Republicans Are Being Absolute Babies Over New Metal Detectors in Congress

Following last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol building, metal detectors have been installed outside the House chambers so that everyone—including lawmakers—have to pass through them to get to the floor. I think that to most of us, that seems like a perfectly reasonable and perhaps overdue precaution. And yet a bunch of Republican members of Congress saw that protection as somehow trampling their civil liberties and decided to throw a fit Tuesday evening on their way to a House vote.

Based on information from reporters on the scene, it appears to have started with newly-elected full-blown QAnon Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who refused to allow security guards to check her bag.

Boebert, who owns a gun-themed restaurant in Colorado where the servers open carry, released a digital ad the day she was sworn in declaring that she planned to bring her gun into Congress. She also stated her unequivocal support for the rioters last week just prior to their storming of the Capitol, and after they’d breached the building, while lawmakers were sheltering inside, she tweeted about Nancy Pelosi’s evacuation, despite explicit instructions not to reveal anything about their locations on social media.

What I’m saying is that even though the metal detectors and the bag checks were precautions applied to everyone equally, they probably should have been applied to Boebert a little more equally.

Instead, Boebert refused to open her bag or walk through the metal detector and Capitol police refused to let her in, leading to a “standstill.”

Other Republicans soon joined her, either loudly complaining about the very basic new security precautions or flat-out refusing to comply with them.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, seen in that header photo up top, showed up in a mask reading “Molon Labe,” meaning “come and take [them],” which certainly is a choice a week after a violent mob stormed the Capitol building.

As many have noted, it’s pretty strange to see lawmakers declare metal detectors “unconstitutional” when American schoolchildren have been made to walk through them daily for decades. (Not to mention everyone who wants to get on an airplane.)

Those reports from Tuesday night show that the Capitol police didn’t know how to deal with Republicans refusing to comply. But if you thought they might have regrouped and figured out a game plan going into today, you’d be mistaken! This is strange, considering it’s not like they’ve never arrested sitting lawmakers before.

But once again, Boebert and many others chose once again to walk right past the metal detectors.

Hmm, strange to see the “law and order,” “blue lives matter” party suddenly show such disregard for police officers, no? It’s almost like their performative principles were never meant to apply to themselves.

There’s so much to be angry about here—the hypocrisy, the entitlement, the cruel disregard for their colleagues’ safety.

Freshman Congresswoman Cori Bush lays it out the best though.

“We’re talking about your job,” she told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “If you work at McDonald’s, you have to wear the uniform or you’re not working today. … Have they ever had a job before?”

I think in most cases, we know the answer to that.

(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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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.

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