For those following developments on Capitol Hill on Saturday, as lawmakers scrambled to prevent a government shutdown, an unexpected controversy unfolded and quickly made the rounds. It related, oddly enough, to a fire alarm.
According to the initial chatter, Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York pulled a Capitol fire alarm in the hopes of delaying a vote on the stopgap spending bill. That, of course, would’ve been a serious offense, if that’s what happened.
But it wasn’t long before that initial version of events collapsed, and the story started to evolve. The Associated Press reported:
Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman acknowledged triggering a fire alarm Saturday in one of the U.S. Capitol office buildings as lawmakers scrambled to pass a bill to fund the government before the midnight shutdown deadline.
After the congressman pulled the alarm, the Cannon House Office Building, located a block to the south of the Capitol itself, was evacuated. The Capitol Police soon after determined that everything was fine; the building was reopened; and Bowman apologized for the confusion.
“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused,” the New York Democrat said. “But I want to be very clear: this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite — I was trying urgently to get to a vote.”
This explanation is hardly outrageous. The doors Bowman tried to exit are usually open, and when he found them locked, he apparently misunderstood a sign and set off an alarm. It’s possible that some additional damaging information might yet come to light, but the available details suggest this was simply a foolish error.
Evidently, some of his Republican colleagues don’t quite see it that way. NBC News reported:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called for Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., to be punished after he pulled a fire alarm in a Capitol office building Saturday, comparing the incident to the Jan. 6 riot at the building. McCarthy, R-Calif., cited “how other people were treated when they come in and wanted to change the course of what was happening in the building.” He said the Ethics Committee should take the pulled fire alarm “seriously.”
“This should not go without punishment,” McCarthy added.
What kind of punishment? Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York announced plans to introduce an expulsion resolution that would kick Bowman out of Congress altogether. Donald Trump, meanwhile, apparently learned of the incident and suggested that the congressman should be “prosecuted and imprisoned” for trying to “stop a Congressional vote.” Just so we’re all clear, pulling an alarm at an office building would not have stopped a congressional vote. There was an obvious disconnect between the criticism and what happened. There is security footage of what transpired, which officials have not yet released, and I’ll gladly concede that it’s possible the video might raise questions that deserve answers. But given what we currently know, this looks like a “smart guy makes dumb mistake” story, which is hardly worthy of expulsion and/or incarceration.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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