House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that a painting hanging in the Capitol complex that depicts police officers as pigs is “disgusting.”
“This is disgusting,” the Wisconsin Republican said on the Mike Gallagher Show, adding the painting is, “[n]ot befitting the Capitol.”
The student artwork has been taken down and rehung several times by Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and has caused a showdown among House lawmakers who say it is inappropriate. The painting, done by a high school student, won Clay’s congressional art competition last year, and depicts cops as pigs with their weapons drawn at Ferguson protesters.
“This isn’t a question of First Amendment rights. Of course this young person has a right to do something like this wherever they want to,” Ryan explained. “But we do have rules that govern these paintings. So it’s not as if you have a constitutional right to hang whatever painting you want in the House hallway in the Capitol gallery.”
The painting currently hangs in the tunnel connecting the Cannon Building to the Capitol Visitor’s Center.
“This is not a free-for-all, you know, contest, where anything goes in the Capitol. There are rules that govern this. We see that this does not fit the rules, and so we are processing that decision right now,” Ryan said.
On Tuesday, GOP Rep. Dave Reichert, a former sheriff, sent a letter to the Architect of the Capitol containing the rules of the artwork competition and asking for a review. The official rules prohibit artwork of “contemporary political controversy or a sensationalistic or gruesome nature.”
When asked if he believes the painting will be permanently removed, Ryan said, “I am.”
