Firing Line: Mike Gallagher

Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher discusses the recent storming of the U.S. Capital Building.

He mentions the term constitutional nihilism to describe the events he witnessed. This is because the protestors in the event were not under any specific ideological belief; rather, he describes them as a lawless mob.

“If you legitimately believe that fraud took place, you don’t have license to break the law and storm the Capital,” he said.

As Republicans continue to detest the election results, Gallagher describes their stance as shameful. He says that behind closed doors, many of his Republican colleagues do not believe that the election was rigged. Most of them object to the election results out of fear of their constituents voting them out of office.

“The true believers who actually believed the arguments they were making were less than ten percent,” he said.

Margaret Hoover, the interviewer, asks him if he believes that the events he witnessed were signs of an insurrection. Although he believes the events were highly disturbing, they were not coordinated enough to be an insurrection.

Majority of the people at the Capitol Building started out peacefully protesting, but a few bad actors caused enough of an uproar which lead to the crowd violently storming it.

Hoover mentions how President-Elect Biden believes there is a double standard within the police force. He said in a separate video that if the protestors were from Black Lives Matter, they would have been treated differently. Gallagher dismisses his claim as false. He believes that the police did their best, and that there is no evidence to suggest any double standard exists within the police force.

Gallagher pressed the importance of reconciliation more than anything. He fears that the growing call to remove Trump from office will only lead to further divide within the country.

 “What the country needs now more than anything else is reconciliation rather than recrimination,” he said.