
House Democrats are likely to be punished for their side-show last week – the “sit-in” calling for more gun control.
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Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that he met with Speaker Paul Ryan and Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and they confirmed several “acts of misconduct.”
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The 24-hour “sit-in” came after the GOP decided not to vote on a gun-control measure. The protest broke several house rules, prompting an investigation by Republicans.
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“Some of the actions were confirmed by some of the reports… There was damage to furniture, members pulling papers out of the hands of the professional staff within there, there was fundraising going on the floor – there were a number of things that broke the rules,” McCarthy told The Daily Caller. “We looked at different options on how to deal with this.”
McCarthy said he was not sure what disciplinary action they will take against the Democrats.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland said he did not witness disrespectful behavior from members of his party.
“I saw neither abuse of staff, and I was on the floor for a significant part of the time, nor did I see and damage to furniture,” he told reporters. “What furniture? I didn’t see damaged furniture – you can go to the House floor and look at it, see if you see damaged furniture. I did see, honestly, staff say ‘you shouldn’t do that’ and members not responding to staff, but sometimes my staff tells me not to do things, but I do them [anyway].”
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There is no formal investigation, but Republican House members will continue gathering evidence of what transpired. The protest was nothing more than a publicity stunt and House leadership wants to make sure this kind of behavior doesn’t happen again.
“We’re a democracy and there are different ways to debate ideas, and that was not one of them,” McCarthy said. “The House has a long history, when people break rules there are responsibilities and actions taken, and I expect the same thing will go forward on this as well.”
When asked about whether or not Republicans would seek to discipline Democrats for the stunt, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had a three-word response: “Make my day.“
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