The Seditionists Inside The Capitol

For House Republicans, the time for choosing came yesterday and all but ten of them sided with the seditionists over democracy. If the reports that a significant portion of the Republican caucus actually feared for their own and their families lives if they voted for impeachment are actually true, then I fear that our already fragile democracy may already be lost. More worrying is the increasing evidence that the armed insurrectionists had help from inside the halls of Congress.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill claimed that “members of Congress…had groups coming through the Capitol” for “reconnaissance” on the day before the insurrection. Her charge was then backed up by a number of other Representatives, some of whom have military backgrounds, who wrote in a letter demanding an investigation that they “witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5. This is unusual for several reasons, including the fact that access to the Capitol Complex has been restricted since public tours ended in March of last year due to the pandemic…These tours were so concerning that they were reported to the Sergeant at Arms on January 5. The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day…Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex. The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious”. There is now confirmation that at least one of those tours was led by a member of Congress as opposed to a staffer.

These charges coincide with other evidence that the insurrectionists had both detailed maps of the Capitol and inside knowledge of where senior politicians would be. James Clyburn had earlier noted that the insurrectionists managed to find the obscure, unmarked office where he usually works while bypassing his official office with its visible nameplate.

Perhaps the most disturbing evidence comes from the Squad’s Ayanna Pressley. She reports that, when her staff retreated into her office as the Capitol was being overrun, they found that all the panic buttons in the office had already been ripped out. It appears, then, that Pressley’s office was sabotaged BEFORE the insurrectionists breached the Capitol.

It also appears that members of the Squad were also frightened that other members would give their location away or infect them with COVID because those members insisted on staying maskless. Says Pressley, “The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited”. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez had a similar experience, describing her fear of being in the safe room “because there were QAnon and white-supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white-supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know and who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, et cetera”. That fear is probably not unfounded as Hitler-fascinated Republican Madison Cawthorn has admitted he brought a gun into the Capitol on January 6th and QAnon favorite Republican Lauren Boebert was texting Pelosi’s location after members were specifically instructed by police not to provide any information about their location, even to family members.

All of this is in addition to the Republican members of Congress who coordinated the original rally with the insurrectionists. Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander has admitted he coordinated the rally with Republican Representatives Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, and Paul Gosar in an effort to put “maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting” and to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside”. In addition, a leader of the Proud Boys had dinner at the Trump Hotel with Lindsey Graham on the night of January 5th. Never Trumper Republican strategist Stuart Stevens also muses, “What are the odds that staffers for @HawleyMO and @tedcruz had no contact with organizers of Capitol assault? A huge moment for their bosses making play for POTUS run & they don’t try to shape events? Maybe. But hard to imagine. Hope @FBI is taking a look at any coordination”. Lastly, there is reporting that a “source close to the White House” was actually in contact with the insurrectionists while they were in the Capitol.

Finally, more than a dozen Capitol Police officers are under investigation for their actions in support of the armed insurrectionists and several have already been suspended. Other members of the Capitol Police believe that members of Congress helped organize the attack on the Capitol. Those Police were also dumbfounded by the lack of preparation before the easily-anticipated attack and lack of support during such attack from the Capitol Police leadership. According to Buzzfeed, “Usually, on a day when police leaders are expecting a big protest or riot, they’d organize a roll call, where they’d inform officers of the perceived threats and give them information about what to expect. The three officers said no such meeting occurred on Wednesday morning. Each of the officers separately pointed out that management didn’t even take ‘simple measures’ ahead of the attack like building a temporary barrier around the Capitol ahead of time…Leadership was totally absent that day, they added”.

As time goes on, it increasingly appears that the armed insurrectionists outside the Capitol were directly aided and abetted with more than just rhetoric by the seditionists inside the building. If that is true, then we truly have succumbed to mob rule in this country.