Chaos Engulfs U.S. Congress; Pelosi Screeches, Pro-Trump Republicans Are ‘the Enemy Within’

One would never mistake the U.S. Congress as a place where actual work gets done on behalf of the American people. As Democrats prepare their insane drive to impeach former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Jan. 17 charge that “the enemy is within the House of Representatives,” has exacerbated already sharp divisions and encouraged a vendetta against any Republican who dared to defend, or just side with Trump. Similar polarization is evident in the Senate, where the Senate Ethics Committee is now investigating Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, for the “crime” of having questioned the election certification during the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, as the Constitution allows him to do.

Pelosi now claims that House members will have to pay additional money to protect themselves in their Washington, D.C., offices and in their home states, allegedly because Trump is “fanning the flames” of violence and insurrection, endangering the safety of House members, while his allies in the House are also threatening fellow legislators, because they want to bring guns onto the floor of the House. Pelosi has ordered the installation of magnetometers outside the House chamber so that no one can enter with weapons. Any member who refuses to be screened will be fined.

As former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard warned on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” Jan. 29, Pelosi’s remarks are “incredibly dangerous,” given how divided and “on edge” the country is. If there is evidence that Members are being threatened, she said, that’s serious, and law enforcement should be brought in to investigate. But if there’s no evidence to substantiate Pelosi’s claims, she added, then this is simply “inciting further division and further harm potentially, and further destroying the possibility of our country coming together.”

How dangerous Pelosi’s remarks are is seen in the hysterical attacks underway to punish or expel Republicans because they support Trump or allege that vote fraud did occur on Nov. 3. One target is Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green, an ardent and outspoken Trump supporter, who won her seat on Nov. 3 with 75% of the vote. In the past she has supported QAnon and made controversial remarks in 2018 and 2019 that she later retracted. But Democrats now want her removed from the House Education and Labor Committee and Budget Committee for making “incendiary” remarks. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) called Taylor-Green “a cancer for the Republican Party,” who peddles “loony lies and conspiracy theories.”

Yesterday, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Ted Deutch of Florida, and Jahana Hayes of Connecticut introduced a resolution demanding Green’s removal from the two committees, to “reduce the future harm that she can cause in Congress, and deny her a seat at committee tables where fact-based policies will be drafted.” This is a “suitable punishment and a proper restraint of her influence,” said Wasserman Shultz, RT reported. Last weekend, Pelosi accused House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) of being the leader of the QAnon party for appointing Green to the two committees in the first place. Wasserman Shultz is warning that if Republicans don’t act on the resolution, she will then bring it to the House floor for a vote. According to RT, House Democrats want to actually force a vote on Greene’s expulsion, forcing Republicans to take a position on the matter.

(Observers with memory will recall Ms. Wasserman Shultz’s nasty efforts to undercut the campaigns of Sen. Sanders and Rep. Gabbard on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in 2016.)