House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave fuel to the “inside job” theory that some Democrats are pushing that Republican members of Congress helped out some of the President Trump-supporting rioters who broke into the Capitol last week.
“If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress are accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that,” Pelosi said in a press conference Friday.
She also said that there is strong interest in a “9/11-type commission” to investigate what led to the insurrection.
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan this week claimed that some Republican members of Congress were giving suspicious tours to groups the day before the Capitol breach. Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey also said in a Facebook livestream that some lawmakers led groups of people on a “reconnaissance” tour through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5.
On Wednesday, 30 House members signed a letter to Capitol security officials asking for more information on which lawmakers allowed visitors into the Capitol despite access being restricted to the public since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have to talk about truth and trust,” Pelosi said. “In order to serve here with each other, we must trust that people have respect for their oath of office, respect for this institution. We must trust each other, respecting the people who sent us here. We must also have the truth. And when — and that will be looked into.”
She added that with the Capitol breach, “We really lost our innocence in this.”
“We always prepared to protect and defend from all enemies, foreign, but the Constitution of all this also says, ‘and domestic,’ and now we have to protect ourselves from enemies domestic. How close within? The investigation will — will let us know.”
