A Squad of Pro-Insurrection Hypocrites: Every Leftist Who Voted Against Capitol Security Received Extra Personal Security at Taxpayer Expense
The vote was 213-212, with 3 members voting present. In keeping with their insurrectionist base, no Republican voted for the security funding, and 3 Democrats voted with the Republicans to keep the citadel of democracy vulnerable to the next pro-Trump mob. Another 3 Democrats voted ‘present,’ because who wouldn’t want to sit on the sidelines when the question is the physical protection of the first branch?
Unfortunately, the list of the 6 Democrats who either voted with the insurrectionists or sat on the sideline is familiar: the entirety of the “squad,” the group of far-left reactionaries whose goal, like those of the far-right that is engulfing the entire Republican party, is to take a sledgehammer to the American system of government. Like their far-right counterparts, the Squad’s energy often aligns with undermining democratic institutions far more than advocating for policy positions they say they like.
3 members of the Squad, Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, and Ilhan Omar voted straight ‘No’, while their fellow Squad members Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib voted ‘Present.’ The ‘Present’ votes are hardly better than the noes. 2 Republicans did not vote. Had they done so, the critically needed funding measure would have been defeated.
Members are the most protected people on the hill. Whenever there is a threat, first the Speaker, then the leadership, and then the members are evacuated and taken to undisclosed locations, as they were on January 6. Not everyone who comes to work at the Capitol - from Congressional staff to custodial workers - is as privileged.
According to reporting by CNN, the so-called “progressives” explain their pro-insurrectionist vote as one being against police funding, namely the funding included in it for Capitol Police and other police forces to protect the building that houses Congress. For a moment, let’s leave aside the fact that officers of Capitol Police and the DC Metro Police Department gave their life and limb to protect exactly the ungrateful Republicans and Squad members who decided to thumb their nose at them. For a moment, let’s set aside that base, fringe politics have become so important to politicians that they would rather leave their own staff unprotected the next time a domestic terrorist mob charges at the Capitol.
Let’s talk about hypocrisy.
Every single one of the 3 Squad members who voted ‘No’ to deny funding to shore up security for the thousands of people who work in the Capitol building begged for and received extra security to protect themselves from threats. And to my knowledge, none of the 6 turned down the $65,000 per member in extra security money for the personal safety of members that Speaker Pelosi opened up in the aftermath of the insurrection.
Just days ago, when QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accosted Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Ocasio-Cortez put the onus on leadership and - wait for it - law enforcement to protect her. Ocasio-Cortez's spokesperson Lauren Hitt told the Washington Post,
We hope leadership and the Sergeant at Arms will take real steps to make Congress a safe, civil place for all Members and staff — especially as many offices are discussing reopening. One Member has already been forced to relocate her office due to Congresswoman Greene’s attacks.This brings us to a ‘No’ vote on the Capitol security bill, Cori Bush. Bush was the representative described by Hitt who was “forced to relocate her office” because of Greene’s behavior. Greene, someone deep into the Trump cult and conspiracy theories, also tracked down and berated Bush, who had an office across from Greene’s as they are both freshmen members of the House, in January, upon which Speaker Pelosi intervened and moved Bush’s office.
At the time, when it was about her personal security, Bush too cried about how much she needed it. She even said that she felt threatened by Greene, presumably physically, on social media.
It’s true; targeting someone on social media can threaten their physical safety. Another Squad ‘No’ vote against beefing up Capitol Security stands as perhaps the starkest example of this phenomenon. When Donald Trump in 2019 repeatedly attacked Ilhan Omar in campaign rallies and on Twitter, she received heightened security from the Capitol Police (a group she is now voting to defund) at the request of Speaker Pelosi.
Squad members did not stop at just receiving additional government security forces. Squad member and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley actively sought and hired private security, according to her own chief of staff. Among the times Pressley had availed herself to additional security - public or private - was the immediate aftermath of her viral comment in August 2020 that “there will be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives,” referring to Black Lives Matters protests and the far-right threats of violence that came to her as a result of the comment’s wide circulation on social media.
The truth is that the members of the Squad have experienced a greater threat to their own personal safety, and the targeting by Trump, Greene, and others testify to that. Pressley and Jamaal Bowman, an abstention on this vote, both had the panic buttons in their Congressional offices removed during the 1/6 insurrection. And it was right for them to seek additional protection for their own safety when it was threatened.
Nevertheless, they still appear completely indifferent to the threat to the safety of countless others who come to work in the same building they do. That includes their own staff, the staff of other members and committees, cafeteria workers, groundskeepers, custodial staff, cleaning staff, and yes, even the safety of those charged with protecting the safety of members and everyone else.
But $65,000 extra for their own personal safety? Yes, please.
For the Squad, like the GOP, it is increasingly a case of pulling up the ladder once they have climbed it - or rather, shutting the door on the security of the people who make the Capitol function every single day but whose names no one ever hears once they got their own personal security taken care of. It is especially disappointing because these are the people who campaigned the most on the slogan of “fighting for someone you don’t know.”
I guess that was just that, a slogan.
When it came time to vote to protect people they didn't know, the Squad couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger, and half of them zealously voted with the party of insurrection.