Republican Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde mocked Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, calling on the Democratic leaders to join his planned lawsuit against the House chamber metal detector fines he received.
The House metal detectors were installed at all the entrances to the House floor following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol at Pelosi’s behest and fining lawmakers who bypassed the magnetometers soon followed with the passage of a House rule, all of which angered Republicans.
The first violation results in a $5,000 fine, and a second penalty brings a $10,000 fine, all of which is to be deducted from a lawmaker’s annual salary. Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Hal Rogers of Kentucky were also fined for metal detector violations.
“Today I was alerted to the news that two of my Democratic colleagues, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip James Clyburn, were revealed to have bypassed security screening while entering the House Floor,” Clyde said Friday in his statement.
HOUSE METAL DETECTOR FINES ENSNARING REPUBLICANS AND A TOP DEMOCRAT
“As my colleagues know, I was fined $15,000 in February for a so-called violation of the House’s unconstitutional H. Res. 73 and my appeal was denied by the House Committee on Ethics earlier this month,” he continued. “Members of Congress take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, and I would like to be the first to invite Speaker Pelosi and Whip Clyburn to join my lawsuit to fight this egregious and unconstitutional House rule in federal court.”
Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, was fined $5,000 by the Capitol Police for violating the metal detector security measures, making the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House the first Democrat to be fined for the breach. Clyburn filed an appeal to the House Ethics Committee.
A video of House security footage of Pelosi walking to the House floor on Feb. 4, posted by Politico, prompted Republicans to accuse the speaker of bypassing the metal detectors to the floor. The California Democrat, however, was wanded with a hand device that day, said a Pelosi spokesman.
A Republican lawmaker told the Washington Examiner that Clyburn is “shell-shocked that anybody had the audacity to file a complaint against him,” noting another GOP member witnessed the incident and called out the circumstances.
The lawmaker said, “What I think is really funny is Pelosi is trying to avoid the $5,000 fine, and she’s leaving Clyburn out to dry.”
