Raising A Question of the Privileges of the House

Floor Speech

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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of the privileges of the house and offer the resolution that was previously noticed.

On September 30, as the House of Representatives met to consider legislation to avoid a government shutdown, Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York knowingly pulled a fire alarm to cause chaos and stop the House from doing its business. This is a felony, plain and simple. It is not difficult to understand.

Capitol Police were forced to waste resources investigating rather than doing their job to keep the Capitol safe. USCP determined Bowman broke the law, and he was indicted by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia. Realizing no number of excuses could get him out of this, Mr. Bowman pled guilty.

As a former principal of the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action in New York City, Mr. Bowman should know the consequences of pulling a fire alarm to cause panic. In New York schools, the policy is clear. When a student commits a crime on campus, police are called, and that student is either suspended or expelled.

One would think Representative Bowman would be able to hold himself to the same standards as he held his students to. I don't think that is a lot to ask.

The Republican majority held our own former Member accountable after the House Ethics Committee found he engaged in criminal behavior. It would be hypocritical for the House Democrats to not join us in holding one of their own Members accountable who actually pled guilty to breaking the law.

I do not submit this resolution lightly, Mr. Speaker. Article I, Section 5 of our Constitution gives the House the solemn responsibility to discipline Members for disorderly behavior. As conviction demonstrates, Representative Bowman sought to cause panic to delay official proceedings of this House.

I urge my fellow Members to vote ``yes'' on my resolution and to hold our colleagues accountable when they break the law.

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Mrs. McCLAIN.

To use that logic, then all those people should have just said ``sorry,'' and we would move on, right?

No, we don't do that.

Let me tell you, I take a little bit of offense to ``What the hell is wrong with you?'' I will tell you, there is nothing wrong with me. I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and that is exactly what I am going to do. I am not going to apologize for it. I am going to hold the Constitution. It is very simple. We really shouldn't even have this debate. If you break the law and you follow due process, there are consequences to your actions, even if you say ``sorry.''

We can try all of the diversion tactics that we would like. It doesn't change the fact that someone broke the law and that someone should be held accountable. It is disappointing, Mr. Speaker, that their own party can't hold them accountable, that they have such hypocrisy.

Malliotakis).

Mr. Speaker, although your district may appreciate all of those accomplishments, are we supposed to just forget about the crime that you committed?

Perhaps, in education, maybe we should have studied a little harder. If you commit a crime, there is a penalty to that crime. You don't get to say: I committed a crime, but I did all these good things. All these good things erase this crime over here. It doesn't work that way.

Again, I will say that it is not profoundly stupid to hold up the Constitution. The left may believe holding up the rights of the Constitution is profoundly stupid. I don't believe we do. I will again say that this hearing and this censure is not profoundly stupid. It is actually a hearing of where we followed the law.

Mr. Speaker, the other fact that I may want to correct--I will correct the truth with maybe the other half of the truth--is ``immediately'' means right away. So when you say, ``I immediately'' took action, ``I immediately''--well, the incident occurred on September 30. October 26 was when you pled guilty. I think that is a little bit longer than immediately. Again, maybe math wasn't my best subject either.

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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, I agree. I wish we didn't have to be here. We should, as most sports teams do, clean up our own locker room. That would be the best-case scenario, as we actually did with a member of our Conference. We cleaned up our own locker room. It would be nice if the other side would clean up theirs.

So, I agree with you, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. I loved your ``My Cousin Vinny'' analogy. That was funny, but this isn't a funny thing. It was good, but this isn't funny.

You committed a crime to try to disrupt a proceeding. This is serious. I think it is a little more serious than jaywalking when you try to disrupt the business of the House.

Again, I wish we weren't here because I wish you all would clean up your own locker room so we could really get on to the people's business. We can do both.

Greene).

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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, I would just remind you that we talk about baseless claims. If I am not mistaken, Capitol Police did an investigation, referred it to the District of Columbia that did an investigation, and Representative Bowman pled guilty to a crime. I don't think that is baseless. In fact, I think that is basis for crime and that is basis for this censure. Because baseless means you have no cause, Mr. Speaker, and I think the mere fact that Mr. Bowman pled guilty isn't baseless. It is basis for a crime.

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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, therein lies the problem. I am one of the so-called MAGA Republicans which, again, I don't apologize for.

Under MAGA Republican leadership, I might remind everybody, crime was down--or excuse me, crime was up--crime was down under the last administration. Clearly, crime was down. The economy was up.

All of these problems that we are dealing with in this Congress today, Mr. Speaker, have been created by the Biden administration and created by my friends on the left. That is the truth. Those are the facts.

Under the MAGA Republicans, how many wars were we fighting overseas? Zero. What was the crime rate? Down. Again, we have some serious problems since the Democrats, this administration, took office, and therein lies the problem.

You want to talk about law and order. You want to talk about Cagney & Lacey and Ace Ventura, that is cute. That is cute.

Mr. Speaker, you want to talk about a disgrace to this body? Doing investigative work and actually following due process, that is what we are supposed to do. That is what I thought we did.

I will not apologize for following law and order, but under the Democrats' law and order, you shouldn't go through any investigation. You should just on a whim do some impeachment. That is what the other side of the aisle does.

We clean up our locker room, but when you commit a crime, it is unfortunate that we have to bring this to the table. As much as they want to compare us and call us names, they can continue to do that, but the facts speak for themselves. We waited until an investigation was completed before we brought this censure resolution. We didn't do it on a whim. That is law and order. If that is Cagney & Lacey, following due process, perhaps, Mr. Speaker, my friends on the other side of the aisle could use a little investigative reporting and some detective work themselves.
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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, we need to be accountable to this body.
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Mrs. McCLAIN. Mr. Speaker, in case my colleagues on the other side of the aisle need clarification, I want to make it clear, the American people know that they are not better off than they were 4 years ago, and they know it is Democrats in this Congress and the White House that have put them in this anguish as we see today, just to clear things up.

All we have heard from congressional Democrats is excuse after excuse for Representative Bowman's criminal behavior. I daresay, Mr. Speaker, that if a Republican did what Mr. Bowman did, that every single Member on the Democratic side would be down here calling for censure, if not expulsion.

Mr. Bowman himself, despite pleading guilty, said it was an accident. How? Someone looks at a sign that says ``Fire'' and thinks, hmm, I wonder what this will do?

Mr. Chairman, I urge everyone to vote ``yes,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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