Flippantly disregarding a basic safety measure put in place in the wake of last week’s deadly invasion the U.S. Capitol, numerous Republican lawmakers on Wednesday dodged metal detectors as they entered the House chamber to take part in debate over an article of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with inciting the mob attack.
In a series of tweets Wednesday, HuffPost reporter Matt Fuller named the GOP members he watched evade the newly installed magnetometers or walk through the detectors, set them off, and completely disregard their alarms and proceed into the House chamber without consequence.
“This system has been rendered meaningless,” Fuller lamented as one House Republican after another sidestepped the metal detectors, the establishment of which one GOP member called an “atrocity.”
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) noted Wednesday that “until yesterday, the rule prohibiting guns in the House chamber was not enforced at all. It was an honor system and it was being flouted.”
“Now it’s a modified honor system, where they’re asking politely for dishonorable members to go through mags,” Huffman said. “That too is being flouted.”
Below are Fuller’s tweets spotlighting the Republican lawmakers who refused to comply with the new precaution:
Rep. Bob Gibbs walks right around the metal detector and enters the House floor.
We’re back to this.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
And Chip Roy sidesteps the magnetometer.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Bob Latta sets off the metal detector and walks right past the cops.
This system has been rendered meaningless.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Garret Graves sidesteps the metal detectors.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Markwayne Mullin sidesteps the metal detectors.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Jeff Duncan sidesteps the magnetometer.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Louie Gohmert sidesteps the magnetometer, shaking his head and waving off the police.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Virginia Foxx sets off the metal detectors and keeps walking to the floor.
“Good morning, guys,” Foxx says as she passes through.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Paul Gosar waits in line for the metal detector.
He walks through, sets off the machine, and then just keeps going.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Alex Mooney walks through the metal detectors while talking on the phone.
He extends his hand as if to say, ‘I’m on the phone,’ and just walks onto the floor.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Bill Huizenga walks through the metal detector. He sets it off and keeps walking.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Rep. Russ Fulcher sees reporters staking out the door where he pushed past a cop to get through to the House floor.
He walks to a different door and does it again, thinking he’s out of sight. (But I followed him.)
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Fred Guttenberg, the father of a 14-year-old girl who was killed in the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, tweeted in response to the Republicans’ flouting of House safety measures that “what you will learn is they are the same ones who refuse to protect American children from gun violence and Americans from Covid.”
“They should all resign,” said Guttenberg.
If congress-members think going through metal detectors is a lot just wait to hear what school kids have to go through.
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) January 13, 2021
First utilized on Tuesday and described by the acting House sergeant-at-arms as required “security screening,” the metal detectors set off an immediate furor among Republican lawmakers who claim the devices pose a dire threat to their constitutional rights.
“It is a shame that [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi is trying to disarm members of Congress in the very place that needed more protection on January 6,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a statement after she reportedly “got into an altercation with police officers and initially refused to show police what was in her bag Tuesday night.”
According to CNN, Republican Reps. Steve Womack (Ark.) and Markwayne Mullin (Okla.) “erupted at Capitol Police” Tuesday over the metal detectors.
“I was physically restrained!” Womack shouted as he was forced to walk through the magnetometers. Mullin, for his part, declared that “it’s my constitutional right” and said “they cannot stop me.”
In response to his colleagues’ conduct, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) asked on Twitter, “Do these people not understand that literally everyone else has to go through metal detectors to get in here?”
“Average people do not get to bring guns into the United States Capitol in normal times,” Beyer noted. “Get over yourselves.”
This post was originally published on Radio Free.