House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D., S.C.) on Friday called for an investigation into how rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this week knew where to find his office.
In an interview with SiriusXM Radio’s Joe Madison, Clyburn said that he had never before seen such a failure of law-enforcement leadership and claimed “something else is going on.”
“My office, if you don’t know where it is, you aren’t going to find it by accident,” he said. “The one place where my name is on the door, that office is right on Statuary Hall. They didn’t touch that door. But they went into that other place where I do most of my work. They showed up there, harassing my staff.”
“How did they know to go there? Why didn’t they go where my name was?” he added.
“Something else is going on untoward here,” he said. “We need to have an extensive investigation to find out.”
He said that while he supports the Capitol Police, the agency’s leaders failed to do their jobs.
He questioned why videos circulating on social media seemed to show officers opening barriers and taking selfies with rioters who broke into the building.
“Why were they out there waving people on to the grounds? Why were they allowing people through those doors?” he asked.
The rioting, which took place Wednesday as Congress met to count the Electoral College votes and affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, left five people dead, including Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick.
Clyburn said those involved need to be held accountable.
“We’ve got to indict. We’ve got to convict these people because one of those Capitol Police [officers] died and somebody should be tried for their death,” he said. “All those people who were on those grounds the other day were complicit in that.”
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