Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday announced she was introducing fines for members of Congress who refused to accept metal detector screenings, after several Congressmen objected vociferously and refused to go through, when they were introduced the previous day.
Pelosi’s move came after Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert said on Wednesday that a ‘handful’ of Republican representatives broke the House rules and carried their firearms on the House floor on the day of the riots, and freshman Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn claimed he was armed at the time.
‘Some members were armed, they kind of just had this feeling to bend the rules that day,’ said Boebert, co-chair of the Second Amendment Caucus.
‘And we kind of all huddled close to the ones who did.’
Boebert was among the most high-profile objectors to the metal detectors on Tuesday night.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi went through the metal detectors when she entered the House floor
Speaker Pelosi stopped for Capitol Police to wand her
Lauren Boebert, a Colorado congresswoman, told Fox News a ‘handful’ of her colleagues were armed in the Capitol last week during the insurrection
Boebert is the chair of the Second Amendment Caucus
Pelosi announced the fines in a press release, in which she praised the Capitol Police for protecting members of Congress. One officer died after he was smashed in the head with a fire extinguisher.
‘Sadly, just days later, many House Republicans have disrespected our heroes by verbally abusing them and refusing to adhere to basic precautions keeping members of our Congressional community, including the Capitol Police, safe,’ she wrote.
‘The House will soon move forward with a rule change imposing fines on those who refuse to abide by these protections.
‘The fine for the first offense will be $5,000 and $10,000 for the second offense. The fines will be deducted directly from Members’ salaries by the Chief Administrative Officer.
‘It is tragic that this step is necessary, but the Chamber of the People’s House must and will be safe.’
Members of Congress are allowed to have firearms on Capitol grounds, although there are certain places where they can’t carry, such as the House chamber, Speaker’s Lobby, cloakroom and the Rayburn Room.
Firearms are not allowed on the House floor except by members of security.
Washington D.C. has strong laws against concealed weapons but lawmakers are exempt from them as long as the weapons are stored in the members’ offices and transported safely and unloaded.
Boebert’s gun was stored in her office when the Capitol came under attack and she was trapped in the House chamber.
‘You never know when you’re going to need it,’ Boebert told Fox News.
‘So you never leave home without it. And that’s how I live my life every day, and now here I am prohibited to carry it in the one room where I potentially needed it.’
Cawthorn told his local newspaper, The Smokey Mountain News, he was evacuated with the other lawmakers, staff and journalists.
‘Fortunately, I was armed, so we would have been able to protect ourselves,’ he said.
Freshman Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn claimed he was armed the day rioters swarmed the Capitol, which would be a violation of House rules
Rep. Madison Cawthorn, 25, was part of the group of House Republicans who spoke to President Donald Trump’s rally of supporters on the National Mall the morning of the riot
Cawthron has posted photos to his personal Instagram account of him holding a rifle
Cawthorn, 25, was part of the group of House Republicans who spoke to President Donald Trump’s rally of supporters on the National Mall the morning of the riot. He also objected to Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
He previously told the president’s supporters it was okay to ‘lightly threaten’ lawmakers.
At a Turning Point USA event in December, which is a gathering of young conservatives who support Trump, Cawthorn encouraged attendees to ‘call your congressman and feel free — you can lightly threaten them.’
‘Say: ‘If you don’t support election integrity, I’m coming after you. Madison Cawthorn’s coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you,’ the Republican from North Carolina said.
But Cawthron decried the MAGA mob of insurgents who stormed Capitol Hill last week, leaving five dead and a trail of destruction in their wake.
‘I don’t want to over-exaggerate here, but it was the closest I’ve ever been to 9/11, thinking that a major monument to American success and prosperity is being attacked by people who want to subvert it,’ he told The Smokey Mountain News.
‘In my mind I was not thinking, wow, Republicans are out there storming, Constitutionalists are out there, storming. I said, ‘There is this disgusting and pathetic group of people who are storming the Capitol,” he said. ‘I have no problem calling that out, even though a lot of those people probably would’ve voted for me. No problem calling that out, because I just, I can’t support that.’
Cawthron, the youngest member of Congress, is in a wheelchair as the result of being in a car accident at the age of 18.
He thanked two fellow lawmakers – Congressmen Ted Budd and Richard Hudson – for helping him when U.S. Capitol Police evacuated the House floor after rioters made their way into the Capitol.
Rep. Cawthorn is a supporter of President Trump who opposed the effort by Congress to certify the 2020 presidential election
‘They really helped me. They got me down some steps. They moved a lot of the furniture that was used to barricade different doors so I could get through,’ he said.
He recounted: ‘But because I had to take another route, we didn’t have our Capitol police escort so there were multiple times we needed to change the route we were taking just to be safe. Fortunately, I was armed, so we would have been able to protect ourselves.’
And he noted: ‘We stayed hunkered down at another member’s office but then I opened the blinds — and not to make a pop culture reference — I felt like I was watching Lord of the Rings when the orcs were taking over the last stronghold of man.’
Cawthorn has come under fire for some of his previous comments. He called Adolf Hitler ‘the Fuhrer’ in a now-deleted Instagram post of him visiting Hitler’s vacation home in Germany known as the ‘Eagle’s Nest.’ He denied being a white supremacist.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has bragged about her desire to carry her glock pistol into the Capitol, got into a standoff with Capitol Hill police and wouldn’t let them search her bag after she set off the security alarm on Tuesday night before she entered the House floor
Meanwhile, lawmakers were reminded on Tuesday they are not allowed to bring firearms with them when they come to the House floor to vote.
Boebert, who has bragged about her desire to carry her Glock pistol into the Capitol, got into a standoff with police and wouldn’t let them search her bag after she set off the security alarm.
Boebert, who supports QAnon theories and made a name for herself carrying her firearm on the campaign trail, walked through the screening process with her bag, which set off the magnetometer. She refused to hand the bag over to be searched.
Capitol Police eventually let the Republican from Colorado in the House chamber and it appears her bag was not searched before they did so.
‘I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C. and within the Capitol complex,’ Boebert tweeted after the incident.
‘Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it’s just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi.’
Speaker Pelosi went through the metal detectors when she entered the House floor. She, too, set them off but stopped for Capitol Police to wand her.
The new security procedures were announced Tuesday, coming after last week’s riot on Capitol Hill.
‘Effective immediately, all persons, including Members, are required undergo security screening when entering the House Chamber,’ acting House Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett wrote Tuesday in a memo to lawmakers obtained by DailyMail.com.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene set off the detectors when she went through them Tuesday night and had to get wanded by U.S. Capitol Police
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene takes off her shoes as part of the screening process
Lawmakers were reminded that firearms are not permitted on the House floor but face masks are required to be worn.
Security will remove those who do not comply.
‘Failure to complete screening or the carrying of prohibited items could result in denial of access to the Chamber,’ Blodgett wrote. ‘Members not wearing a mask will not be admitted to the Floor and Members who fail to wear a mask will be removed from the Floor.’
But many Republicans revolted against the new security measures as long lines of lawmakers waited to go through the screening so they could vote, causing delays for them to get onto the House floor.
Before Tuesday, lawmakers were allowed to skip security lines going into and out of the Capitol complex. They were able to walk around the mags simply by wearing the gold circular lapel pin that identified them as a member of Congress.
Three Republican lawmakers argued with Capitol Police about the issue.
‘This is bull****,’ Rep. Rodney Davis told House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, calling the new system ‘horse****’, adding that valuable resources were being diverted and the Republicans weren’t consulted on the matter.
Rep. Markwayne Mullin said police ‘can’t stop me’ from going through them.
And Rep. Steve Womack yelled at officers as he went through the magnetometer: ‘You are creating a problem you do not understand the ramifications of.’
He said it is going to create chaos during votes with members steaming through.
‘Get back,’ he told them. ‘Don’t touch me.’
Other Republicans, about a dozen, simply walked around the metal detectors, refusing to go through them.
Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert was one of them.
‘You can’t stop me; I’m on my way to a vote,’ he said as he bypassed police.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said the situation is ‘untenable’ because it ‘impedes the ability of members to come and vote.’
‘This is our job,’ he said.
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene set off the detectors when she went through them Tuesday night and had to go through additional screening.
Greene, who supports QAnon conspiracy theories, had to take off her shoes and was at the magnetometer for about two minutes total to get wanded by an officer.
Greene, who has objected to wearing a face mask in the past, was wearing one Tuesday night. It read Molon labe, which means ‘come and take them’ and is an ancient Greek expression that is a classical expression of defiance.