Several weeks ago, before the House of Representatives was plunged into a bout of temporary insanity rating among those of King George III and Caligula, our last Kevin McCarthy–era scandal from the House was Jamaal Bowman’s bizarre fire-alarm-pulling stunt on the day the soon-to-be-erstwhile speaker quickly moved a stand-alone 45-day funding resolution to postpone debt ceiling negotiations. I wrote back then that while I was indifferent to his being criminally charged — why make a folk hero out of a moron? — I had absolutely no time for those who would defend Bowman by suggesting he was confused; it’s been a rather unpleasant fall politically, and I am tired of being gaslighted and condescended to by transparent partisans in bad faith.
Neither did the Capitol Hill police, apparently, who after pulling the surveillance tapes of the incident, quickly charged Bowman with a crime (my colleague Andy McCarthy argues with some justice that he got off with a slap on the wrist). The video is indeed clarifying in many key respects. As Phil Klein points out, we now can see that he was not trying to “leave the building” to get to a vote at all; rather, he was trying to get the fire alarm to sound simply by opening the emergency exit rather than pulling the alarm. Once he found out that the doors were locked, he instead pulled down the “alarm signs” petulantly and instead turned and yanked the alarm in order to accomplish the delay. Without trying the door again, he turned and walked away.
His reasons for doing this are immaterial. (I see countless people confidently stating online that “it makes no sense; why would the Democrats want to delay? They voted for it anyway,” and I am reminded of how little understanding most have of the mechanics of the debt-ceiling negotiations and votes, or how little simple imagination, for that matter.) Bowman did it, and he confessed. I am uninterested in his rationalizations, because as I said I no longer have much patience for public civic insult. If you want to spin out a head-canon explanation that redeems this sadly misunderstood and well-meaning hero, then at least please keep your weird, vulgar fantasies private.
There is no point in wasting time trying to expel Jamaal Bowman from the House, though a motion of censure should be passed immediately; he is already facing a difficult primary (his DSA-affiliated politics are an awkward fit with his Westchester County–based district), and this could only turn him into a folk hero of sorts. But, by the same turn, Jamaal Bowman must never be allowed to be taken seriously in Washington, D.C., again. He is George Santos with fewer aliases and better press, in terms of his worthiness for the job he holds, a stupid, babyish man-child who is beyond respect. As long as he remains in office, his punishment will be having to live life as the punch line he is.