Rep. Jamaal Bowman had a tragic incident in the cannon house office building at 12:05 Saturday morning ,when he pulled the fire alarm. The Republican pleaded innocent saying it was a mistake.
Bowman was going to vote on a government funding bill. The administration committee chairman Ryan Steil, a republican from Wisconsin, who said in a statement that an investigation is ongoing; To put the pedestrians minds at ease.
Steil shared some important information with CNN on Saturday afternoon. Steil stated Bowman needed to be “far more forthcoming” about what happened when he decided to pull the fire alarm.
Steil stated that if Bowman did this act In order to interrupt the house voting procedure-an allegation that Bowman said was “complete B.S”.
Bowman claims to have just been confused and in a rush, “I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door, and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident.” People seemed to not buy into it fully because people think the word “FIRE” in big bold letters shouldn’t be too hard to miss.
He then added, “I was just trying to get to my vote and the door that’s usually open wasn’t open, it was closed.”
Leadership in both parties were informed on Bowman’s incident once they identified that it was Bowman in the security footage.
Bowman claimed to have met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries about the incident after the funding stopgap measure passed the House on Saturday, adding that Jeffries’ tone was “supportive” and “he understood that was a mistake.” This helps bowman feel a little at ease in this chaotic situation.
McCarthy said in response to a reporter’s question following the House vote, “I think ethics should look at this, but this is serious.”
“This should not go without punishment,” McCarthy stated, “This is an embarrassment. You are elected to be a member of Congress. You pulled a fire alarm, in a (matter) of hours before the government was shut down, trying to dictate that the government would shut down?”
Backing McCarthy’s statement, Rep. Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican and member of the GOP leadership team, told CNN she was pondering a resolution to censure Bowman over the incident. She said she already has co-sponsors.
In response to this Bowman laughed off the GOP input to the incident on Saturday, telling reporters, “They’re gonna do what they do. This is what they do.”
