Republican Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during Wednesday’s impeachment hearings, and critics immediately took his words out of context to attack him.
Gohmert drew a comparison between President Donald Trump’s words — which Democrats and several Republicans argue incited the violent riots at the Capitol a week prior — and Pelosi’s own words from a few years earlier, saying that if one was an incitement to violence the other was as well. (RELATED: ‘You Can’t Stop Me’ — Louie Gohmert Walks Around Newly Installed Metal Detector In Capitol On Way To Vote)
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“Here’s a quote. ‘I just don’t even know why there aren’t more — aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be,'” Gohmert began, referencing Pelosi’s comments from 2018 with regard to the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Gohmert went on to argue that the rushed impeachment would only serve to destroy the institution Democrats claimed they were trying to uphold.
“Now the message is, if you have a whim and you want to just go after a president, just go straight to the floor. No investigation. No Judiciary Committee. Go straight to the floor. Use it as a political weapon, as you wish,” Gohmert said. “This is so dangerous, what you’re doing. Forgetting all the precedents. Yes, we can argue back and forth. But you’re using this as a weapon and you’re destroying this little experiment in self-government.”
But Gohmert’s critics went straight to Twitter to attack him, accusing him of saying the words he had correctly attributed to Pelosi.
Holy shit. Is Gohmer encouraging MORE “uprisings”??!? Did I hear that right??????????
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 13, 2021
Louie Gohmert suggests there could and maybe should be more uprisings around the country.
— Dr. emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 13, 2021
“I don’t know why there aren’t more uprisings in this country. Maybe there will be,” GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert says while standing in the same building complex that came under attack exactly one week ago in a violent uprising that killed 5 people.
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) January 13, 2021
Louie Gohmert is now trending on Twitter because liberals are taking his words out of context and acting like he wasn’t just reading quotes from prominent Democrats over the summer encouraging their supporters to riot.
Just incredible. Twitter will do nothing about it either.
— Caleb Hull (I’m With the CCP Don’t Ban Me) (@CalebJHull) January 13, 2021