Texas Tribune / Annie Mulligan
U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, talking throughout a press convention on the Houston Ship Channel on Feb. 2, 2021.
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WASHINGTON — New, harrowing video of the Jan. 6 riot options U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls within the Home chamber, flanked by a Capitol safety guard aiming his pistol at rioters on the opposite aspect of a door making an attempt to interrupt by.
The video was launched Friday by the Justice Division after a request by NBC Information forward of the third anniversary of the lethal riot. The Richmond Republican is seen shouting by shattered window panes.
“I’ve been in regulation enforcement in Texas for 30 years, and I’ve by no means had individuals act this fashion,” Nehls mentioned to the rioters. “I’m ashamed!” Nehls was sporting a masks with a Texas flag, as masks have been obligatory within the chambers on the time.
“We’re coming in a technique or one other,” a rioter within the video says.
Within the midst of the assault, Nehls posted on social media an image of himself serving to barricade the door as he condemned the violence.
“What I’m witnessing is a shame. We’re higher than this. Violence is NEVER the reply,” he wrote.
However within the years since, Nehls — who didn’t reply to request for remark — has downplayed the importance of the historic assault and defended most of the rioters who’ve since been prosecuted. He has remained a staunch apologist for former President Donald Trump, parroting false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“I used to be on the doorways on January 6, nose to nose with protestors, and I do know firsthand there was NO INSURRECTION,” Nehls posted on social media in October.
Nehls has denied that Trump bears any duty for the assault, asserting as a substitute that it was a failure of U.S. Capitol Police to stop rioters from coming into the constructing. He has blasted a Home investigation into Trump’s function in inciting the assault as partisan and plans to defend the previous president in a case disqualifying Trump from the 2024 poll for his function on Jan. 6.
Nehls has additionally provided certified protection of most of the rioters within the months after the assault. He mentioned Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who died after being shot by Capitol Police, was murdered and demanded an investigation into USCP’s function in her dying. He instructed Texas Month-to-month in 2022 that “a majority of the individuals within the Capitol that day had no intention to show into criminals or insurrectionists.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, protesters, looking for to cease the certification of the 2020 election outcomes, stormed the Capitol after rallying with Trump blocks away from the constructing. For weeks, Trump had unfold misinformation that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. Through the rally that day, Trump instructed attendees: “For those who do not combat like hell, you are not going to have a rustic anymore.”
Trump’s critics argue the sentence is a smoking gun, exhibiting Trump knowingly incited a riot. His defenders, nonetheless, level out that he known as on rally attendees to go to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.”
The Home impeached Trump for his function within the assault, with 10 Republicans becoming a member of all Democrats within the transfer. No Texas Republicans voted for impeachment. Nearly all voted to object to the election outcomes simply after the Capitol assault, together with Nehls.
Trump is at present underneath legal indictment for his efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, which culminated within the assault on the Capitol. His actions led to the Colorado Supreme Court docket deeming him ineligible for the presidency underneath the 14th Modification, which bars from workplace those that “engaged in riot” after taking an oath to guard the Structure. The U.S. Supreme Court docket plans to rule on the state court docket’s determination.
Nehls has spoken publicly about his efforts to cease the rioters that day, becoming a member of with fellow Texas Republicans Pat Fallon, Ronny Jackson and Tony Gonzales to carry the doorways shut with Capitol Police. He posted on social media on the time that he was “proud to face shoulder to shoulder with Capitol police barricading entrance to our sacred Home chamber, whereas making an attempt to calm the scenario speaking to protestors.”
However he additionally lambasted the Home committee investigating the assault as a “weapon towards President Trump” and blamed then-Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not securing the Capitol. He urged the committee to as a substitute “examine the negligent management of the Capitol Police.”
Then-Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy had nominated Nehls to serve on the committee, however pulled his Republican selections from the panel after Pelosi objected to 2 of them. Nehls was not one of many Republican members Pelosi opposed, however he turned an outspoken critic of the committee’s work afterward.
Nehls wrote a guide about Jan. 6, claiming the election and impeachment have been rigged to wreck Trump. Trump mentioned in a evaluation that the guide was “Should Learn for All People.”
Nehls’ help for Trump goes past many Home Republicans. He typically goes out of his technique to reward the previous president and herald him because the “chief of our social gathering.” Through the fraught seek for a brand new Home Speaker following McCarthy’s October ouster, Nehls proposed Trump as the one one who might unified the fractured social gathering and change into speaker.
“Donald Trump can do issues which are inconceivable and switch them into actuality,” Nehls mentioned in October throughout the speaker election.
Disclosure: Texas Month-to-month has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.
This text initially appeared within the Texas Tribune.
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