Here and now they are there again!
2 Years After Jan. 6 Insurrection, New GOP Chaos Roils The U.S. Capitol
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Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., objects to certifying Arizona's Electoral College votes during a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to count the electoral votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Igor BobicWASHINGTON ― As the chaos unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives this week and Republicans struggled to elect a speaker, some lawmakers couldn’t help but see links to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that took place here two years prior.
Many of the same far-right Republicans who supported or played key roles in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false claims of fraud are now engaged in a historic speaker blockade that has delayed the formation of the House and ground all legislative business to a halt. President Joe Biden has called the episode “embarrassing” and warned it would erode America’s image around the world.
On Friday, the second anniversary of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the House will try for the 11th time to elect a speaker. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who also voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has failed to win a majority 10 times ― more than any speaker elections since the Civil War...
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Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs Helped Plan January 6 Event, Lead Organizer Says
The head of the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, helped plan the January 6 event that culminated in a storming of the Capitol, according to Ali Alexander, a lead organizer of the gathering. Alexander, a pro-Trump personality, was an early founder of the “Stop the Steal” movement and helped bring together various right-wing factions around a mass event on January 6, aimed to coincide with objections to the counting of Electoral College votes.
Alexander made his claim in three separate livestreams in late December, adding that Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama were also involved. “We’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event,” Alexander said. On December 8, the Arizona Republican Party boosted Alexander, asking supporters if they were willing to give their lives in the fight over the results of the presidential election.
His claim is also buttressed by a fourth video from a December 19 rally at the Arizona State Capitol, at which Alexander played a video that Biggs had supplied. In the video, Biggs mentions Brooks as his ally in the fight. Gosar spoke in person at the event.
Biggs’s connection to Alexander was reported on Sunday by the Arizona Republic, which quoted his spokesperson, Daniel Stefanski, denying any connection to 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,” Stefanski said. “He did not have any contact with protestors or rioters, nor did he ever encourage or foster the rally or protests.”
Gosar did not respond to inquiries from The Intercept. Alexander did not respond to a text or phone call; his voicemail was full. Alexander, who adopted a new name after pleading guilty to felony property theft in 2007 and felony credit card abuse in 2008, has been suspended from Twitter and other platforms for his role in organizing the January 6 event. As the Daily Beast reported, he has said he has been unfairly blamed for the violence on January 6, and has gone underground.
Brooks, after the event, sought to legitimize political violence in a radio interview.In a statement to The Intercept following publication, Brooks’s office denied the congressman incited violence, writing in part: “Congressman Brooks has no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is. Congressman Brooks has not in any way, shape or form coordinated with Ali Alexander on the January 6th ‘Save America’ rally. Congressman Brooks spoke at the ‘Save America’ rally at the invitation of the White House (the invitation was extended the day before), not anyone else.”
Alexander’s contemporaneous claims have taken on new relevance as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has floated the possibility of expelling members of Congress who are found to have been involved in the riot. “Your views on the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment are valued as we continue,” she wrote to her colleagues over the weekend.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, reads:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Alexander made his comments in a livestream posted December 28. Jason Paladino, an investigator with the Project on Government Oversight, archived the video from Alexander’s now-suspended account and provided it to The Intercept. “I was the person who came up with the January 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and then Congressman Andy Biggs. 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 said in the livestream.
Alexander reiterated the claim of collaborating with Biggs, Gosar, and Brooks a second time, using almost identical language in a December 29 livestream similarly provided by Paladino, who has tracked Alexander. “I’m the guy who came up with the idea of January 6 when I was talking with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Andy Biggs, and Congressman Mo Brooks. So we’re the four guys who came up with a January 6 event — #DoNotCertify — and it was to build momentum and pressure, and then on the day change hearts and minds of congresspeoples who weren’t yet decided, or saw everyone outside and said, ‘I can’t be on the other side of that mob,’” Alexander said a week before the event he predicted would bring more than a million people to Washington, D.C.
On December 21, Alexander made the same claim on a livestream. “We’re working closely with Congressman Mo Brooks, we’re working closely with Congressman Andy Biggs, and closely with, obviously, Congressman Paul Gosar, my great friend,” Alexander said. “I believe that the president should do something brave, I think the vice president should do something brave. I believe that that’s how we maintain the White House. … It’s a moral imperative to maintain the White House.”
The Office of Congressional Ethics has seen some of the claims made by Alexander and is looking into the connection between him, Gosar, Brooks, and Biggs, according to two sources familiar with the situation. . . READ MORE
Visual timeline: How Jan. 6, 2021 unraveled inside and outside the Capitol
Jan. 6, 2021, was always on the country’s radar.
Two runoff elections that would determine control of the Senate still had not been decided as Tuesday became Wednesday. A joint session of Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s electoral-vote win while thousands gathered on the Mall in support of President Trump, who continued to falsely claim that the election was stolen from him.
[The four-hour insurrection: How a Trump mob halted American democracy]
As the scene in D.C. continued to darken, smaller demonstrations across the nation also flared, forcing officials in several statehouses to evacuate.
This is how the day unfolded.
Trump rallies his supporters as Congress convenes
Crowds began forming early in the morning on the White House Ellipse for Trump’s “Save America” rally. During his speech, Trump reiterated multiple falsehoods, claiming the election was rigged and that Democrats had committed voter fraud. By midday, the Capitol was buzzing as Congress convened in a joint session and pro-Trump protesters began to gather around the building’s perimeter. . ." READ MORE
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