© ReutersRep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
"Here's a quote. 'I just don't even know why there aren't more uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be,'" Gohmert said on the House floor during the impeachment debate.
While Gohmert specified that what he was saying was a quote, taken directly from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's previous statements encouraging uprisings, journalists and activists quickly twisted his words, publicly speculating and claiming he was calling for increased political violence around the nation.
"Louis Gohmert: 'I don't know why they aren't more uprisings all over the country,'" Blake News, a Politico editor tweeted.
"Louie Gohmert calls for more violent uprisings claims Nancy Pelosi is destroying the American experiment and quotes the History Channel in about two minutes," tweeted Sarah Reese Jones, a managing editor and columnist at PoliticusUSA.
"'I don't know why there aren't uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be,' Louie Gohmert says, perhaps hopefully," one reporter wrote.
"Holy shit. Is Gohmer encouraging MORE "uprisings"??!? Did I hear that right??????????" CNN analyst Asha Rangappa wrote.
"Louie Gohmert literally asked for Trump supporters to commit violence on live TV prior to the insurrection. Why is he even there???" a KTVU Fox reporter asked on Twitter.
"Gohmert is the id of the GOP caucus. He just said on the House floor: 'Here's a quote for ya, why aren't there more uprisings all over the country?'" a progressive activist wrote.
Some journalists even insulted Gohmert's intelligence, calling him dumb and incompetent.
Comment: Ah the glories of cognitive dissonance.
During the rest of his speaking time, Gohmert also quoted Pelosi in August claiming that "the domestic enemies of our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with their allies in Congress of the United States." He also condemned the Democrats' hypocrisy on violent speech and their political attempt to remove President Donald Trump from office just a week before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration.
"Now the message is, if you have a whim, and you want to just go after a president, just go straight to the floor. No investigation. No Judiciary Committee. Go straight to the floor. Use it as a political weapon as you wish. This is so dangerous," he said.
Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.
Comment: Blue checkmark = certifiably detached from reality (in what seems to be the majority of cases).