Congressional
Democrats, led by Representative John Lewis, are protesting the House’s
refusal to vote on gun-control measures. We’re providing live updates
of their protest, and reactions, as it continues.
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi holds a news conference with the House Democratic Caucus on June 22.Carlos Barria / Reuters
Elizabeth Warren is in the House.
The senator from Massachusetts is hitting the campaign trail for
Hillary Clinton this month, starting in Cincinnati on Monday. Warren was
one of the last Democratic senators to endorse Clinton, and is
reportedly being considered as her potential running mate.
Congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas has begun streaming the
sit-in on Facebook, giving people outside of the chamber another way to
tune in as the House's televisions, which are controlled by Republican Party leaders, remain turned off. It looks like Facebook does not allow users to embed videos while they're still live, so go here to watch.
This sit-in is about to enter its fifth hour. Members are
supposed to be voting today, but it's not clear if and when those votes
will happen. According to a floor schedule circulated by Democratic Whip
Steny Hoyer before the sit-in started, the first vote was expected
between 3 p.m. ET and 4 p.m. ET.
Debbie Stabenow and Ron Wyden are two of the Democratic
senators who made the trek over to the other side of the Capitol to show
support for the sit-in. “I really appreciate their [House Democrats]
courage in joining with what we started in the Senate,” Stabenow said,
alluding to the recent filibuster that took place in the upper chamber.
“Thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need action,” she said,
adding: “The people of the country deserve a vote. Right now the House
Republicans are blocking even a vote. There is carnage in our country.”
Wyden echoed her remarks, saying: “These mass shootings are happening
like clockwork.”
Stabenow said that Senate Democrats did not know about the action
ahead of time, but “we immediately got involved to support them.”
Speaker Paul Ryan has been tweeting—but not about the open
revolt on the House floor. Instead, he's promoting a speech he just gave
at the American Enterprise Institute on a proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act. It's led to an interesting string of replies on his Twitter feed.
Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona House member, has
evidently prepared a letter for House Democrats. Giffords was shot in
2011 while meeting with constituents, and has been a prominent advocate
for gun control ever since. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said moments
ago that she wants to read the letter, but won’t do so while the mics
are off. She called on House Speaker Ryan to act: “Mr. Speaker, turn on
this microphone.”
Democrats seem to be reveling in their rule-breaking. To
claps and cheers, Representative Jared Huffman noted moments ago that
while CSPAN’s House cameras aren’t on, “far more people” are watching
the floor on “pirated” video than would normally be watching CSPAN.
Referring to his Republican colleagues, Huffman said “they can cut off
the mics, they can cut off the cameras, they will not silence our
voice.”
Representative Scott Peters, whose Periscope stream CSPAN is
carrying, just recommended that his fellow members download Periscope
and stream the floor with him.
U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, of Missouri, referenced
the widespread support among the American public for new gun laws on the
House floor. “Ninety percent of Americans are with us,” he told his
colleagues. “Ninety percent of Republicans say that we ought to restrict
guns so that people on terrorist lists can't get guns. Everybody's for
this.” He scoffed. “We can't get the mics on.”
Cleaver didn't cite his source. But a recent survey by CNN/ORC mostly
backs up his assertions. Around 85 percent of respondents said they'd
support preventing people on the no-fly list from owning guns.
(Republicans were actually more likely than Democrats to agree with this
measure, at 90 percent versus 85 percent). More than half of Americans
favor a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of semi-automatic
rifles, and an identical proportion support banning high-capacity ammo
clips.
That said, support for these measures have generally slipped over the
past five years. The percentage of people who support an assault rifle
ban, for instance, fell 7 percentage points since January 2011, from 61
percent to 54 percent.
Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida, has begun reading the names
and ages of the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting. The city of Orlando
has a list of the names on its website here. Most of the shooting victims were men in their 20s and 30s; the youngest was 19, the oldest was 50.
Alan Grayson is optimistic. “They [Republicans] haven't even
attempted to take the floor from us, so that's encouraging,” the
Democratic representative from Florida told me outside the House
gallery. “Maybe that means they're trying to decide ... what they can do
to acknowledge people's understandable feelings that action is
necessary right now.”
Grayson wants a vote on gun control measures, but “more than just a
vote, I'm hoping that we actually pass solid gun safety legislation,” he
said, adding: “but obviously without a vote we couldn't possibly do
that.”
The congressman said he's never seen anything like this before. “It's
heartfelt,” he said. “We are showing up, and standing up in any way
that we can to save people's lives.”
This sit-in is a return to old habits for its leader
Representative John Lewis, who is well-known for his history as an
activist in the Civil Rights Movement with the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He has experience with dozens of
protests, sit-ins, and the famous Freedom Rides.
With the Republican and Democratic conventions on the
horizon and with black protest perhaps brewing again, the sit-in on the
House floor for gun legislation is a reminder of Lewis’s involvement in
the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, where his
“Freedom Summer” ended with a powerful speech from Fannie Lou Hamer and a
sit-in from the black Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in favor of a
voting rights law. That sit-in precipitated a massive change in
American electoral politics and was a key contributor to the passage of
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The third volume of Lewis’s graphic novel series, March: Book Three,
created by Lewis himself along with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell takes a
look at the 1964 Democratic Convention, and the parallels to the
current moment and the tension around the 2016 Cleveland and
Philadelphia conventions are striking:
March: Book Three
comes out August 2 and I think it’s a great companion for understanding
Lewis and his choice of action on the floor today. Here’s a look at the
cover too:
According to Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly, the sit-in “didn’t
start as some organized plan.” He called me after making remarks on the
floor about the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, when “my community, Fairfax
County, buried five young people.” More than 30 people died in that
incident. “Unfortunately this is being repeated all over the country,”
he said. Connolly said the sit-in happened “almost spontaneously,” and
has taken on a life of its own. In his view, the ad-hoc nature of the
protest reflects members’ feeling that “enough was enough”—they had just
“had it.”
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has taken a seat on the House floor.
Other senators present, according to Twitter reports: Chris Coons,
Chuck Schumer, Ben Cardin, Barbara Boxer, Ed Markey, and Claire
McCaskill.
Even though many Democrats are participating in today's sit-in, this
isn't necessarily a unified push within the party. Many on the left do
not agree with the current proposal to ban gun sales to those on two
separate terrorist watch lists. As the ACLU wrote in a letter to legislators earlier this week:
Our nation’s watchlisting system is error-prone and
unreliable because it uses vague and overbroad criteria and secret
evidence to place individuals on blacklists without a meaningful process
to correct government error and clear their names.
One piece of evidence: John Lewis, who is leading the charge in the House, spent months being stopped by authorities at airports.
Speaking to reporters and a crowd of onlookers gathered outside the
U.S. Capitol, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said:
“Members, they have just had it.” When asked to comment on the
significance of the event, Pelosi replied: “What's important about this
moment is the spontaneity of it all on the part of each and every
member.” She added: “All of them want to be a part of the echo chamber
against gun violence in our country.”
More Senate Democrats are joining their House colleagues on the floor, according to reports on Twitter.
Meanwhile, on the Senate floor, Republicans are talking about
national security as it relates to the Orlando massacre. Based on my
periodic check-ins with CSPAN’s Senate stream, Democratic lawmakers
there have not tried to dominate speeches with similar gun-control talk.
U.S. Representative Denny Heck, who represents Washington’s 10th
District, just spoke to his colleagues from the commandeered House
floor. “In the time that we’ve been here, maybe while you were sitting
down, three people were shot and killed
in Lacey, Washington,” he said. Lacey sits inside Heck’s district.
“I’ll tell you what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to ask for a
moment of silence...How numb, how inured do we have to get to this
before we’re prompted to action? How used to this do we have to get?”
I'm not sure how much it falls in line with regulations, but sit-in
members just held a vote to suspend the rules and thus keep phones and
recording devices on through their speeches.
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer’s office posted a video on YouTube of the
moment the House went into recess, with Democrats yelling “No bill, no
break!” “The chair finds that the House is currently not in a state of
order, due to the presence of members in the well who are not
recognized,” Republican Representative Ted Poe said. “The chair would
ask members to leave the well so the House may proceed with business and
decorum."
Sit-ins and protests on the floor of Congress are rare but do occur
from time to time. Over the past few decades, both parties have engaged
in them.
Republicans mounted a floor protest over energy legislation on August
1, 2008. After then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi adjourned the House, the
bill—which would, in part, lift a federal ban on offshore oil drilling
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—was left without a vote.
Republicans were outraged. According to John Boehner, the minority
leader at the time, around a dozen or so Republicans occupied the
otherwise vacant floor to protest the decision and demand a special
session for a vote. News reports indicate that they encouraged tourist
to fill the galleries. One lawmaker brought a stack of gas station
receipts, which he brandished above his head.
The protests continued for days. Congress would pass an energy bill
later in the session. It did not include drilling rights in the refuge.
“The whole floor was packed, the gallery was packed,” Boehner said. “This has never happened before.” But it had.
On November 18, 1995, in the midst of a full government shutdown over
the federal budget, 28 Democrats stormed the floor after the Republican
leadership refused to keep working, called a recess, and left.
The Democrats chanted “work, work, work,” “save Medicare,” and
“where’s Newt?” in reference to the House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Notably, the Republicans turned off the television cameras in 1995, as
well. But Harold Ford, a Democrat, climbed up to the press gallery and
turned them back on.
The protesters threatened to stay all night. But two hours later they
were gone. Congress passed a temporary spending bill the next day.
Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic members of Congress are holding a
press conference on the steps of the Capitol. “There's no more scream
than primal nor pathetic than the sound of a mom who has learned her
child has been shot,” Pelosi said. Charles Rangel’s Periscope feed is streaming the speeches live.
About 30 Democratic members started the sit-in more than one hour
ago. Since then their numbers have grown, Scott Wong, a staff writer for
The Hill, reports on Twitter:
For some perspective, that’s less than half of the 188-member-strong
Democratic caucus. More members may decide to participate as the sit-in
continues, or may be coming and going from the chamber.
Democrats are certainly getting attention for their sit-in, but their
best legislative strategy for getting a “no-fly, no-buy” gun bill
passed through the Republican-controlled House may be to wait for Senate
action on Susan Collins's compromise, which Nora wrote about
yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised her a vote
on the bipartisan amendment. Its inclusion in an appropriations bill
funding the Commerce and Justice Departments could be the only realistic
way to get it to President Obama’s desk. If Republicans called up a
Democrat-sponsored bill in response to the sit-in today, it would likely
fail.
The House sergeant-at-arms is now trying to enforce the ban on
photography by asking Democrats to refrain from taking pictures or
video, Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky tweeted.
Democrats have escalated their rhetoric on
gun control in recent days. On Tuesday, the White House denounced the
U.S. Senate’s rejection of a series of gun proposals. “What we saw last
night on the floor of the United States Senate was a shameful display of
cowardice,” said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on MSNBC.
President Obama echoed Earnest on Twitter, saying, “Gun violence
requires more than moments of silence. It requires action. In failing
that test, the Senate failed the American people.” On Wednesday, the
White House noted its frustration again, according to the reporter
Michelle Kosinski.
Hillary Clinton has weighed in on House Democrats’ protest: She’s with them.
It’s possible Clinton knew the protest was going to happen. As my colleague Priscilla Alvarez wrote earlier this morning, the presumptive Democratic nominee was scheduled to meet with the House Democratic caucus at 10 a.m.
Not that reporters will complain about transparency, but any
photos—or Periscope videos— that you see Democratic lawmakers posting to
social media from the House floor are against the rules, as photography
is prohibited in the chamber. Members also frequently flout the ban
during State of the Union addresses.
At least one Republican is backing the Democrats' push for a vote on
"no fly, no buy" gun legislation: Representative David Jolly of Florida.
Jolly had been running for the Senate but dropped out last week and decided to seek reelection to the House instead. He tweeted
during the sit-in Wednesday afternoon that GOP leaders should put his
proposal to prohibit suspected terrorists from buying guns on the floor.
Jolly, of course has already lost support of GOP leaders in a fight over party fundraising.
Politico reports
that Speaker Ryan’s office does not seem amenable to Democrats’ move.
“The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the
institution, so the House has recessed subject to the call of the
chair,” Ryan’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said in a statement to The Atlantic.
C-SPAN wants its viewers to know
that it does not control the TV cameras in the House chamber and cannot
broadcast when the House is not in session. This is reminiscent of when
Republicans staged a protest against the Democratic majority during the
summer recess in 2008, speaking in a darkened chamber to demand action
on energy legislation.
"What is the tipping point? Are we blind? Can we see? How many more
mothers and fathers must shed tears of grief before we do something?"
That’s how Representative John Lewis exhorted Congress to vote for
"common sense" gun measures. His speech evokes Lewis's own history of
nonviolent protest, and is a powerful reminder of what his work has
accomplished. His colleague John Larson called him the "soul of America"
in accompanying remarks.
Senator Chris Murphy, who led the Senate filibuster on the same issue, is now on the House floor, in solidarity with his fellow Democrats. CSPAN is still not broadcasting a live feed of the chambers, but the network is replaying members’ speeches online.
John Lewis has championed
nonviolent protest his entire career. As a young man, he was the
chairman of the civil-rights-era Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee, which his congressional biography
notes was “largely responsible for organizing student activism …
including sit-ins and other activities.” He spoke at Martin Luther King
Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington, and led the Selma March two years later.
On Wednesday, he said the “time for silence and patience is long gone.”
House Democrats, led by civil-rights pioneer and
Georgia Representative John Lewis, are staging a sit-in on the House
floor to protest what they see as congressional inaction on gun control.
“We
have to occupy the floor of the House until there is action,”
Connecticut Democrat John Larson said, as his fellow members began to
sit down late Wednesday morning. “Rise up Democrats, rise up Americans,
this cannot stand.”
More than two dozen Democrats appear to be participating in the sit-in, though CSPAN’s cameras, which are controlled by the Republican majority, are switched off. Members have instead taken to Twitter to spread awareness of their action, tweeting statements and pictures from the floor.
The
move parallels Senate Democrats’ gun-control filibuster last week. Both
were inspired by the recent attack in Orlando, in which a gunman shot
and killed 49 people at a gay nightclub. The 15-hour Senate filibuster
led to votes Monday on four gun-control-related measures, but all
failed. On Tuesday, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins unveiled a
bipartisan compromise amendment that would seek to prevent terrorists
from obtaining guns. A vote on that measure is expected soon.
Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is reportedly headed to the House floor to join his House counterparts.
In
an introductory speech, Lewis asked all his colleagues to come to the
front of the House chamber. “We have lost hundreds and thousands of
innocent people to gun violence,” Lewis said. “Tiny little children,
babies, students, and teachers, mothers and fathers, sisters and
brothers, daughters and sons, friends and neighbors. And what has this
body done? Mr. Speaker, not one thing.”
Before Lewis
spoke, Maryland Representative Donna Edwards went after the gun lobby in
a short speech. “It is past time for Congress to listen to the American
public instead of the National Rifle Association,” Edwards said,
calling for stricter background checks and for Congress to pass a bill
to restrict suspected terrorists from buying guns. Edwards emphasized
that she is not just concerned about mass shootings, but about gun
violence at large. She said a minority of pro-gun voices “are forcing a
false choice between constitutional rights and safe streets.”
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