Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email partnerships@19thnews.org.

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Let’s talk menopause

Menu

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

Menopause, without the noise

Let’s talk about it, in your inbox every Tuesday.

[altcha]

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email community@19thnews.org to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at community@19thnews.org.

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Strategic Plan
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact
Donate
Home

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy and power. Read our story.

Topics

  • Abortion
  • Politics
  • Education
  • LGBTQ+
  • Caregiving
  • Environment & Climate
  • Business & Economy
View all topics

Menopause, without the noise

Let’s talk about it, in your inbox every Tuesday.

[altcha]

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email community@19thnews.org to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at community@19thnews.org.

  • Latest Stories
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Strategic Plan
  • Ways to Give
  • Search
  • Contact

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy and power. Read our story.

19th News Fellowships

HBCU alums, become a fellow in our newsroom.

Sign up for our newsletter

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Politics

‘Turn in your pin and get out’: Several congresswomen denounce their colleagues’ role in the Capitol riot

After a mob stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to overturn the presidential election results, lawmakers called for accountability.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) listens to witness testimony.
(Photo by J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Mariel Padilla

General Assignment Reporter

Published

2021-01-13 17:52
5:52
January 13, 2021
pm

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Republish this story

We’re the only newsroom dedicated to writing about gender, politics and policy. Subscribe to our newsletter today.

Several Democratic women in Congress have said some of their Republican colleagues are at least partly responsible for last week’s violent storming of the Capitol that left at least five people dead. 

In an Instagram Live on Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called President Donald Trump a traitor for inciting “an attack on the United States Capitol” and said some Republican members of the House and Senate helped him, as well as the attackers. She called for the resignation of anyone who incited or supported the rioters, specifically naming Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, who led the effort in the Senate to object to the certification Joe Biden’s election.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

“[The rioters] flew the Confederate flag for the first time in American history in the U.S. Capitol,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It didn’t even make it in during the Civil War. And there were members cheering them on.” 

If any member of Congress failed to denounce the Confederacy, Ocasio-Cortez called for them to “turn in your pin and get out.”

Ocasio-Cortez added that fellow lawmakers’ actions put her and other members of Congress in personal danger. She did not want to join her colleagues in a safe room because she was worried they would divulge her location to the attackers, she said Tuesday. Rep. Lauren Boebert, for instance, tweeted when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi left the House chamber. Ocasio-Cortez also said she had a “close encounter” in which  she thought she was going to die but did not divulge details, citing security reasons. 

“Many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Before the riot, Trump held a rally near the White House where he told thousands of his supporters that he would “never concede” and encouraged them to head toward the Capitol to “take back our country.” Nearly 150 Republicans in the House and Senate supported the president’s election fraud claims and voted to stop the electoral vote certification. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that his remarks were “totally appropriate,” and less problematic than other politicians’ responses to the protests against racial injustice and police brutality that swept the country last summer.  

Many, many members of the House were nearly assassinated.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York

In a Facebook Live, Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey also called some colleagues complicit in last week’s violence, saying she saw other members of Congress leading “reconnaissance” tours in the Capitol the day before the siege. She promised to hold those people accountable and, if necessary, ensure their removal from Congress. 

“We can’t have a democracy if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the election results,” said Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot. 

More than 30 House Democrats joined Sherrill in demanding information from security officials about “an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex” the day before the deadly riot, according to a letter signed by the lawmakers and shared with The 19th. The visitors were especially suspicious given the COVID-19 restrictions in place, the letter read.

Sign up for more news and context delivered to your inbox, daily
[altcha]

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email community@19thnews.org to subscribe.

This email address might not be capable of receiving emails (according to Bouncer). You should try again with a different email address. If you have any questions, contact us at community@19thnews.org.

Preview of the daily newsletter from The 19th

“Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex,” according to the letter, which was addressed to the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms and the Capitol Police acting chief. “The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious.”

Rep. Val Demings of Florida, a former police officer, joined the growing group of representatives contesting that rioters were assisted from the inside of the Capitol. In a CNN interview, she called the attack well-planned and well-coordinated, and says she is “very concerned” that members of Congress were involved. 

On Monday, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri introduced her first bill, a resolution to investigate and expel her colleagues who “sought to sabotage” the nation’s democracy. 

“I believe the Republican members of Congress who have incited this domestic terror attack through their attempts to overturn the election must face consequences,” Bush said in a tweet. “They have broken their sacred Oath of Office.” 

Rep. Terrie Sewell of Alabama took to social media to denounce the actions of her state colleagues, Rep. Barry Moore and Rep. Mo Brooks, who gave an impassioned speech at the rally before the riot. She called their comments “outrageous” and said they must be held accountable.

“It is not okay for my congressional colleagues to use their public platform to incite Americans to overturn our election, storm the U.S. Capitol or assault our democracy,” Sewell wrote. “It’s called an insurrection and such seditious behavior must have consequences.”

While rioters breached the Capitol, breaking windows and ransacking offices, lawmakers found secure locations to hide during the lockdown, many of them sequestered together. Several Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, have since tested positive for coronavirus. 

Watson Coleman, a 75-year-old cancer survivor, blamed her diagnosis on Republican colleagues who refused to wear masks. Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Brad Schneider of Illinois have also tested positive. 

“When I say that many Republicans are responsible for what happened to me, to others and to the country last week, I mean their essential failure to accept facts led us here,” Watson Coleman wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece. 

Republish this story

Share

  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Email

Recommended for you

The standoff over the Epstein files — and the new congresswoman caught in the middle
Karrin Taylor Robson pauses for prayer at a campaign rally.
Trump-endorsed Republicans set up high-stakes Arizona governor’s race
A group of lawmakers stand at a podium in front of the U.S. Capitol.
Want signs of bipartisanship? In the House, look to women.
A line of roses lean against a fence with the Capitol building in the background.
Justice Department to pay $5 million to family of Ashli Babbitt

19th News Fellowships

HBCU alums, become a fellow in our newsroom.

Sign up for our newsletter

Explore more coverage from The 19th
Abortion Politics Education LGBTQ+ Caregiving
View all topics

Support representative journalism today.

Learn more about membership.

  • Give $19
  • Give $50
  • Give $100
  • Any amount
  • Transparency
    • About
    • Team
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Community Guidelines
    • Gift Acceptance Policy
  • Newsroom
    • Latest Stories
    • Strategic Plan
    • 19th News Network
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Fellowships
  • Newsletters
    • Daily
    • The Amendment
    • Menopause
  • Support
    • Ways to Give
    • Sponsorship
    • Republishing
    • Volunteer

The 19th is a reader-supported nonprofit news organization. Our stories are free to republish with these guidelines.