[Republican state lawmakers from across the country traveled to
D.C. on Wednesday. At least one joined the siege of the U.S. Capitol
Building. ] [[link removed]]

RIOTOUS REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS  
[[link removed]]

 

Emma Coleman
January 8, 2021
Route-Fifty
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ Republican state lawmakers from across the country traveled to D.C.
on Wednesday. At least one joined the siege of the U.S. Capitol
Building. _

,

 

A West Virginia lawmaker live-streamed himself entering the U.S.
Capitol Building during a violent riot on Wednesday that temporarily
halted the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. 

Incoming state Del. Derrick Evans, a Republican, entered the Capitol
[[link removed]] shouting
“We’re in! We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!” Evans
was part of a mob that later walked around the Capitol Rotunda,
milling about with little police presence. On Friday, federal
prosecutors
[[link removed]] announced
that Evans had been charged with entering a restricted area

Evans was not the only state lawmaker in attendance at the events in
Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Lawmakers from at least nine states
traveled to the nation’s capital to attend demonstrations against
the certification of election results, egged on by President Donald
Trump, who in the morning gave a speech in which he said he would
“never concede.” 

Those who came to D.C. include Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem,
incoming Nevada state Assemblywoman Annie Black, Tennessee state Rep.
Terri Lynn Weaver, Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase, Pennsylvania
state Sen. Doug Mastriano, Alaska state Rep. David Eastman, Michigan
state Rep. Matt Maddock, and Missouri state Rep. Justin Hill.

Their accounts of their level of participation in Wednesday’s event
varied. Eastman and Hill said they came to D.C. but didn’t
participate in the demonstrations. Black said she marched from the
White House to the Capitol but retreated from the crowd when people
began charging the security barrier around the building. Weaver
told _The Tennessean_
[[link removed]] she
was “in the thick of it” but wouldn’t specify if she had entered
the Capitol on what she called an “epic and historic day.”

At least two of the state lawmakers were involved in organizing
busloads of people from their state to attend the events on
Wednesday. 

Mastriano organized a bus for people from Pennsylvania, then said he
left the Capitol to avoid getting “caught in any violence.”
Maddock did the same for people from Michigan and spoke at a rally
with his wife, another conservative activist, on Tuesday, but said
[[link removed]] he
was in a hotel room when the violence unfolded the next day.

In the aftermath of the Capitol siege, state and local leaders from
across the country
[[link removed]] condemned
what several called a failed “coup attempt.”

*  

Now, some are calling for lawmakers who participated in the
demonstrations to step down. Jessica Post, president of the Democratic
Legislative Campaign Committee, a national group that helps elect
Democrats to statehouses, said that “any Republican legislator who
took part in yesterday’s insurrection, in Washington, D.C., or
anywhere else in the country, should resign immediately.”

“Yesterday was a stain on our country’s history and a dangerous
affront to democracy—all those involved have no place making
laws,” Post said. 

In Pennsylvania, Democrats say Mastriano should resign, and if that
doesn’t happen, he should be stripped of leadership and committee
assignments. 

In Virginia, where Chase is a Republican contender for governor this
year, the state Democratic Senate Caucus said she should resign
[[link removed]] for
“horrifyingly empowering a failed coup d’état” and
“galvaniz[ing] domestic terrorists.” After the events on
Wednesday, Chase wrote on Facebook
[[link removed]] that
“these were not rioters and looters; these were Patriots who love
their country.”

In Michigan, Maddock’s wife, Meshawn—who organized the bus rides
with him—is set to become the next co-chair of the state Republican
Party; some Republican leaders
[[link removed]] in
the state are calling on her to withdraw her candidacy.

No one is facing more pressure to resign than Evans in West Virginia.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 55,000 people have signed a
petition
[[link removed]] asking
for him to be removed from the state House of Delegates for “leading
and participating in terrorism." 

Before Evans was charged, his lawyer said he had no plans to resign
but that he "deeply regrets that (violent) actions occurred.”

Democratic leadership in the state said that Evan’s involvement
[[link removed]] in
Wednesday’s events is too glaring to ignore. House of Delegates
Minority Leader Doug Skaff, Jr. said that Evans “not only
participated in this violent, intentional disruption of government; he
helped lead a group that he organized to travel to Washington, D.C. to
cause this chaos.” 

Paired with Evans’ history of stalking and threatening
[[link removed]] people,
Skaff said his behavior is “cause for alarm and a real safety
concern for all those who work at our State Capitol Complex.”

The West Virginia Democratic Party went one step further, saying that
Evans “must be held accountable for participating in an act of
insurrection” and should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law.”

_Emma Coleman is the assistant editor for Route Fifty._

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web [[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions [[link removed]]
Manage subscription [[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org [[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]