Hours into an attempted coup against the U.S. government, while conservatives, QAnon supporters, and white supremacists swarmed the Capitol by force, recently elected Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush announced that she plans to introduce a resolution calling for the possible expulsion of Republican members of Congress who have voiced support for a reversal of the 2020 presidential election — a group of more than 120 representatives as well as 13 senators, including the recently defeated Kelly Loeffler. Bush seemed to have drafted the resolution while under lockdown in the Capitol; earlier today, she tweeted that she was sheltering in place, having seen rioters “roaming the halls.”
Bush, a Black Lives Matter activist and the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress, posted an excerpt of the draft to Twitter. It calls for Congress to “investigate, and issue a report on, whether those Members of the House who have sought to overturn the 2020 Presidential election have violated their oath of office to uphold the Constitution.” (The Constitution calls for a peaceful transition of power, among other things, and this is not that.) Bush’s resolution adds that possible retribution should constitute “sanction, including removal from the House of Representatives.” Just five U.S. representatives have been expelled from the House in congressional history.
On social media, Bush also highlighted the jarring disparity between police treatment of the domestic terrorists now attacking the Capitol and their brutality toward Black men and women protesting police violence. As a protester in Ferguson, Missouri, Bush was pepper-sprayed and beaten by police.