January 16, 2021

Represpentative Jason Crow joined Katy Tur on Friday afternoon to talk about the MAGA insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th, what investigations are being done to look into allegations that Republican Congresspeople - mainly Qanon believers - may have assisted from the inside. He pulled no punches. These folks will be investigated and if they were found to have contributed to the insurrection that could have led to elected officials being murdered, they will face accountabililty - both in Congress and possibly criminally.

TUR: So no one is naming any names, but they are citing the Qanon conspiracy theory and the more extremist members of Congress and there are three new members of Congress who have publicly invested their opinions in the Qanon conspiracy theory. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boehbert of Colorado, although she claims she doesn't have anything to do with it, and Madison Cawthrone of North Carolina. The people elect their Representatives and the people elected these three individuals, but given their adherence to this conspiracy theory, that alledges that Democrats are pedophiles and they eat children and they are Satan worshipping, what do you do about that?

CROW: Well, there will be criminal investigation. As I've said before, it doesn't matter whether someone is a member of Congress or not, if they committed a crime, or were involved in the crime, they will be held accountable for that. There is no immunity for criminal liability just because you are elected to office, nor should there be. We are in America, no man or woman is above the law. so that will happen.

Secondly there, are a handful of those members, frankly, who are just so depraved, so morally bankrupt at this point that they are dangerous people, in my view. So we have to look at applying the facts to what happened and what the remedies are and then we'll see where we need to go. But, you know, people have the right to come and have the obligation to come to Congress and debate politics, debate policy. But if somebody will be involved in trying to overthrow the government, incite a violent mob, incite violence, there is a line there and we have remedies to prevent people from crossing that line or to hold them accountable if they have already crossed that line and that is what we need to do.

CROW: You're a former service member and there were former service members in that crowd, some have been arrested and I believe one current service member has now been arrested and charged in connection with the assault on the Capitol. As a veteran yourself, what did you make of that?

CROW: There are tough realities that we have to grapple with and one of which is we have a homegrown terror movement in the United States. We saw this on full display. and like any terror movement, they have coming out, they have watershed moments and I think unfortunately this terror movement is pointing to January 6th as their watershed awakening moment. So this is a problem that we are going to have to address in the months and years ahead. Because Donald Trump has radical radicalized these folks, he has given them permission, he has romanticized that violence and we can't fix that overnight.

The other reality is that disproportionate number of the rioters, the attackers, come from positions of public trust. Whether it is law enforcement, whether it is prior or current military. And the first step in combatting a terror movement is making sure that the agencies and the organizations that will combat it have integrity and that they have the capability to combat it. That any inside threats are addressed. So that is why i've reached out to the military, I've talked to the Secretary of the Army. I raised this issue and pressed him and gained assurnces that they will expedite investigations and that they would review their policies and as of yesterday, they launched that review and they will continue the investigations and I'll continue to push that to happen.

Depraved and morally bankrupt is a perfect explanation of these Qanon whackjobs. The fact that at least 3 of them (that we know of) got elected in November is shocking. They are a disgrace to their constituents and to our country. If they can be proven to have aided and abetted the enemy, they need to be expelled from Congress and criminally charged. There can be no exceptions made.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon