New Petition Pressures US House Members Not to Seat GOP #Insurrectionists in 2023
The petition argues that Republican Reps. Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene "are ineligible to hold future public office" under the 14th Amendment.
JAKE JOHNSON, JESSICA CORBETT
December 17, 2022
..."The petition, led by Free Speech for People and MoveOn, takes aim at three Republican members of Congress in particular, citing the section of the 14th Amendment that bars from federal office anyone who has taken an oath to support the Constitution then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion."
Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) "are ineligible to hold future public office," the petition argues, "having voiced support for and helped facilitate the deadly insurrection on our nation's Capitol on January 6th, 2021."
The petition, which nearly 67,000 people have signed as of Saturday morning, continues:
Publicly available evidence establishes that Rep. Paul Gosar helped facilitate the insurrection, before, during, and after January 6, 2021. Not only was he among a handful of Congress members who expressed vocal support for the insurrection as it was happening , but, according to news reports, Gosar went so far as to offer organizers of the pre-attack demonstration a "blanket pardon" in connection with unrelated criminal investigations, encouraging what would no doubt be an illegal act of violence.
In the weeks leading up to January 6, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly stated that violence might be necessary to keep Trump in power, exhorted her followers not to allow Congress to transfer power peacefully, and, the night before the attack, called the date "our 1776 moment" (a codeword used by violent extremists to refer to an attack on government buildings). Greene has since attempted to defend the violence on January 6 as justified by the Declaration of Independence, calling convicted participants in the insurrection "political prisoners of war." In December 2022, she bragged that "if" she had organized the attack, "we would have won. Not to mention, it would've been armed."
Rep. Lauren Boebert echoed Greene's coded sentiments during the insurrection, tweeting, "Today is 1776." She was billed as a speaker for the pre-attack Capitol protest, though she did not speak. Three days prior to the insurrection, Boebert released an ad featuring herself walking through federal buildings while brandishing a firearm, pledging to carry a handgun in the Capitol despite D.C. laws banning open carry. In addition, two January 6th organizers told Rolling Stone of "dozens" of planning meetings with Boebert and several other Congress members in the days leading up to the insurrection."...
