Washington
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he would not bow to the demand for a vote, and there were suggestions he would attempt to clear the House floor during the night. But Democrats said they were prepared to be arrested and many said they would spend the night in the House chamber to make sure the sit-in was not ended.
“In residency, when I was trying to be a doctor, we would stay up sometimes from 24 to 36 hours and I’ve certainly slept at nurses stations,” said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., who went home to grab his glasses and a toothbrush to prepare to overnight. “And I think that is the least of our problems … because how comfortable is that mom that lost her child in Orlando?”
It was dramatic political theater 10 days after a gunman who’d twice been investigated for links to terrorism attacked a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., leaving 49 people dead and 53 wounded, and just one day after the Senate failed to move forward legislation intended to block suspected terrorists from purchasing weapons.
Adding to the drama, C-SPAN, the company that broadcasts House proceedings, stopped broadcasting the developments at 11:25 a.m., when Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, who was presiding when members began the sit-in, declared the House in recess and ordered cameras turned off.
C-SPAN officials later explained that the company does not control the cameras in the House chamber, but as frustration grew online that CSPAN was not carrying the sit-in live, lawmakers took the initiative to ensure coverage.
Tweeting #TurnOnTheCameras, Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., turned to his Periscope app to live-stream the protest. Thousands of people joined his stream, and by Wednesday evening, C-SPAN had turned to Peters’ feed to broadcast the impassioned pleas of Democrats for consideration of gun-purchase limits on people named on the no-fly list.
“How many families and communities will be torn apart by our epidemic of gun violence before Republicans summon the courage to act?” said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman, in a speech that C-SPAN carried from a Facebook stream by Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, of Texas. “How many more times will they block the ‘No Fly, No Buy’ legislation that would help keep us safe? Their inaction is a national disgrace, and House Democrats will not stand for it any longer. And so we sit!”
Wasserman Schultz, her voice breaking, also read a letter from former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head and critically wounded Jan. 8, 2011, as she met with constituents outside a Safeway store near Tucson, Ariz.
“Speaking is difficult for me, but I haven’t been silenced,” wrote Giffords, who now leads a gun-control group called Americans for Responsible Action. “And neither should the American people. Their representatives must vote to prevent gun violence.”
Others who turned to Periscope or Twitter to keep a steady live stream going from the House chamber included Rep. Eric Swalwell and Rep. Brad Sherman, both California Democrats.
At one point, Swalwell used his Facebook account to broadcast a floor speech on how Chicago has been going through “an epidemic of gun violence.”
“#HoldTheFloor until gun violence action,” Swalwell posted.
Some lawmakers launched a tweet storm against Ryan, the speaker.
“You are right, Mr. Speaker,” said Rep. Janice Hahn, a California Democrat. “The House is not in order. We will not be in order until you schedule a vote. #NoMoreSilence“
“.@SpeakerRyan @HouseGOP Why have you turned off the House cameras?” tweeted Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif. “Let the people see! #NoBillNoBreak #NoFlyNoBuy #goodtrouble #DisarmHate”
Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong defended Poe’s decision to recess the House as the sit-in progressed.
“The House cannot operate without members following the rules of the institution, so the House has recessed, subject to the call of the chair,” she said.
A senior House Republican aide said it was worth noting that when House Democrats were in the majority, “they not only shut off the cameras, they actually shut off the lights.”
It was the first time in history that lawmakers in the minority used social media to circumvent the power held by the chamber’s majority party and the first time C-SPAN tapped into a social media resource to bypass the majority’s grip on its operations.
“We have not done this before,” said Howard Mortman, C-SPAN’s director of communications. “We’ve incorporated social media extensively in our overall coverage. But what’s happening right now, to be able to put on TV Periscope and Facebook Live video to this extent, is the first time we’ve ever done this for our coverage of the House.”
“What’s extraordinary for us today is House members are using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Periscope to show what’s happening on the House floor when it’s not in session.”
Democratic senators also took up positions in the House to express their solidarity. Among the senators who took seats on the floor were Cory Booker, of New Jersey, Al Franken, of Minnesota, Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, Patty Murray, of Washington and Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts.
“House Democrats are doing the right thing,” said McCaskill, who was on the losing side in Senate efforts to pass limits on gun purchases by suspected terrorists. “It’s a simple proposition: If you’re suspected of terrorist activity and can’t fly, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun. A vote on that is a reasonable request. And what’s particularly disappointing is to see Republican leadership turn off the cameras.”
The sit-in initially was conceived as a symbolic act by the Congressional Black Caucus before a scheduled news conference where they were to call on Republican leaders of the House to allow votes on gun control legislation. But what started as a small uprising grew into something bigger as one House member after another took to the floor to speak.
Rep. Lois Frankel, a second-term Democrat from Florida, said she thought of her son as soon as she heard about the deadly Orlando violence.
“Before I am a politician, I am a mom,” she said. Then repeating the locations of other mass shootings, she added, “So today I demand action for the mom in Aurora who sent her child to the movies, for the mom whose children went to pray in Charleston, for the mom in Orlando whose child went out for a night of celebration.”
This is not the first time House Democrats have staged a sit-in on Capitol Hill. Democrats refused to leave the chamber without coming to an agreement on how to end a partial shutdown of the government in 1995. Freshman Democrats seized the floor in 1973 to express their views on a spending veto during an era when freshman lawmakers were encouraged to be seen and not heard.