WASHINGTON ― New safety measures exterior the US Home chamber prevented a Republican lawmaker from bringing a gun onto the Home ground Thursday.
Consultant Andy Harris, who has repeatedly flouted the magnetometers that had been put in close to the Home chamber after the January 6 assault on the US Capitol, set off the steel detectors whereas attempting to enter. When an officer with a steel detector wand scanned him, a firearm was detected on Harris’s facet, hid by his swimsuit coat. Police refused to let Harris in, and the officer signalled a safety agent that Harris had a gun on him by motioning towards his personal firearm.
HuffPost witnessed the interplay and later confirmed with a Capitol official that Harris was carrying a gun.
HuffPost watched Harris attempt to get one other member to take the gun from him so he may go vote. The member, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), instructed Harris he didn’t have “a license” and refused to carry the weapon for him.
HuffPost additionally heard Harris complain to some fellow members that he had requested his workers to remind him concerning the screenings they usually hadn’t.
Harris then left on the elevators and 10 minutes later returned to the Home chamber. He positioned his cellphone and keys on a desk to the facet, didn’t set off the magnetometer and was allowed to enter the Home ground to vote on a waiver to permit retired Military Gen. Lloyd Austin to function President Joe Biden’s protection secretary.
Congress has been in a heightened state of safety for the reason that Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol as each chambers of Congress had been assembly to rely states’ Electoral Faculty votes. Regardless that President Joe Biden has been inaugurated, there are nonetheless two giant fences across the perimeter of the Capitol, and Nationwide Guard troops stay on the grounds.
Throughout a safety briefing with Democratic members early final week, some lawmakers advised that members ought to need to undergo a steel detector to get on the Home ground. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has stated she’ll carry a gun round D.C., which doesn’t permit the open carrying of a firearm, and Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) instructed his native paper that he was armed when insurrectionists stormed the Capitol.
When Home lawmakers got here again Jan. 12 for his or her first votes after the assault, they discovered magnetometers exterior entrances to the Home chamber. Most members adopted police orders and went by the steel detectors, however some Republicans sidestepped the machines or refused to be checked with wands after they set it off ― Harris amongst them.
In response, Capitol Police put desks and velvet ropes on the edges of the magnetometers to dam members from strolling across the machines, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated she is going to nice members who bypass screenings $5,000 for his or her first offense and $10,000 for his or her second.
These fines are usually not but in impact, because the Home hasn’t adopted these guidelines, and some members proceed to not adjust to the screenings. On Thursday, HuffPost noticed Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Rick Allen (R-Ga.) and Boebert all refuse to be wanded down after setting off the magnetometer.
However when Harris went by the steel detector Thursday and set it off, the police officer stepped in his method and directed Harris to unfold his arms so he may use the hand held wand. Harris complied, and the officer discovered the gun on his facet.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Capitol Police would solely inform HuffPost that “USCP is investigating this matter,” and once we requested for clarification on whether or not the USCP was conscious that Harris had tried to carry a gun onto the Home ground, the spokesperson stated the company couldn’t touch upon “an ongoing investigation.”
Members are allowed to hold a gun within the workplace buildings, within the Capitol and on Capitol grounds, however they’re expressly forbidden from carrying firearms onto the ground. And weapons within the Capitol are usually not imagined to be loaded. Members can carry bullets individually.
Particular person officers who witnessed the state of affairs additionally wouldn’t remark. Nonetheless, HuffPost heard officers speaking about Harris having a weapon on him later Thursday afternoon.
Harris’s workplace didn’t return a number of requests for remark, nor did Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s workplace.
HuffPost did ask Pelosi for remark Thursday afternoon as she walked by the Home chamber, however she instructed reporters she wouldn’t be taking questions.
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