Metal detectors were finally removed from outside the House chamber with the start of a new Republican era in the House.
Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert posted a video on Tuesday showing two men removing the metal detectors positioned outside the House floor.
The metal detectors are coming down.
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 3, 2023
"We’re turning Pelosi’s House back into the People’s House." pic.twitter.com/UTM2bVMmKh
“We’re turning Pelosi’s House back into the People’s House,” Boebert is heard saying in the Twitter video.
The metal detectors were installed by former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi following the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The extra layer of security angered House Republicans, some of whom at first refused to submit to the additional security checks and forced their way past Capitol Police without going through the magnetometers.
Pelosi responded by announcing that the House would impose fines of $5,000 for a first offense and $10,000 for a second for lawmakers who disregarded security.
“It is tragic that this step is necessary, but the chamber of the People’s House must and will be safe,” she said at the time.
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde were recipients of the ex-House Speaker’s fines and had to pay over $5,000 for not going through the metal detectors.
Boebert was also given a hard time after the metal detector went off due to her carrying her firearm in her purse despite being legally allowed to carry her firearm in Washington, D.C., and the Capitol complex.
“I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C. and within the Capitol complex,” she tweeted at the time. “Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it’s just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi.”
With the removal of the metal detectors, Boebert expressed her excitement now that law-abiding citizens can bring in their firearms.
“When I arrived in Congress two years, Nancy Pelosi put this hunk of garbage outside of the House chambers for members of Congress to go through,” Boebert said, as the metal detectors were removed behind her. “Today, they are being removed and we are turning Pelosi’s House back into the people’s House,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
