House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has demanded additional security for lawmakers, citing threats from “within” the House, while the temporary fence around the Capitol is on the way to become permanent.
"We will probably need a supplemental [budget] for more security for members when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about in addition to what is happening outside," Pelosi told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.
Asked to specify her “enemy within” comment, Pelosi cited “members of Congress bringing guns on the floor.”
"It means we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress," she said, not clarifying what those specific threats of violence have been.
Pelosi once again circled back to blaming former President Donald Trump for “inciting an insurrection” with the US Capitol riot on January 6 and for making House members fear their colleagues.
“It shouldn't be that not only is the president of the United States inciting an insurrection but keeps fanning the flames endangering the security of members of Congress to the point that they're even concerned about members in the House of Representatives being a danger to them,” she said.
In a letter sent to House leadership this week, multiple lawmakers requested permission to hire their own private security, citing an uptick in threats against them, concerns Pelosi says she is addressing.
Democrats have indicated in the weeks following the Capitol riot that they fear members of the GOP. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) claimed she was scared “white supremacist” members of the House would turn her over to the pro-Trump rioters when she was locked down with them after the Capitol was breached.
While she did not name specific members, the Democrat did accuse Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) of trying to “trying to get [her] killed.”
Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman announced on Thursday that the fencing erected around the Capitol after the unrest will become permanent and back-up forces should be kept within close proximity at all times to prevent a future riot.
Some 5,000 National Guard troops – of the 25,000 initially deployed in Washington, DC to protect Joe Biden’s inauguration from threats that never materialized – are staying in the US capital indefinitely as well.
In her Thursday press conference, Pelosi also called out the Republican leadership and demanded they punish Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) following a video surfacing of the Trump loyalist confronting Parkland shooting survivor and gun control advocate David Hogg, calling him a “coward.”
Greene has been accused of making numerous other troublesome statements in the past as well, with the media claiming she supports the “QAnon” conspiracy theory and even saying she supported “execution” of top Democrat politicians on social media.
Greene has responded to the controversy by saying numerous people have run her social media pages over the years.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-California) has already promised a resolution to expel Taylor Greene from Congress, as numerous liberal activists have called for her to be removed from office.
“Assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school – what could they be thinking?" Pelosi said, adding “thinking” may be “too generous” a word and calling the toleration of the Republican congresswoman “appalling.”
While Pelosi’s rhetoric on Taylor Greene and “enemies” presumably within the GOP may seem extreme and be delivered with gusto, this is not the first time the House Speaker has used this sort of language in an attack on the opposing party.
In August, long before the US Capitol riot and Taylor Greene were making news, Pelosi called Republicans and then-President Trump “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the state” for daring to question the reliability of mass mail-in voting.