Republicans are requesting the expulsion of a prominent Democrat from a legislative task committee that is looking into the murder attempt on former President Donald Trump.
In a statement released on Wednesday, members of the House Freedom Caucus stated that they felt Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, ought to be removed from his position and that an impending task force should not include him.
Prior to Trump’s May conviction on 34 charges of falsifying company documents, Thompson had presented a bill earlier this year that would have prohibited Secret Service protection for anyone convicted of felonies.
According to the Freedom Caucus statement, “Rep. Bennie Thompson began working with other extreme progressive Democrats in April to oppose legislation that President Trump supports—a move he still stands by in the wake of the July 13 attempted assassination.”
The conservative organization went on, “We thus request Rep. Thompson’s resignation as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security.” Likewise, his conduct disqualifies Rep. Thompson from participating in the task force that looks into the President Trump assassination attempt. In an attempt to uncover the biggest scandal involving the Secret Service in over thirty years, Americans cannot rely on him to be an objective fact-finder.
Thompson “has served the Congress and the country brilliantly, notably as Chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and the Homeland Security Committee,” according to a spokesman for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who is in support of Thompson.
“Election denial, conspiracy peddling, anti-freedom hardline” MAGA Republicans will not lecture Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats on any topic touching the American people,” the spokeswoman, Christie Stephenson, stated. “Down the pipe.”
Thompson informed The Hill that he wasn’t even trying to join the task force. Thompson chaired the House Select January 6th Committee, which looked into the Capitol violence.
He declared, “I don’t even want to be on it.” “I have never shown interest in anything.”
Inaugurated on Monday by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Jeffries, the nonpartisan task committee will supposedly consist of six Democrats and seven Republicans. It also is empowered to issue subpoenas.
“Republicans have made a lot of hay about the measure, saying it’s about former President Trump and would take away his security—that just isn’t accurate,” Thompson said in defense of his bill during a congressional hearing.
According to Thompson, “the law wouldn’t have changed security at this horrible incident and doesn’t address former President Trump.” “The law does not remove security; rather, it addresses any Secret Service protectee found guilty of a crime and given a jail sentence.”
The Democrat added, “The law makes clear that the Secret Service is able to pass off the prisoner in an orderly way when a protectee is convicted and remanded to the care of prison officials, and that Secret Service personnel aren’t compelled to become correctional officers, too.” That is what the law says.
Mark Green (R-TN), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, cautioned Thompson, pointing out that “our actions and words, the laws we pass, influence conversation and affect people.”
Green made reference to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he remarked, “You can ask Mr. Epstein’s family about it. Prison isn’t always a safer place.” “It’s just not fair to claim that you would have the security required in a prison,” the speaker said.
According to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Thompson would not be a “decent fit” for the task panel.
