Republicans Demand Pelosi Pay Fine After Speaker Defies New Rule, Bypasses House Metal Detectors

 

Republicans say they’re planning a “huge push” to force Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to pay a hefty fine after Pelosi reportedly skirted the metal detectors in place outside the House chambers, defying her own rule requiring all members to submit to the increased security.

Fox News reports that members of the House GOP caught Pelosi using an alternative entrance to the House — an entrance that allows the Speaker to bypass the new security measures, put in place after a  January 6th attack on the United States Capitol that allegedly came within feet of threatening lawmakers.“She opened the session on the floor, she came through what is known as the Speaker’s lobby,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) told the network. “We are all told, one Republican was fined for doing this just yesterday, that you cannot walk through those entrances unless you are disabled.”

Last week, Pelosi and other members of Democratic House leadership pushed through a rule requiring all members to pass through a pair of metal detectors or submit to a basic search before entering House chambers in order, they said, to ensure that federal lawmakers were entirely safe while conducting House business. The rule levied steep fines for bypassing security.

“The House of Representatives voted in a major security upgrade on Wednesday, including a new $5,000-per-incident fine for bypassing metal detectors now stationed at the entrance to House chambers,” the Daily Wire noted. “The fine, first proposed weeks ago by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is designed to prevent confrontations like the ones that took place in early January when select Republicans refused to open their briefcases for security or pass through metal detectors before heading to work.”