As many of you have already seen, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill detonated a bombshell on Tuesday night—less than 24 hours before the storming of the Capitol, a number of her Republican colleagues appeared to be giving tours of the Capitol to a number of the people who took part in the storming. In other words, Sherrill was accusing Republican lawmakers of helping these thugs case the joint.
Well, it turns out that Sherrill and others had already sounded the alarm about this before the storming. Sherrill and 33 other Dems wrote a letter to the acting sergeants at arms of both chambers, as well as the acting Capitol Police chief, asking for an investigation into tours that took place on January 5.
"Many of the Members who signed this letter ... witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), in a letter to the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, as well as the acting head of the Capitol Police.
The lawmakers, some of who "have served in the military and are trained to recognize suspicious activity," noted that Capitol tours have been prohibited since March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and they said the tours were so unusual that they were reported to security on Jan. 5, ahead of the following day's violence.
Among the signers who are “trained to recognize suspicious activity” include Sherrill, fellow naval veteran Elaine Luria, and former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger. They were concerned enough about the tours that they alerted the House Sergeant At Arms.
Their concerns proved valid. According to the letter, a number of these thugs had “unusually detailed knowledge” about the Capitol layout—knowledge that could have only been acquired from having previously gotten access to certain parts of the Capitol “from a Member of Congress or their staff.”
It looks like that investigation is already underway, per Congressman Tim Ryan, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the Capitol Police and the sergeants at arms offices.
Ryan said the information was passed to authorities as early as last Wednesday night. He said it involved "handfuls" of people who were escorted through the Capitol. Enough to know that these weren't "one-on-one" tours or "a small family."
"You look back on certain things and you look at it differently," he added.
Ryan told Politico that he knows of at least two Repubs who may have given tours to these thugs, but isn’t naming names “until we get verification.”
Seeing Sherrill’s claims roll across my Facebook feed this morning made my blood run cold—a feeling I last felt on Election Night 2016. We’ve had a lot of moments over the last six years (since Trump came down the escalator) that have had us asking questions we shouldn’t even have to ask. But to think that congressmen and their staffers may have been complicit in an act of domestic terrorism against the symbol of our democracy? As depraved as today’s GOP has gotten, not even I would have believed that. And I’ve seen a lot in my 17 years at Daily Kos (I’m member 18,332, for those who don’t know) and almost three decades of being politically active (dating back to my freshman year of high school—Clinton’s first bid).
It goes without saying that if this is even half true, everyone responsible must be expelled and arrested. And if this is even half true, Kevin McCarthy’s belated acknowledgement that Biden won shouldn’t be enough to save him. This would have never happened if McCarthy hadn’t fostered an environment in which Republican lawmakers found it even remotely acceptable to consort with these thugs. When the leader of a major party in the House creates this kind of environment, it’s time for that “leader” to go.