Pelosi Picks Trump-Hating Republican-Bashing Retired General To Lead Capitol Security Review
A month ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré as her pick to lead a review of the security breakdowns that happened during the Capitol riots on January 6th.
Of Honoré, here’s what Pelosi said at the time:
“We must subject this whole complex though to scrutiny in light of what happened and the fact that the inauguration is coming. To that end, I have asked Retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré to lead an immediate review of security infrastructure, interagency processes and command and control. The general is a respected leader with experience dealing with crises,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference.
Honoré, who led the Joint Task Force Katrina in the aftermath of the devastating 2005 hurricane, retired from the Army in 2008 after serving for 37 years. It was perhaps because of his lengthy military career and service to his country that no one initially took the time to question whether Pelosi had made the right call in choosing Honoré to review the Capitol’s security.
But during his program on Wednesday, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson did a lengthy segment raising questions about past partisan statements from Honoré and whether or not he was impartial enough to lead the investigation. Carlson noted that Honoré had made statements during interviews and on Twitter that suggested he had already made up his mind about certain aspects of the Capitol riots before he was tasked to lead an investigation into the Capitol’s security.
For example, Honoré suggested the day after the riots that the Capitol police and the Sergeants of Arms were “complicit”:
There was complicit actions that the Capitol Police, a Police Chief has been fired, but now we need to look at a special investigation, was he complicit along with the Sergeant-of- Arms in the House and the Senate? It gives appearance of complicity. He complied because they might have thought 45 was coming to the Capitol and they gave way to the protesters who easily breached the Capitol. This is a crying damn shame.
The same day in another interview, he alleged – without evidence – that at least 30 to 40% of front-line Capitol police officers were “Trumpsters”, again insinuating complicity:
HONORE: By a percentage, 30 to 40 percent of the line officers are Trumpsters. JOE MADISON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: All right, I got it. HONORE: That’s a fact, Jack.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz posted a video to his Twitter feed on Thursday highlighting clips from the Tucker Carlson segment. In his tweet, Gaetz claimed “Pelosi hired a bigot to hunt MAGA.”
Carlson’s dive into Honoré’s history of partisan comments included a look at some of his recent tweets, some of which have been deleted. The one that has been the most widely circulated is a tweet he posted just days after the Capitol riots disparaging Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and agreeing with liberal Harvard law prof Laurence Tribe that both of them should be expelled from the Senate for allegedly “supporting” the riots:
Many, however, are still up, including some where he stated that there should be no Second Amendment rights at First Amendment protests:
Honoré also has a history of bashing Trump, of supporting the Black Lives Matter/Antifa-led “peaceful protests”, and was highly critical of the federal agents Trump sent to Portland to help quell the attacks on federal courthouses.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) tweeted yesterday that Honoré “should be the LAST person” to lead an investigation into security failures during the Capitol riots:
Complaints from Republicans about Honoré will, of course, fall on deaf ears in Washington, D.C. because, as was the case with the Democrats’ rush to impeach Trump last month, the outcome of his “security review” has already been determined by Democrats – and by Honoré himself.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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