One would think that a resolution to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the U.S. Capitol Police officers who put their lives on the line on January 6th would be an easy one to pass. And it did pass Wednesday by a 413-12 vote. How could there possibly be a dozen lawmakers who voted against this well-deserved honor? It appears Texas congressman Louie Gohmert led a GOP faction that tried to derail the bill because they didn’t like the language in the proposal.
Who were the others who joined Gohmert in trying to rewrite history? Some of the names won’t surprise you.
According to Politico, the Republicans were opposed to a phrase in the bill that referred to the “mob of insurrectionists” on January 6th. Gohmert even put together a revised bill that removed any mention of the rioters, and according to a reporter who obtained a copy of that proposal, it even downplayed the deaths of Officers Brian Sicknick and Jeffrey Smith by saying they “passed in January 2021.”
After the vote for the original bill, Florida representative Matt Gaetz actually called it “offensive” for editorializing the events of January 6th.
The attempt to change the bill was not only a waste of legislative time, it was an insult to those officers the resolution is intended to honor. Those men and women risked their lives and many suffered serious injuries at the hands of those, yes, insurrectionists. Those people who stormed the Capitol were not, as Senator Ron Johnson claimed, “people who love the country.”
No amount of dodgy wordplay will change that fact, or make it disappear from the history books.