D.C. riot haunting officials in crowd

19 officeholders feeling local heat

WASHINGTON — In the weeks since the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, state and local politicians, including some supporters of former President Donald Trump, have worked to distance themselves from local officials who were involved.

In some cases, local Republican organizations have condemned participants. Many elected offi- cials, some of whom gathered in Washington that day but never entered the Capitol, are under pressure to resign. At least one state legislator has apologized for his involvement and stepped down.

“The problem is, how do you support someone who demonstrates the kind of judgment” to participate in the events of Jan. 6, asked Nick Corcodilos, a former Republican mayor in Clinton Township, N.J., who left the party around 2014. “How does one judge someone who attends a rally where a president urges his followers, his audience, to go to the Capitol building and commit violence?”

At least 19 elected offi

cials from across the country are now under heightened political scrutiny back home because they attended the president’s rally and, in some cases, stormed the Capitol building along with a mob that became violent in its effort to stop the vote that would make President Joe Biden’s election official.

Couy Griffin, the founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, bragged in a Facebook video that he had a “first-row seat” to the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and considered returning for another rally in which he imagined “blood running out of that building,” the FBI said. Later, he told the FBI that he hoped the next demonstration would be nonviolent but that there was “no option that’s off the table for the sake of freedom.”

He was arrested before he could hold another rally on Inauguration Day as he planned. But first, he returned to his post as an Otero County commissioner in southern New Mexico, where an effort to oust him has gained new steam.

Griffin “leapt right into sedition,” said Paul Sanchez, a Republican who is leading a committee that hopes to recall him. “His focus is not at all on Otero County.”

Griffin, who has been charged with trespassing at the Capitol, was not unlike many other Trump supporters there that day who believe that the election was rigged.

Their critics say government officials had a particular duty not to endorse Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

In addition to Griffin, a state legislator from West Virginia and a town meeting member from Massachusetts were among those who stormed the Capitol. Earlier in the day, at rallies urging Congress to overturn the Electoral College vote, the crowds included a state representative from Missouri, a City Council member from California, a state senator from Virginia and an incoming Nevada assemblywoman.

In New Mexico, the Democratic attorney general has vowed to seek Griffin’s removal, and his fellow county commissioners — two Republicans — have called for him to resign. The chair of the state Republicans has said that Griffin “does not represent” the state party.

Still, it does not appear that Griffin, who has been held in isolation after refusing to take a coronavirus test at a Washington jail, intends to willingly leave his post. His lawyer, David Smith, said in an interview that he had “no reason to think he’s going to resign from the commission.”

Among the most high-profile participants in the riot was Derrick Evans, a newly elected member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who filmed himself entering the Capitol. Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, called Evans an “absolute idiot” and his actions “disgraceful.” Roger Hanshaw, the Republican speaker of the West Virginia House, said Evans would “need to answer to his constituents and colleagues regarding his involvement in what has occurred.”

Three days later, he resigned.

“I take full responsibility for my actions, and deeply regret any hurt, pain or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians,” Evans said in a written statement.

TAKING ISSUE

Even some elected officials who did not enter the Capitol on Jan. 6 are facing ire for their part in the events that day. Justin Hill, a state legislator from Missouri, said he traveled to Washington to hear Trump speak and to meet with Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., about rejecting the Electoral College results. In the process, Hill had skipped his own swearing-in ceremony.

He said he was frustrated that the media had given the impression that he was “at the riot” when, he said, he only attended the former president’s speech.

“It’s been absurd,” he said. Hill, a Republican, also noted that some protesters marched from Trump’s rally to the Capitol but did not enter the building.

“It’s their right to petition their government,” he said. “It’s their right to go march to the Capitol. I think the ones that broke the law need to pay the price for their poor decisions.”

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which backs Democratic candidates for state legislatures across the country, has called for his resignation — along with that of at least 16 other Republican state legislators or legislators-elect, including Amanda Chase of Virginia, a state senator who is also running for governor.

Chase was recently censured by the Virginia Senate, in part for remarks she made about those who stormed the Capitol.

“These were not rioters and looters,” she said on the floor of the state Senate in January. “These were patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great Republic turn into a socialist country.”

Among other provisions, the resolution passed by the Senate noted that Chase expressed support for the rioters, “propagating unfounded claims regarding the nature of the events, the identities of those who took part, and the validity of the presidential election.” In a statement, Republican leaders in the Virginia Senate blamed her “selfishness and constant need for media attention.” She has also been removed from her only committee assignment since the Capitol riot.

But Chase, who spoke at a rally at the Capitol the morning of Jan. 6, appeared to take the criticism as a mark of pride.

“They’re not going to muzzle me,” she said. “I’ll wear it like a badge of honor, raise a boatload of money, and I will take out whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination, and I will be the next governor of Virginia.”