Representative Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was arrested by Capitol Police on Thursday during a protest at the Hart Senate Office Building at the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C. The congresswoman was arrested as she attempted to lead protestors into the building.
Beatty, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, seemed to be enjoying the attention for the stunt, and even posted pictures of her arrest on Twitter, with the caption, “Let the people vote. Fight for justice.”
Beatty tweeted several images of herself leading a march to the Senate building. The protestors were definitely loud, but didn’t seem all that numerous, with maybe a few dozen people marching.
Beatty was one of nine individuals arrested by Capitol Police for attempting to enter a prohibited area.
“This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. “At approximately 3:30pm, the United States Capitol Police responded to the Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building for reports of illegal demonstration activity. After officers arrived on the scene, they warned the demonstrators three times to stop. Those who refused were arrested for D.C. Code §22-1307. Two males and seven females were transported to USCP Headquarters for processing.”
Capitol Police reportedly warned the raucous demonstrators to desist several times prior to the arrests.
The protest was apparently about the new Democrat push for so-called “voting rights” legislation, also known as H.R. 1 or the “For the People Act.” The new bill is designed to put more decisions about the way national elections are run into federal hands instead of where they belong — with the states.
“I stand in solidarity with black women and allies across the country in defense of our constitutional right to vote,” Beatty said in a statement. “We have come too far and fought too hard to see everything systematically dismantled and restricted by those who wish to silence us. Be assured that this is just the beginning. This is Our Power, Our Message.”
The demonstrators also called for an end to the filibuster, which, to some extent, has enabled the GOP to block H.R. 1 thus far.
As push-back against the Democrat efforts to undermine voting processes by doing away with voter I.D. laws and normalizing emergency voting methods used during the COVID-19 pandemic, several Republican-led states have passed their own election integrity legislation. At least 17 states have passed voter-integrity legislation so far in 2021, with Florida, Georgia, and Iowa passing new laws revamping their entire elections systems.
Texas is also poised to pass its own election-integrity bill. The Senate in the Lone Star State has already passed the bill, but Texas House Democrats fled the state on Tuesday in an effort to deny a quorum and delay full passage of the bill. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has vowed to arrest the fugitive members of the Democrat caucus who left the state in violation of Texas law.
But Democrats claim that state measures to ensure election integrity are really thinly veiled racism, intended to suppress the vote of minorities.
As Beatty tweeted earlier in the day: “Black women are demanding OUR right to vote! We’re marching to the Senate to send a strong message.”
H.R. 1, the “For the People Act” seemed to be dead once Democrat Joe Manchin came out against the bill, denying Democrats a majority. Manchin did come out with a three page memo outlining several compromises to H.R. 1 and Democrats seem to be coalescing behind those changes to possibly get a new “voting rights” bill passed. Among the changes Manchin suggests is to make election day a national holiday, banning future partisan gerrymandering, and allowing alternatives to photo IDs — such as utility bills.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly vowed to fight H.R. 1, since it gives too much power to the federal government.
“By now, the rotten inner workings of this power grab have been thoroughly exposed to the light,” McConnell said in June. “We know that it would let Democrats take a red pen to election laws in each of the 50 states.”
In this case, McConnell is right. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution clearly leaves methods of elections up to the states. Beatty’s stunt on Thursday, and the entire Democrat effort to portray voter integrity laws as racist, is nothing but a vile lie.
