By Eileen Griffin
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are asking the chamber’s Oversight Committee to hold hearings into the violence against supporters of President Donald Trump during and after the Million MAGA March last week in Washington, D.C.
“The failure of the city’s leaders to afford basic protections to persons who may hold different political viewpoints from their own appears to be another concerning example of viewpoint discrimination in the District,” the Congress members stated in a letter to Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat. The letter was signed by committee ranking member Rep. James Comer, Rep. Jody Hice, and Rep. Chip Roy, all Republicans.
The Million MAGA March descended into violence as agitators confronted Trump supporters in downtown Washington, D.C. during and after a peaceful demonstration intended to show approval of the president’s election recount efforts.
After a largely peaceful day of marching though the city, counter-protesters began harassing and physically attacking the marchers, forcibly stealing their MAGA hats, signs, and banners, Forbes reports. Videos posted to social media sites documented the violence, which included fistfights and people beating the marchers and other Trump supporters with with sticks and clubs. Two police officers were injured, and more than 20 people were arrested on a variety of charges, including weapons possession and assault.
Of those arrested, 10 were from the D.C. area. Others came from Virginia and Maryland, with the balance of the group having come from New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia, the Associated Press reports.
“It got very ugly, very quickly,” #Walkaway campaign spokesperson Karlyn Borysenko told FOX News. “We were actually out having dinner with the walk-away crew and we saw Antifa and BLM marching in the street carrying signs.” Later that night she encountered Antifa demonstrators chanting, “America was never great,” Borsyenko said.
“The election of Biden is not going to slow this down,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told FOX News. “Nobody on the hard left is going to be nice because Biden is president. The violence is going to get worse.”
Gingrich expressed concern for the victims of the attacks and said local governments’ refusal to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of so many of these attacks will escalate the violence.
“Anybody who is a conservative has to have a concern that you could be at a picnic, you could be at a ballgame, you could be walking down the street shopping, and a bunch of thugs could come up, and in the current model, the news media wouldn’t cover it, the police wouldn’t arrest them, and the local Soros-funded prosecutor wouldn’t prosecute them, so I think this all gets more and more dangerous and it will lead to a very aggressive backlash at some point,” Gingrich said.
Video taken at the MAGA march shows a large number of random attacks and brutality. In one case, a family was attacked and their young daughter thrown to the ground, the Post Millennial reports.
Thugs chased the MAGA supporters, throwing objects at them as they attempted to leave the event. One of the attackers has been identified as a registered child sex offender, the Daily Caller reports. He was arrested during the MAGA event and charged with several crimes, including disorderly conduct, inciting violence, aggravated assault, and as a felon in possession of a firearm.
President Trump has criticized the leaders of cities continually plagued by violence, rioting, and looting throughout this year, noting that nearly all are Democrats with strong progressive leanings. In addition to the left-wing extremist organizers of these attacks, Trump has blamed the violence on “weak leadership.”
“Frankly, if you let people know that they will be held at bay, you wouldn’t have any problem, but they don’t do that,” Trump told FOX News. “They have the cops stand back. Stand back and watch looters walk washing machines and televisions out of stores. It’s a shame to watch it.”
“The rioter has no worries about breaking the written law, and many politicians have ordered law enforcement not to enforce the law,” retired SWAT Sergeant Steve Rodriguez told Budget and Tax News. “Things will get worse in those areas where things are already bad, which are run by bad or at the least incompetent people.”
Congress is responsible for the District of Columbia under the U.S. Constitution, Gingrich notes.
“The first duty of government is to establish order,” Gingrich told FOX News. “D.C. is a federal district, and the mayor should be put on notice.”