Republicans: Did they aid and abet the rioters?
House Democrats suspect the Capitol Hill insurrection was “an inside job,” said Roger Sollenberger in Salon.com. Last week, 30 of them called for an investigation into what they described as an “extremely high number” of suspicious groups roaming the Capitol on the day before the riot. The building has been closed to outsiders since the pandemic began, but Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) said she saw unnamed House lawmakers giving “reconnaissance” tours on Jan. 5. Somehow, the mob found and ransacked the Senate parliamentarian’s office—a space deep in the building where the Electoral College votes had been stored until staffers whisked them away. The rioters, said Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), “knew where to go.” There’s evidence for this claim, said Brittany Bernstein in NationalReview.com. Ali Alexander, a “Stop the Steal” organizer, said in a video that he was working with Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) on a plan to apply “maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting.”
Democrats’ suspicion of their Republican colleagues now runs so deep, said Benjy Sarlin in NBCNews.com, that they’re afraid GOP lawmakers “might kill them.” They’re keenly aware that
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R.-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have praised the unhinged QAnon conspiracy theory, and that Boebert has bragged of carrying a gun. Several Republicans, including Boebert, refused to pass through a metal detector after the insurrection, until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi imposed a $10,000 fine on members who didn’t comply. During the riot itself, Boebert tweeted that Pelosi had “been removed” from the chamber.
It’s not just Democrats who are afraid right now, said Paul Waldman in The Washington Post.
Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) said Republicans were afraid to impeach Trump because of what his armed supporters might do to their families. Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said other House Republicans were “paralyzed with fear,” and more than a few “broke down in tears” discussing the vote. Republicans have a stark choice, said Daniel Drezner, also in the Post. With demographic trends against them, the Trumpist wing no longer believes in democracy and is willing to use the threat of violence—or actual violence—to get what it wants. Mainstream Republicans must either discipline or eject their insurrectionists, or see their party become “an American Hezbollah.”