The floor security staff in the House of Representatives started cracking down on Democrats Wednesday as they posted live video of their House chamber sit-in.
Democrats took over the floor while the House was in recess and refused to relinquish it when Republicans attempted to gavel into session at noon. They are demanding votes on two gun control measures.
Republicans quickly called another recess, turned off the microphones and stopped the live camera feed of the House floor, which is broadcast on C-SPAN.
Democrats seeking to publicize their floor vigil, including Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., began posting live feeds and other video takes of their floor speeches on Periscope and Facebook. But that goes against the House rules and has angered some Republicans, who demanded the floor security put an end to it.
Floor staff and police scoped out the offenders, went into the chamber and told them to stop recording and posting video. But they acknowledged it’s probably futile because so many lawmakers are rotating into the chamber and many of them are pulling out their phones to record the speeches.
C-SPAN, which has no control over the House floor cameras, has been linking to the bootleg live feed of the floor takeover.
Republicans pointed out that all lawmakers voted on the House rules, which call for the cameras to be turned off when the House is not in session.
