Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is under investigation for allegedly pulling a fire alarm ahead of a midnight vote to keep the government from shutting down. As The Hill reports, Bowman is claiming that it was not intentional.
“Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open. I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused,” Bowman explained in a statement. “But I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite—I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did and joined my colleagues in a bipartisan effort to keep our government open.”
Republicans, as some might expect, are calling for an investigation into Bowman’s actions. According to The Hill, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI), the committee he chairs has video of the incident. On Twitter/X, the chairman announced that an investigation will be pursued against Bowman. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters at a press conference that Bowman’s actions reminded him of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“We watched how people have been treated if they’ve done something wrong in this Capitol. It will be interesting to see how he is treated on what he was trying to obstruct when it came to the American public,” McCarthy said.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a noted adversary of Bowman on political issues, took McCarthy’s concerns to their furthest conclusion, saying, “I’m demanding that the Department of Justice prosecute him using the same way they prosecuted January 6 defendants. It’s the exact same law.”
Rep. Nicole Mallotakis (R-NY) also used her platform on Twitter/X to figuratively call for Bowman’s head requesting that the senator be expelled from the legislative body they share.
“This is the United States Congress, not a New York City high school,” Malliotakis continued. “To pull the fire alarm to disrupt proceedings when we are trying to draft legislation to AVERT A SHUTDOWN is pathetic…even for members of the socialist squad.”
Rank-and-file Republicans are also parroting the talking points of their leaders on Twitter/X, begging for action against Bowman.
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to the defense of Bowman, and criticized the Republican response to Bowman by juxtaposing Bowman to Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who is being indicted.
AOC discussed the panic on CNN‘s State of the Union program, “They (Congressional Republicans) are protecting someone who has not only committed wire fraud, not only defrauded veterans, not only lied to congressional investigators, but is openly gloating about it is absolutely humiliating to the Republican caucus and I think that they should really check their own values.”
Regardless of the pulled fire alarm, however, the government managed to avoid another shutdown as the Representatives voted to approve a bill funding the government. The Senate has until midnight on Oct. 1 to approve it, or the government will be shut down for the first time since it shut down over an argument regarding the funding of Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. That shutdown only lasted a month and the border wall project remained without funds.
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