A Democratic congressman has published a nearly 2,000-page report featuring social media posts about the 2020 election of House Republicans who voted to reverse the results. The report explains how some Republicans have relentlessly pushed misinformation and conspiracy theories about election fraud, and persisted even after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol.
“Like former President Trump, every elected congressman who helped and sparked the uprising or triggered the attack has seriously threatened our Democratic government,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren in the introduction to her report.
California lawmakers suggest that the social media posts could be used as evidence of potential punishment for these congressmen, including expulsion and possible criminal charges as a result of the Capitol uprising.
“Statements readily available in the public arena can be part of any consideration of Congress’s constitutional prerogatives and responsibilities,” Lofgren writes. “Accordingly, I asked my staff to take a quick look at the public social media posts of members who voted to reverse the 2020 presidential election.”
All of the information in the report was already publicly available, but this is the first comprehensive review of how lawmakers were incessantly promoting election lies on Facebook and Twitter. It collects reports between November 3, 2020 and January 31, 2021 of the 147 House Republicans who voted to overturn the election results.
The report shows that some of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Parliament posted more than 100 attacks on the integrity of the election in less than three months.
Representative Paul Gosar was the most prolific, with his posts covering 177 pages of the report. The Arizona Republican’s reports include false allegations that his own state has “stolen” the elections, and support for protests against local election officials. He wrote in a post that officials who “steal” votes committed “sedition and treason”.
Gosar’s office declined to comment on CBS News.
Messages from Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, one of the first congressmen to publicly contest Mr. Trump’s defeat, spans 123 pages of the report. Reports from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican sworn in to Congress on Jan. 3, spans nearly 100 pages.
The messages reflect a lot popular conspiracy theories which was later refuted through investigations including allegations that dead people voted and that Dominion voting machines turned votes over to Joe Biden. Some House Republicans posted selfies of it “Stop The Steal” protests against the election results. Some also told supporters that Mr Trump had indeed won the election.
These lies fueled the throng of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 when Congress counted electoral votes confirming Mr. Biden’s victory. The siege resulted in five deaths and a second impeachment of Mr Trump just a week before the end of his term.
But the report shows that even this didn’t change the tone of some Republicans, who continued to post about “irregularities” and “fraud” in elections in the days following the riot. Many equated the Capitol uprising with Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests against racial justice from 2020.
“Those who foment rebellion and spread conspiracy theories have blood on their hands,” Taylor Greene wrote in a Jan. 7 tweet linking top Democrats to mafia violence. “They must be deported.”