But Really, Why Haven’t These House Republicans Been Arrested Yet?

Earlier today, about two dozen House Republicans stormed a closed deposition hearing with Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Laura Cooper. As a reminder, this hearing was not closed to Republicans, just to anyone not on the committees involved. You might think these lawmakers, then, would choose to just confer with their Republican colleagues, but no. They wanted the spectacle and they wanted to disrupt the process.

Not only did the lawmakers crash a hearing they weren’t allowed to be in, but many appeared (based on the fact that they were aggressively tweeting) to have brought their cell phones into the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities. That might sound like a technicality, but it’s a BIG deal. I posted part of a thread explaining that earlier, but if you want to know exactly how that’s severely compromising our national security, check that out here.

So when a group of about 25 nearly entirely white men storm a private and protected Congressional hearing, with totally hackable devices in hand, it raises the question: Why the hell weren’t they removed and arrested by Capitol Police?

It’s a fair question since, as many on Twitter were quick to point out, those officers (who were reportedly present today) have been known to arrest protesters and anyone else not being where they’re supposed to be or doing what they’re supposed to do in regard to Congressional hearings.

The protesters arrested around Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing are an especially recent memory for many.

I don’t have an answer for why there were no arrests made today. A lot of people (myself included) are calling Capitol Police and being forwarded to the Public Information office, where I assume the voicemails are piling up. If I get a response to mine, I’ll update here.

(image: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

twitter