Capitol Siege January 14, 2021

Democrats Demand Investigation Of House Republicans Who May Have Helped Rioters

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Protesters supporting U.S. President Donald Trump gather near the east front door of the U.S. Capitol after groups breached the building's security on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building during demonstrations in the nation's capital. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

A group of House Democrats is demanding an immediate investigation of whether Republicans in Congress were involved in helping plan last weeks insurrection at the Capitol.

The Washington Post writes:

In the days since the Jan. 6 attack, immediately preceded by Trump’s remarks at a rally, a number of Democrats have pointed to speeches, tweets and videos that they have said raised questions about whether the attackers may have been inspired or helped by Republican members of Congress.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) is leading the group of Democrats who wrote a letter to the acting chief of the Capitol police.

She and other Democrats sent a letter Wednesday asking congressional security officials to investigate what they called “suspicious behavior and access given to visitors” the day before the attack. The letter said that Democratic lawmakers and staffers “witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups” visiting the Capitol, which was unusual because the building has restricted public access since March, when pandemic protocols were enacted. Since then, tourists can enter the Capitol only when brought in by a member of Congress.

Among the visitors on January 5 were some who appeared to be associated with the rally. Democrats are asking for logbooks, videos and facial recognition software to determine the identity of those visitors.

Rep. Sherrill describes how her military training taught her to "look for things that were out of place, look for things that were odd, and look at them with an eye toward security," and how that led her to raise questions about visitors to the Capitol the day before the attack. pic.twitter.com/jnGjNiZscy
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) January 14, 2021

Here’s a portion of the letter from House Democrats:

The tours being conducted on Tuesday, January 5, were a noticeable and concerning departure from the procedures in place as of March 2020 that limited the number of visitors to the Capitol. 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. That group left the White House and marched to the Capitol with the objective of preventing Congress from certifying our election. 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.