More than 30 House Democrats signed a letter suggesting that several Republicans assisted the Capitol building mob in carrying out their assault. They allege that GOP members assisted the rioters by conducting tours — what one member referred to as “reconnaissance tours” — so the rioters would know where they were going once inside the building.
This would be worse than criminal. It would be treason. So, naturally, you would expect Democrats to have pretty good evidence that their colleagues conspired with rioters in an insurrection against the United States government. After all, accusing colleagues — even if they’re from the other party — of knowingly assisting those who threatened violence and mayhem against Congress is an incredibly serious charge and no one in their right mind would dream of making such accusations without any evidence, right?
Right?
More than 30 House Democrats signed a letter suggesting several Republican colleagues may have aided Capitol rioters by providing them with tours of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5 but have yet to flesh out their accusations, following inquiries from Fox News.
House Democrats on Wednesday requested an immediate probe into “suspicious behavior” and access that they claimed was given to visitors at the U.S. Capitol a day before the riot. Thirty-four lawmakers led by Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J. — who first went public with the “reconnaissance” tour claims — urged the Capitol Police and the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms to look into the matter in a letter.
So maybe it’s double-super-secret evidence that the Democrats can’t share because…well, because they just can’t.
Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., signed the letter and told Fox News he believes his and Sherrill’s concerns “must be fully investigated.”
“While I did not see everything that Congresswoman Sherrill witnessed, but after speaking with her, I was very alarmed by her description of what she witnessed and described,” Carson told Fox News in a statement. “Added to my own observations, I believe these concerns must be fully investigated.”
The letter does not name any members or staff who may have led the alleged “reconnaissance” tours, as Sherrill described them, or give more detail on why the visitors appeared suspicious.
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” said astronomer Carl Sagan. He was referring to claims of aliens visiting earth, but he may as well have had the Democrats smearing Republicans with baseless charges of complicity in an insurrection in mind.
There is no evidence that any Republican congressman was involved in any way in the assault on the Capitol. There’s no evidence that routine tours of the Capitol given by every member of Congress were anything but wide-eyed tourists killing time on their vacation.
Even if some of those who participated in the riot tagged along on some of these tours, unless you can prove a direct connection between the member of Congress knowingly placing the rioter with the tour and that the member had advanced knowledge of the riot, STFU and sit down. It’s idiotic to propose a connection just because the timing was “suspicious.”
“The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day,” the lawmakers wrote. “Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex. The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious.”
What’s “suspicious” about a rioter Googling “Capitol Buiding Layout” and getting this?
Democrats don’t want to find “evidence.” They’re doing just fine with this smear without any evidence at all. They are banking on the fear they are ginning up about hordes of armed, right-wing crazies trying to overthrow the government. Without trying to minimize the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol, deliberately using that attack to suppress and embarrass the opposition — especially since they had nothing to do with it — is despicable politics.
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