Democratic fury with GOP explodes in House
By Scott Wong and Mike Lillis
Democratic fury over the mob attack on the Capitol and its aftermath is spilling into nearly every aspect of life in the House, squashing hopes for comity and threatening even mundane legislative tasks like the naming of a local post office.
Democrats accuse Republicans of nothing short of sabotaging the nation's democracy with false claims that November's election was "stolen" from former President Trump.
Already angry that the refusal by some Republicans to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was endangering lives, Democrats now see the GOP as directly putting lawmaker lives on the line with dangerous rhetoric that feeds outlandish conspiracy theories.
"It's impossible for us to not look at them in a different light," Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said of the 139 Republicans who voted to reverse the election results.
Bad blood reached a new level Tuesday night when Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) took the highly unusual step of forcing a full floor vote on an uncontroversial bill to name a Mississippi post office because it was authored by a Republican who voted to overturn the election.
It was equally evident during a Postal Service hearing on Wednesday as a furious Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) lashed out at a top Trump ally, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who had accused Democrats of attacking Postmaster General Louis DeJoy last year simply to damage Trump's reelection chances.
"It was all a charade!" Jordan said.
"I didn't vote to overturn an election. And I will not be lectured by people who did, about partisanship," Connolly shot back, jabbing his finger at Jordan.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday lashed out at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for giving "aid and comfort" to the insurrectionists.
McCarthy, a short time later, would reply in turn, using a rare floor speech to accuse Democrats of adopting strategies of "grievance" designed to silence "millions of constituents" represented by the minority Republicans.
Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who called former President Trump's stand on Jan. 6 "our 1776 moment," forced a vote Wednesday to end House business for the day; it failed but not before grumbling from members of both parties.
Many Democrats say it is untenable to work with those GOP lawmakers who voted to overturn the election results even after the deadly attack.
READ MORE: Democratic fury with GOP explodes in House
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/de...
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Thursday, February 25th 2021 at 6:11PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
