Rep. Mikie Sherill accused some lawmakers of bringing groups through the Capitol for "reconnaissance" the day before the insurrection.
Some within the House of Representatives have accused their Republican colleagues for aiding and abetting a mob of rioters in storming the US Capitol last week. Their accusations come as the House voted to impeach President Trump for the second time, making him the only U.S. president in history to ever be impeached twice. The resolution passed 232 to 197.
“We need to hold every person accountable,” Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, said in her first speech on the House floor. “Even members of congress if they contributed to the violence that transpired here.”
Rep. Mikie Sherill, a Democrat from New Jersey, claimed in a 13-minute video shared on Facebook that she saw lawmakers acting suspiciously the day before the riot.
“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 for reconnaissance for the next day,” Sherill said in the speech in her address to constituents.
The organizer behind last Wednesday’s “Stop the Steal” rally that eventually led to the assault on the U.S. Capitol claimed three congressmen helped him plan the event.
“I was the person who came up with the January 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and then Congressman Andy Biggs,” said Ali Alexander in a livestream. “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,”
Like Trump, Alexander has been banned from Twitter.
Rep. Paul Gosar, of Arizona, spoke to Trump supporters ahead of the rally, telling them, “You get to go back home after conquering the Hill and Donald Trump continues to be president.”
Gosar, Brooks and Biggs denied inciting the rioters.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, a firebrand Republican from Colorado, is also under fire for sharing Nancy Pelosi’s location as the mob was breaking into the Capitol, tweeting, “The Speaker has been removed from the chambers,” while lawmakers were being moved to secure locations.
Boebert, however, said the information was first broadcast on CSPAN.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a favorite target of the right, said she refused to shelter with the Republicans, fearing they might turn her over to the mob.
“There were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know, and who I felt would disclose my location, who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc.,” she said in an Instagram live Tuesday.
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now come out to say he wouldn’t block Trump’s impeachment.
Vice President Mike Pence is also receiving pressure from both sides, after Trump allegedly told him on the day of the insurrection, “You can either go down as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a p****.”
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