Calls for Pelosi to pay fine she imposed after bypassing metal detector intensify

‘Is this a rule that makes sense? No of course not. But that’s not the point, the point is they’re her rules’

By Morgan Phillips | Fox News

Republicans are promising a “huge push” to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to pay the fine she imposed for bypassing magnetometers installed after the Capitol riot to enter the House floor.

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., detailed to Fox News his firsthand account of watching the speaker enter the House floor from a forbidden entrance on Thursday.

“She opened the session on the floor, she came through what is known as the Speaker’s lobby,” Davis said. “We are all told, one Republican was fined for doing this just yesterday, that you cannot walk through those entrances unless you are disabled.”

Pelosi’s office has not yet denied the account, despite requests for comment.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was slapped with a $5,000 fine Friday for bypassing metal detectors when he said he’d left the House floor to use the bathroom.

Davis called Pelosi’s actions part of a “typical good for thee, not for me type of attitude that comes out of San Francisco.”

“Pay the fine Speaker Pelosi,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter.

Crenshaw told Fox News Pelosi should pay the fine because her action was “against her own rules.”

“Now is this a smart rule? No. Is this a rule that makes sense? No of course not. But that’s not the point, the point is they’re her rules. She’s literally confiscated property in the form of money, which we think is unconstitutional, but in any case they’re doing it,” the Texas Republican continued.

“She won’t abide by the rules herself so we’re going to make a huge push for her to actually have to pay that fine,” Crenshaw said.

Davis called on Capitol Police to report the violation to the acting Sergeant-at-Arms, Timothy Blodgett, so he could issue the fine. Blodgett said Friday Capitol Police had not reported the incident.

“Capitol Police cannot only file reports of violations on Republicans and look the other way when the most powerful person in the House, the speaker, flouts her own rules,” Davis said.

The House passed a measure Tuesday requiring all members to pass through magnetometers Capitol Hill police erected outside the House chamber following the Capitol riot last month. Democrats had called for the measure after several Republicans had claimed to be armed in the chamber during the Jan. 6 riot. Members of Congress are allowed to carry firearms in the Capitol, but not on the floor.

Several Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Louie Gohmert of Texas, flatly refused to walk through the metal detectors before entering the chamber — prompting Pelosi to add a penalty for noncompliance.

Lawmakers are now slapped with a $5,000 fine the first time they violate the new security protocols, followed by a $10,000 fine for each additional violation.

“It is tragic that this step is necessary, but the chamber of the People’s House must and will be safe,” Pelosi said in a statement.

GOP lawmakers on the House Administration Committee sent a letter to Acting Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy Blodgett, requesting she be issued the newly implemented $5,000 fine for failing to complete a security screening before entering the House floor.

“Yesterday, at approximately 9:59 am, multiple members observed the Speaker of the House entering the House Chamber without completing security screening,” the Republicans wrote on Friday in a letter obtained by Fox News.

“What was observed was a clear violation of House Resolution 73 and you are required by House Rules to impose this fine. Please inform us once the fine has been assessed,” they continued. “We look forward to a prompt response to this inquiry.”

Republicans largely have viewed the magnetometers as an ineffective inconvenience, arguing that threats like the one seen on Jan. 6 are not coming from fellow lawmakers.

“When you’re a liberal there’s a propensity for action, even if that action is not effective,” Crenshaw said of the House floor’s new metal detectors and the fine for bypassing them. “There’s a propensity for virtue-signaling even when that signaling is not effective.”

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/calls-pelosi-pay-fine-she-imposed-bypass-metal-detector