On Thursday, the House voted to censure Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York for activating a fire alarm at a House office building when there was no emergency.
Censure is a strong censure of a member of Congress, although it carries no clear consequence beyond a public admonition of a politician and is not as severe as expulsion.
condemn is an uncommon legislative action, but Republicans have led moves to condemn two additional Democrats since June. Bowman is the third member to be censured since the Republicans assumed control of the chamber. The Republican-led censure motion was approved by a vote of 214 to 191.
Following the resolution’s passing, Speaker Mike Johnson summoned Bowman to the House chamber’s well and officially announced the censure. As this occurred, a swarm of Democratic lawmakers gathered around Bowman.
Bowman was captured on video pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in late September, just before the House was set to vote on a government funding package. Following then, the building was evacuated. Following the occurrence, the congressman stated that it was an accident.
of New York for activating a fire alarm at a House office building when there was no emergency.
Censure is a strong censure of a member of Congress, although it carries no clear consequence beyond a public admonition of a politician and is not as severe as expulsion.
It is an uncommon legislative action, but Republicans have led moves to condemn two additional Democrats since June. Bowman is the third member to be censured since the Republicans assumed control of the chamber. The Republican-led censure motion was approved by a vote of 214 to 191.
Following the resolution’s passing, Speaker Mike Johnson summoned Bowman to the House chamber’s well and officially announced the censure. As this occurred, a swarm of Democratic lawmakers gathered around Bowman.
Bowman was captured on video pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building in late September, just before the House was set to vote on a government funding package. Following then, the building was evacuated. Following the occurrence, the congressman stated that it was an accident.
“I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door, and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident,” Bowman said at the time, adding: “I was just trying to get to my vote and the door that’s usually open wasn’t open, it was closed.”
Bowman was charged by the DC attorney general in October for the incident and later pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsely activating a fire alarm in a House office building.
However, it is virtually impossible that Bowman pulled the fire alarm by accident. Since he disrupted Congress with a temporary evacuation in the lead-up to a vote, one might also argue that Bowman is guilty of ‘obstruction of an official proceeding’ — the same charge being handed out to Donald Trump and January 6 defendants (some legal analysts would argue inappropriately, since the law was passed to prevent the deletion of court records).
Marjorie Taylor Greene captured the fallout. “Fire alarm is going off in Cannon,” she noted.
Greene has called for the DOJ to prosecute Bowman for the laws that his actions allegedly broke.
The Capitol Police also released a photo of Bowman pulling the fire alarm.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s spokeswoman claimed he “did not realize he would trigger a building alarm” when he pulled fire alarm. “The Congressman regrets any confusion,” she says.
But there’s a huge problem with that excuse. Multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation into Bowman’s activation of the fire alarm within the House reported to Breitbart News that he initially tore down and discarded the two signs before proceeding.
These sources further provided Breitbart News with photographic evidence of the scene following the incident, showcasing the damage inflicted on the emergency exit door, which has since been repaired.
In the photographs capturing the double doors featuring glass windows, two prominent red signs are distinctly visible. Both signs bear the message, “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY—PUSH UNTIL ALARM SOUNDS—DOOR WILL UNLOCK IN 30 SECONDS.”
Additionally, a standalone sign positioned in front of the doors reinforces the notion that this area serves as an “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY.”
On the adjacent wall to the left, a fire alarm is prominently displayed, clearly marked as a FIRE alarm. There is a multiple step process needed to pull it. “Push In, Pull Down,” it says.
It is noteworthy that in the photograph depicting Rep. Jamaal Bowman activating the fire alarm, which has already been publicly released by Capitol Police, the two red signs that are typically affixed to the door appear to be absent.
According to a source familiar with the situation, during the House Democrats’ motion to adjourn vote earlier in the day, Rep. Jamaal Bowman approached the door in a nonchalant manner and proceeded to forcefully remove the emergency signs, discarding them on the ground.
“He ripped both of them off the door and threw them both on the floor,” the source familiar with the investigation told Breitbart News.
“Then, he leaned into the door and tried to open it,” the source added. “Then, he pulled the fire alarm. When the alarm begins going off, he turned around and ran—going down to the first floor of Cannon and exited out of a different door then made his way across the street to votes. At no point did he say to anyone ‘sorry this is a mistake’ or ‘sorry I pulled the fire alarm by mistake’ or anything like that. He didn’t say anything to anyone until he was confronted by Capitol Police later. By doing what he did he caused a whole building to be evacuated. Capitol Police and emergency services need to treat any alarm like a real threat until they know otherwise.”
These facts contradict Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s official public statement, in which he claimed he was attempting to use the door for exiting. According to the source knowledgeable about the incident, Bowman did not adhere to the 30-second waiting period, as indicated on the signs, and evidently, he did not adhere to the instructions provided on the emergency signs.
Bowman later told reporters: “I thought the alarm would open the door.”
Republican Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan didn’t buy the excuse. As she said on X, “Nobody is above the law, Congressmen included.”
Yet, Bowman is walking around a free man. Unlike many January 6 defendants. It must be nice to be a Democratic congressman. One may not be above censure, but many lawmakers do indeed appear to be above the law.
It carrys Nothing, just another waste of taxpayers time & money!