WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of young lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds has been in the forefront of the congressional response to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and the cadre played a central role since then in the second impeachment of President Donald Trump.
The group, which draws mostly from the Armed Services Committee, protected their fellow lawmakers during the attack. They also used military expertise to detect what they said were unnamed lawmakers who had possibly helped rioters plan their attack the day before.
They spoke of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution, in the military and in Congress alike, as they implored their colleagues to impeach Trump for his role in instigating the mob.
To be sure, all but 10 Republicans in the House, many of them military veterans as well, disagreed with the young cadre and voted not to impeach the president.
But the emergence of the bipartisan squad of military and intelligence veterans as key players in the lead-up to Wednesday’s vote betokens a greater role for these members in Congress’ future political and security debates.
Jason Crow, D-Colo., a second-term member of Armed Services who was an Army Ranger and served a tour in Iraq and two in Afghanistan, was among the leading members of this group.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a floor speech on the day of the riot, singled out Crow and a few other members for heroism in the face of the assault.
Crow, it turned out, had done everything that day from holding the hand of a panic-stricken Susan Wild, D-Pa., to being the last person to leave the gallery when members evacuated. Some of my Republican colleagues are afraid of the consequences of an impeachment vote. But this Congress sends our young men and women to war every day. I’m not asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy but only show a fraction of the courage we ask of our troops every day.Rep. Jason Crow and a former Army Ranger
One week after the riot, Crow — who had been a manager of Trump’s first impeachment — did battle with McCarthy during the second impeachment debate.
Crow couched impeachment as a matter of patriotic duty.
“Last week I stood in that gallery to defend this chamber against a violent mob called here by Donald Trump, and I have dedicated my life to the defense of our nation, and Donald Trump is a risk to all that I love,” Crow said on the House floor. “Some of my Republican colleagues are afraid of the consequences of an impeachment vote. But this Congress sends our young men and women to war every day. I’m not asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy but only show a fraction of the courage we ask of our troops every day.”
Among the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment were two who had served their country in uniform: freshman Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer, an Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq, and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a former Air Force pilot who has been in Congress for a decade.
Meijer, in a statement posted to Twitter, said “the president betrayed his oath of office by seeking to undermine our constitutional process, and he bears responsibility for inciting the violent acts of insurrection last week.”
Kinzinger, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee who was one of the first Republicans to blame Trump for last week’s violence, said in a statement that there was “no doubt in his mind that the president of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection.”
