During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5 on Friday, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), the ranking Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for continuing to maintain the fencing and National Guard presence in and around Capitol Hill.
Rogers attributed the January 6 incident to “poor planning” by local law enforcement, adding that much larger demonstrations had taken place on and near the U.S. Capitol in the past.
The Alabama Republican said Pelosi’s objective was to create a negative impression of Republicans in the eyes of the public.
“There’s absolutely no reason for that fencing to be up anymore,” Rogers said. “There never was any reason. That riot that happened on [January 6] was just poor planning on the part of the Capitol police and the Metropolitan police. We have much bigger protests in Washington on a regular basis every year than that. They just did a terrible job of planning for it. And even though they had intel — they had good intel about it. That was the reason it turned out like it did.”
“But there was never a reason to bring in all the fencing and the razor wire and the large presence of National Guardsmen,” he continued. “That’s all theater that Nancy Pelosi is trying to create the impression that Republicans are dangerous and Trump was the cause of all of this. It’s silly. The most outrageous that she is doing right now. She still has members of the House having to walk through magnetometers to go on the House floor. And if you don’t walk through them, then you get hit with a $5,000 fine that they automatically deduct from your next paycheck. She’s just out of control.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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