In a resolution passed by voice vote Friday, the Republican National Committee declared the deadly insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, to be "legitimate political discourse."
NPR reports party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel later went on to attempt to distance the GOP from the language of the adopted resolution, but some Republicans in Washington rebuked it regardless.
Public Radio Tulsa on Friday reached out to each member of Oklahoma's all-Republican federal delegation — Sens. Jim Inhofe and James Lankford, and Reps. Kevin Hern, Markwayne Mullin, Frank Lucas, Tom Cole, and Stephanie Bice — to ask if they agreed with their party's assessment of the attack on the Capitol.
None responded.
In the Friday inquiries, Public Radio Tulsa also included the following questions, which the station has repeatedly posed to the House delegation for more than a year:
- Does the member disavow or denounce former President Trump's lies about a "stolen election" and/or his rhetoric leading up to, during, and after the attack?
- Does the member regret their vote to block full certification of President Biden's win?
- Does the member recognize President Biden was legitimately elected?
The offices of Hern, Mullin, Lucas, Cole and Bice have not provided responses to those questions, either.
On Twitter on Friday, Hern communications director Miranda Dabney called Public Radio Tulsa's reporting "embarrassing," saying this reporter had "access to all the Hern content he needs." Like was the case with previous email requests, Dabney did not respond to a subsequent email following up on the questions.
Scores of police officers were injured and several later died, some by suicide, following the 2021 attempt by supporters of then-President Donald Trump to overturn Trump's election loss to President Joe Biden.
Following the violence, Hern, Mullin, Lucas, Cole and Bice all voted against full certification of Biden's legitimate victory. Lankford had previously announced his intention to do the same, but changed his mind following the bloodshed. Inhofe voted to certify Biden's win, saying he had a Constitutional duty to do so.
