GOP Legislators’ Pre-Insurrection Posts — 2k Pages Of Election Lies Collected As Evidence Of Seditious Behavior
As Donald Trump’s second impeachment was carried out in the House and tried in the Senate, the votes only re-affirmed the hyperpartisan state of U.S. legislature. Even such a seemingly simple procedure as confirming the electoral vote, on the day that led to that second impeachment, turned partisan. Now one Congresswoman has gathered intelligence — all public information — on those colleagues who fought to overturn the election.
Donald Trump was accused of inciting the violence that took place on January 6th, not only by his comments to the crowd that day, but for social media posts and oft-repeated lies about the integrity and outcome of the election. However, he’s not the only member of the GOP who encouraged his supporters to do anything necessary to overturn the election.
In fact, a 1,939 page report by Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) shows that a lot of Trump’s supporters in Congress were also tweeting to sow disinformation about the election outcome, often directly lying about election integrity, and encourage the public to help disavow the results.
A few examples she collected:
Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) here falsely claims that Joe Biden wants to count votes that are not legally cast.
Joe Biden wants to “count every vote.”
President @realDonaldTrump wants to count every 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 vote.
There’s a big difference.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) November 5, 2020
Here’s Lauren Boebert (R-GA) calling for the GOP to not ‘roll over’ but to fight the election outcome.
We’re always the party expected to give up and accept however the left wants to treat us.
President Trump changed that.
We’re not going to roll over anymore. I hope the rest of my colleagues are ready for the fight ahead of us! FREEDOM!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) November 7, 2020
Below is a tweet from Nick Martin, who tracks and reports on hate and extremism, sharing a screenshot of a post in which Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is posing with a member of the Proud Boys.
Here's Congressman Paul Gosar posing for a photo with what appears to be a member of the Proud Boys, a known hate group.
As a bonus, the man on the far left of the photo is wearing a T-shirt for the Oath Keepers, an anti-government extremist organization. https://t.co/pcIvbmOB8F
— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) July 4, 2020
KPIX notes that Gosar is also repeatedly seen tagging “@ali” in the collected posts. That’s the (former) handle of Ali Alexander (now banned from Twitter), who has asserted that Gosar, along with Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) helped him plan the insurrection rally.
Rep. Lofgren’s full report can be accessed here (PDF), or individual state sections are listed here.
She explains, “Like former President Trump, any elected Member of Congress who aided and abetted the
insurrection or incited the attack seriously threatened our democratic government,” citing Constitutional clauses forbidding those “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the nation from holding public office, before going on to share nearly 2,000 pages of evidence.
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