AURORA | Aurora Congressman Jason Crow, who said he was ready to fight his way out of the House Chambers when a Trump-incited mob stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, is calling for an investigation into the attack.
Since Wednesday, Crow has also called for the removal of President Donald Trump and told Sentinel Colorado federal lawmakers who have parroted false rhetoric about election fraud should also face some kind of consequence. While he said he’s not sure what that looks like yet, he’s looking into options.
He also wants to see the people who overtook the Capitol be held accountable.
“Those who rioted and stormed the Capitol need to be brought to justice and fast,” Crow said Friday. “America and the world need to see hundreds if not thousands of photos of people being led away in handcuffs.”
Crow led a letter Thursday demanding answers of why rioters were so easily able to breach the Capitol. More than a hundred colleagues have signed on. Earlier in the day, Crow shared photos on his Twitter depicting the stark difference in response to this week’s Capitol insurrection and the response to Black Lives Matters protests earlier this year.
Crow was inside the House Chambers with about 20 other lawmakers when the doors had to be barricaded from the mob. Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, helped fellow members of Congress remove pins identifying them as elected officials, moved people away from doors and grabbed a pen for defense.
“I haven’t felt that way in 15 years,” he said. “When I was doing that work (in the military) it was my job. I wasn’t mentally and emotionally ready to be put in that position as a member of Congress in the U.S. Capitol in 2021.”
Crow said Thursday Trump should be removed from office, “whether it be invoking the 25th Amendment or impeachment,” but told the Sentinel he “wasn’t holding his breath” that the Cabinet would use the 25th Amendment.
“So we’re going to have to lead and take charge,” Crow said.
Crow served as an impeachment manager last January, after being among the last of Congressional Democrats to call for impeachment. It’s so far unclear what the process for impeachment would look like now, in the final days of the Trump administration, but a vote could land on the House floor next week.
Crow said, if asked, he would again play a role in impeachment proceedings like he did a year ago.
“I’ll always step up and serve when I’m asked. It’s in my DNA,” he said.
While Colorado’s entire Democratic Congressional delegation is on board for removing the president from office via impeachment or the 25th Amendment, Republicans have been slow to call for more than condemnation of Wednesday’s events.
“At a time where we want our country to unify, talk of using the 25th Amendment or entering into expedited impeachment proceedings are the last thing we need,” newly-elected Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted Friday morning. “Either Democrats are going to be honest about calls for unity or they will continue with this rhetoric. Can’t do both.”
Before rioters took to the Capitol on Wednesday Boebert, who represents Colorado’s Western Slope and southern parts of the state, tweeted “Today is 1776.” After being moved to an undisclosed location for her safety, Boebert took to Twitter again to “denounce all acts of violence.”
“Lauren Boebert is a fool,” Crow told the Sentinel. “…She has no place in the Capitol.”
He’s been critical of the fellow Colorado legislator on Twitter, particularly last week after she called on her followers to contact their federal lawmakers to object to the counting of electoral votes.
“Calling yourself a patriot won’t change the fact that you’re undermining democracy,” Crow tweeted in response.
Crow said legislators who have touted the same false talking points about a fraudulent election as the president share some responsibility for this week’s riot.
Shame on Jason Crow. At a time when this Country needs leadership, he calls his new colleague a “fool”. How parochial can one get. SAD
How about shame on YOU! Get focus or shut … up!
I KNOW that you will not get my vote….ever!
I hope all of the riots that happened over the summer that cost millions in dollars in damage to our city are part of this town hall discussion. We are done with the hypocrisy and the lies that have been told all throughout 2020, starting with Covid through and including the rigged elections and now finger pointing at one side of the political spectrum for rioting. Are you also going to bring up the fraud commited in Colorado that allowed more ballots than registered voters? I hope you all find yourselves in the same bread lines you put our small businesses in. Oh that’s right, that’s a lie too.
When you define freedom as the ability to think whatever you want even when it isn’t true and claim a free and fair election was fraudulent, and then engage in a coup attempt or incite it, you are tearing down our democracy.