Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, spoke out this week against attempts by certain prominent Republicans to focus on complaints about security measures in place at the Capitol ahead of the riot rather than the substance of what happened. These Republicans have tried to cast blame for what took place on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) because of her supposed failure to appropriately secure the Capitol, despite supposed knowledge of threats of violence on the part of certain authorities — but the House Speaker is not even “in charge” of security at the Capitol, CNN has noted! These deflection attempts by Republicans are ridiculous, and Kinzinger laid out the facts.
As Kinzinger put it on Twitter:
‘I want to be clear, we will investigate the security posture on January 6. But blaming the security for the violence on that day is like blaming an assault victim because of what she was wearing.’
I want to be clear, we will investigate the security posture on January 6. But blaming the security for the violence on that day is like blaming an assault victim because of what she was wearing.
— Adam Kinzinger (@AdamKinzinger) July 28, 2021
The Capitol riot was unprecedented — and yet, Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have complained about the lack of pre-January 6 preparations to the point of being able to stop the violence. Besides, what’s conveniently left out by these Republican leaders is that it’s their own words that provided the inspiration for the threats of violence that were present before that day. Trump and allies of his like Greene spread the proven false idea that he was the rightful winner of last year’s presidential election, and this exact lie is what the Capitol rioters used as a guiding principle in their attempt to forcibly stop the formal certification by Congress of Biden’s victory. These are the facts — not some conspiratorial allegation of a failure to prepare by Nancy Pelosi, who’s not even ultimately in charge of security at the Capitol.
