Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman (NY) was formally censured in the United States House of Representatives on Thursday stemming from an incident in which he pulled a fire alarm seemingly as a means to delay a congressional vote.
In what may be the biggest shock of all, while the votes did go mostly along party lines, there were even a few Democrats who voted in favor of the censure.
Three, to be precise: Representatives Chris Pappas (D-NH), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Jahana Hayes (D-CT).
The measure passed by a 214 to 191 vote with 5 additional lawmakers voting present.
Bowman Officially Censured
By now, we’ve all seen the video that critics contend shows Bowman engaged in a form of “insurrection” by Democrats’ loose standards of the term.
Bowman pulled a clearly marked fire alarm beside an emergency door at the Cannon House Office Building in late September as House members were preparing to vote on a spending bill.
He initially claimed that he was “urgently” trying to get to the vote and had pulled the alarm thinking it would open the door.
But a video released after Bowman struck a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for causing a false fire alarm clearly showed that he lied.
He wasn’t “rushing,” he didn’t push the bar on the right-side door, and he pulled down the emergency signs.
The plea deal called for a very fortunate Bowman to write an apology to the Capitol Police and pay a $1,000 fine.
RELATED: House Ethics Won’t Investigate Democrat Jamaal Bowman for Pulling Fire Alarm
Ethics Committee Members Vote Present
Congressman Jamaal Bowman’s story was so far-fetched that CNN reporter Manu Raju even gave him the third degree for being dishonest.
“You weren’t straight about what happened initially,” Raju accused, prompting Bowman to insist: “I was very straight. I was straight from the very beginning.”
“But you said you didn’t know,” Raju pressed, not biting on his defense.
“I was straight from the beginning,” Bowman insisted.
On a side note, it seems especially cowardly to see the five members who voted present on the matter to censure Bowman were, according to Fox News, all members of the House Ethics Committee.
That committee, just last week, announced that they would not investigate Bowman for the stunt.
“A majority of the Members of the Committee did not agree to establish an ISC or report to the House regarding Representative Bowman’s conduct,” the group advised.
If you feel he didn’t do anything warranting an investigation, then it should have been relatively easy to vote “no” on the censure.
Bowman has repeatedly tried to convince people that he didn’t obstruct an official government proceeding. In fact, his statement after pleading said exactly that.
“I’m thankful for the quick resolution from the District of Columbia Attorney General’s office on this issue and grateful that the United States Capitol Police General Counsel’s office agreed I did not obstruct nor intend to obstruct any House vote or proceedings,” Bowman said.
Roll Call, however, reported that Capitol Police did not come to that conclusion at all.
It’s good to see Republicans take action against somebody not in their own party, and it’s good to see at least a few Democrats act reasonably. Even if it was only three.
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