MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan called out House Republicans for demanding that Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) face prosecution and expulsion for pulling a fire alarm during Saturday’s chaotic vote on a bill to fund the government.
“These are the same House Republicans who are perfectly happy to have Paul Gosar in their midst,” he said, referring to the Republican lawmaker from Arizona who last week said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley should be “hung.”
House Republicans are also standing behind Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who Hasan noted “publicly carried out a lewd act in an audience filled with kids last month.”
Boebert was tossed out of a performance of the “Beetlejuice” musical for repeated acts of misbehavior, much of which was caught on video.
And then there is Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who Hasan pointed out “is under federal indictment, lied about his entire life.”
Given those problems on the Republican side, Hasan isn’t buying their outrage over Bowman.
“And of course, when there was an actual armed attack on the Capitol building, that was, quote, ‘legitimate political discourse,’ according to the RNC,” Hasan said, referring to the Jan. 6 assault that many GOP lawmakers have downplayed. “Who are they kidding here?”
Fellow MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin called it the “death of irony” given the GOP’s relentless support for Donald Trump, even after 91 felony charges.
“Republicans would have voted to impeach and convict Trump, clearly, if he had just pulled a fire alarm,” Hasan said sarcastically. “Not by sending an armed mob to the Capitol to ‘fight like hell.’”
See more of their conversation below:
Bowman apologized for pulling the alarm and insisted that he wasn’t trying to delay the House vote.
“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,” he said in a statement. “I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.”
But House Republicans don’t want to let Bowman off the hook, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying his actions “should not go without punishment.”
McCarthy has called for an ethics investigation, while his close ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has said Bowman should be prosecuted “the same way they prosecuted January 6 defendants.”
