Jamaal Bowman: ‘Nazi’ Fighter
In a disgraceful attempt to deflect from his lawless behavior, the New York congressman smeared his accusers as Nazis.
Wethinks Jamaal Bowman doth protest too much.
It’s one thing for him to break the law in service of a sleazy political end — delaying a House vote meant to avoid a government shutdown — but it’s another thing entirely to heap one lie atop another, and then, having failed to quell the understandable uproar, to smear his accusers as Nazis.
In case you missed it, Bowman, a member in good standing of not only “The Squad” but also of the Lower Hudson Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, got caught red-handed on Saturday when he deliberately pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building.
It’s an insurrection, we tell you!
“I was rushing to make a vote,” Bowman lied. “I was trying to get through a door. I thought the alarm would open the door. I didn’t mean to cause confusion. … I didn’t know it was going to trip the whole building.” He then added another whopper to his layer cake of lies: “I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay the vote. It was the exact opposite — I was trying urgently to get to a vote, which I ultimately did.”
Funny, but we’ve yet to see footage of that frantic congressional evacuation of the Cannon House Office Building, or the mad-dash to the voting buttons in the Capitol next door.
Indeed, there’s an underground tunnel that easily takes members from one building to the other without having to head to an emergency exit. Unfortunately for Bowman. And his patchwork of lies. As we noted yesterday:
In addition to the felony of having falsely pulled a fire alarm, Bowman appears to have been intent on disrupting an official congressional proceeding. And where have we heard that language before? Yep, hundreds of January 6 defendants were arrested and prosecuted on that very same charge, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). Some were even placed in solitary confinement while they awaited trial.
Purely coincidentally, a full 85 minutes elapsed from the moment Bowman pulled the fire alarm until the moment the DC fire marshal declared the building safe. And, as the New York Post reports, “The move came as Democrats were desperately employing tactics to delay the vote, including Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (Brooklyn/Queens) using his privilege to make a speech and forcing a vote on a motion to adjourn.”
This seems awfully convenient, no? Why haven’t the Capitol Police, in their investigation of this caper, confiscated Bowman’s cellphone? Surely he’d like to put an end to any talk of a conspiracy between himself and the House minority leader. Surely he’d offer it up to investigators if it can help clear his good name, right?
Bowman seems to be playing Whac-A-Mole, trying to keep his house of lies from collapsing. But it isn’t working. Indeed, even some of the friendlies are refusing to cover for him. Early yesterday afternoon, for example, Politico’s Nicholas Wu said the following: “Rep. Jamaal Bowman is circulating a list of talking points to fellow Democrats in a bid to stop the burgeoning GOP push to punish him after he set off a House fire alarm during Saturday’s chaotic spending votes.”
This isn’t surprising in and of itself; this is simply how The Swamp works. But one of those talking points went the full Godwin, claiming that the fire-alarm-puller’s Republican accusers are Nazis. As Wu reports: “One suggested response from Bowman’s office to questions about the incident: ‘I believe Congressman Bowman when he says this was an accident. Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else.’”
Ignore my lawless behavior, Bowman’s peeps are saying. The Republicans are the heirs to Hitler. If only he’d accused the GOP of having pulled the fire alarm, we’d have ourselves a real Reichstag moment.
That vile tactic blew up in his face rather quickly, though, and Bowman was forced to walk it back in a passive-voice non-apology: “I just became aware that in our messaging guidance, there was inappropriate use of the term Nazi without my consent. I condemn the use of the term Nazi out of its precise definition. It is important to specify the term Nazi to refer to members of the Nazi party and neo-Nazis.”
And conservative podcasters. Don’t forget conservative podcasters, Jamaal. Because according to you, the use of the term ‘Nazi’ to smear conservative podcasters like Michael Knowles is perfectly appropriate.
Sadly, it seems, all the congressmen on Capitol Hill are equal, but some are more equal than others.
It’s said for every lie a man tells, he has to tell a hundred more to cover it up. Jamaal Bowman is living proof of this axiom, but this shouldn’t distract from the larger point: What Bowman the Nazi Fighter did by pulling that fire alarm was a felony, and congressional Republicans must hold him accountable.
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