The Pro-Trump insurrectionist that occupied the U.S. Capitol during the Electoral College Riot may have received assistance from Congress members. Representative Tim Ryan, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Capitol Police and the sergeant-at-arms office, states an investigation is underway looking into the potential involvement of Congress members providing tours of the U.S. Capitol to suspected rioters.
Representative Mikie Sherrill claimed that some Republicans in Congress had given groups a “reconnaissance” tour of the Capitol ahead of the insurrection. In response to those claims, Ryan states, “All of that is being reviewed, both people on the campus who were here and behavior before and after” the rep continued “these alleged tours consisted of handfuls of people…enough to be a group, It wasn’t a one-on-one or a small family.”
Neither Ryan nor Sherrill has released any names or provided proof, citing an ongoing investigation.
There was a time that the possibility of members of Congress being complicit in an insurrectionist attack on the Capitol would have been inconceivable, but now suspicion is slowly creeping its way into its halls. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez relayed her fears that it was an inside job recalling her mind-state during the riot,
I myself did not even feel safe going to that extraction point, because there were QAnon and white supremacist sympathizers and frankly white supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point, who I know and who I had felt would disclose my location and allow me to, who would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, etc…
In the wake of the Electoral College Riot, Washington D.C. is being patrolled by more armed military than those deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria combined. This fighting force is tasked with protecting the nation’s capital from threats both foreign and domestic; Representative Ryan is tasked with rooting out those who threaten the nation from within.