The retired lieutenant general House Speaker Nancy Pelosi chose to head up a Capitol security review previously criticized GOP lawmakers over the Jan. 6 attack, causing Republicans to question his impartiality.
After the Capitol siege, aimed at disrupting the electoral vote-counting that certified President Biden’s election victory, Pelosi appointed retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore to review security measures. Security was found wanting after the riot by Trump supporters, as congressional lawmakers debated contesting presidential electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
“I have asked Lt. General Russel Honoré (Ret.), a respected leader with experience dealing with crises, to lead an immediate review of the Capitol’s security infrastructure, interagency processes and procedures, and command and control,” Pelosi said in a statement about Honore on Jan. 15.
However, Honore appeared to have his own conclusions about who was responsible for the Capitol attack, prior to his appointment by the House speaker. Honore, who said last July on MSNBC that then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf needed “to be run out of Washington” because of what he described as “bulls—” tactics used by federal agents to control riots in Portland, Oregon, tweeted or retweeted partisan statements attacking GOP lawmakers.
Replying to a tweet that Congress would consider expulsion for GOP members such as Missouri Sen. Hawley and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who both supported contesting the certification of the presidential election on Jan.6, Honore replied in a now-deleted Jan. 12 tweet: “This little peace of s— with his @Yale law degree should be run out of DC and Disbarred ASAP @HawleyMO @tedcruz aaa hats. These @Yale and @Harvard law grads is high order white privilege.”
In one tweet, he referred to GOP senators as “a–hats,” when Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson tweeted on Jan. 13, “I’m told that @SteveScaliseGOP is telling Members of the GOP caucus ‘Don’t worry about the money. They’ll all come back in three months when they need things.'” Honore replied, “Sound like old @SteveScaliseGOP is saying that Business pay him to favor to them, @AGJeffLandry @FBI @FBIWFO.”
In another tweet, Honore replied to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Jan. 13, who said about the House minority leader, “Kevin McCarthy voted to throw out millions of Black votes on January 6th. He had pushed House Republicans back 50 years into the Jim Crow Era. What American company can ever afford to contribute again to McCarthy’s New Jim Crow Party?”
Honore replied, “Yes and @SteveScaliseGOP is on his ass.”
The partisan statements first came to light Wednesday night after Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson highlighted the tweets on his program.
Hawley responded to Honore’s attacks on Fox News, calling the general’s remarks “just downright crazy.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, called Honore an “extreme partisan” Wednesday night, saying on Twitter that the retired general “should be the LAST person to head up an investigation of what happened at the Capitol on Jan 6th.”
“Speaker Pelosi’s choice to investigate the causes and events leading to January 6 of someone who has displayed through his public statements a deep-seated hatred for Republicans provides clear evidence she does not seek an investigation, but rather simply wants a firing squad to take out political opponents,” Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert said in a statement. “We do need answers about January 6, but not from a totalitarian leftist general who has such hateful animus for those with opposing political views.”
Honore also blasted the job the Capitol Police leadership for their response to the Capitol riots calling for the firing of the House sergeant-at-arms, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, and the chief of the Capitol Police on Jan. 7. In an interview with a local Fox News outlet the following day, he continued to criticize the USCP.
“It’s like the Capitol Police was doing security by ZOOM like we’re doing this interview by ZOOM. I don’t know, I’ve just never seen so much incompetence, so they’re either that stupid, or ignorant or complicit. I think they were complicit,” he said.
A spokeswoman for House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in a statement to the Washington Examiner, “It is very disappointing to see Lt. Gen. Honore’s statements waging personal attacks against others, and especially those where he says the United States Capitol Police were ‘stupid’ and ‘complicit’ in the attacks before he’s even started his investigation. Capitol Police officers are heroes, and Whip Scalise wouldn’t be alive without them.” she added, “He needs to focus on doing his job and conducting a completely impartial investigation that is focused on facts, and not a prejudged agenda. Our country deserves nothing less than that.”
