complex has been restricted since public tours ended in March of last year due to the pandemic,” she wrote.
USA TODAY attempted to contact both sergeants at arms, but neither had replied as of Wednesday evening.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-fla., said he did not see anything like what Sherrill alleged.
“Congresswoman Sherrill’s claims of a criminal conspiracy by unnamed members of Congress is startling and hard to believe,” Buchanan said. “If she has evidence that a member of Congress conducted ‘reconnaissance tours’ to help the rioters plan last week’s attack she needs to release it immediately. I saw nothing of the kind when I was on the House floor that week and would be shocked to learn it was true.”
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-PA., said that when Sherrill raised alarm about the tours it “rang a bell for me” because she witnessed a group of six to eight visitors on a tour in the Capitol’s tunnels a day or two before the riot.
“It was noticeable to see people getting tours from congressional aides in the Capitol because that hasn’t happened since COVID struck,” Scanlon said. “There are rules that we’re not supposed to be giving those tours and we’re not supposed to have outsiders in the Capitol now because of the danger of infection.”
Scanlon said she believes staff aides of Congress members – not lawmakers themselves – were conducting the tours but could not identify which congressional offices. She said she initially figured it must be new Congress members who were unaware of the coronavirus rules.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-ohio, who chairs a congressional panel overseeing funding for the Capitol Police, told reporters the tour groups don’t mean that “anybody, a member of Congress was necessarily conspiring. But we should be looking into every single aspect of this.”