Rep. Jamaal Bowman: Why did he pull a fire alarm, and why is the right outraged?
The incident came during a tense, last-minute effort to prevent a government shutdown.
At 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, a fire alarm sounded throughout the Cannon House Office Building, part of the sprawling Capitol Hill complex that houses lawmakers’ offices and hearing rooms. Emergency personnel quickly arrived, the building was evacuated — and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a young progressive legislator, found himself facing questions about whether he was guilty of an innocent accident or something more serious.
Read more on Yahoo News: New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman pulls fire alarm in House office building but says it was an accident, from CNN
Congress in crisis
The U.S. Capitol is usually empty on Saturday morning, but with the government on the verge of a shutdown, the House had gathered for a last-minute attempt to see if members could agree on a spending bill and avert disaster.
Embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had just introduced a 71-page spending bill that would keep the federal government in operation for another 45 days. Though Democrats badly wanted to prevent a shutdown, they also wanted time to read McCarthy’s bill.
At the time that Bowman pulled the fire alarm, Democrats were making a motion to adjourn, meaning that a vote would have been delayed.
The bill was eventually passed by the House, with the Senate passing its own version. It was then signed by President Biden, giving legislators about six weeks to reconcile their differences — or face another shutdown.
Read more on Yahoo News: Government shutdown averted with little time to spare as Biden signs funding before midnight, from the Associated Press
Bowman’s explanation
The congressman’s version is fairly straightforward: He was trying to exit the Cannon building and hurry back to the Capitol.
Bowman, who was previously the principal of a middle school in the Bronx, is relatively new to Congress, and the maze that is the U.S. Capitol — with an enormous network of tunnels, its own subway system and long, disorienting hallways — can be difficult to master.
“Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open,” Bowman said in a statement. “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. But I want to be very clear, this was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote.”
The alarm he activated was in the Cannon building, which is distinct from the Capitol, which was not evacuated. There are, it goes without saying, many fire alarms much closer to the House chamber.
Read more on Yahoo News: Trump calls for Bowman to be jailed for pulling Capitol complex fire alarm, from the Independent
Republicans are skeptical
Republicans instantly charged Bowman with pulling an irresponsible prank that deserved serious punishment.
“Jamaal Bowman is a former middle school principal. He knows what a fire alarm is,” Speaker McCarthy said on Fox News. Security footage does seem to show Bowman manipulating what appears to be a fire alarm, as opposed to a door release.
Others went quite a bit further, comparing Bowman to the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, causing widespread destruction and several deaths.
“Jamaal Bowman must be treated exactly the same as Jan 6 defendants,” wrote Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican, on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Read more on Yahoo News: Jamaal Bowman knew ‘exactly what he was doing’: Rep. Cory Mills, from Fox News
Why it matters
A member of the progressive “Squad” led informally by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, Bowman is widely seen as a rising star in the House.
In recent months he has raised his profile with highly charged confrontations about gun control and election denialism with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greene. He has emerged as an unapologetic defender of TikTok, the social media platform founded in China and popular with young people that some experts believe poses a national security risk because its parent company, ByteDance, ultimately answers to communist leadership in Beijing. He is also a vocal critic of Israel.
Bowman is highly unlikely to lose his seat over Saturday’s incident. But Republicans will happily exact as much political pain as they can. He is being investigated by the House Administration Committee.
As of Monday afternoon, Bowman's office seemed plainly concerned that the controversy wasn’t going away. A lengthy memo circulated by his office to congressional news, and obtained by Punchbowl News, contained a list of talking points Democrats could use to defend him.
“Republicans need to instead focus their energy on the Nazi members of their party before anything else," one of the talking points said.
Bowman later said on X that the use of the term "Nazi" was "inappropriate" and done without his consent.
Read more on Yahoo News: The Republicans’ attack line on Jamaal Bowman is insane, even for them, from the New Republic
