This post has been updated.
Republican Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Dana Rorbacher (R-CA) were seen carrying a controversial painting, which depicts police as animals confronting black protestors, to the office of Rep. Clay Lacy (D-MO) on Tuesday afternoon. It was the second time in five days the painting had been removed from its place in the Cannon Office Building tunnel.
“Untitled #1,” painted by a constituent of Lacy’s and one of many winners of the Congressional Art Competition, was hanging in the Capitol for months until conservative outlets brought attention to the work last week.
Rorbacher, in a video posted to Twitter by Roll Call’s Alex Gangitano, is heard saying of the work: “This is the Capitol, and you’re not permitted to have hateful stuff in the Capitol. That’s why we don’t have the Mississippi flag.”
En route to Rep. Clays office pic.twitter.com/gJOgCJNmke
— Alex Gangitano (@AlexGangitano) January 10, 2017
Gangitano also posted video of Babin and Rorbacher returning the painting to Clay’s office:
Delivered to Clay’s office pic.twitter.com/xKCe3lzoM5
— Alex Gangitano (@AlexGangitano) January 10, 2017
Prior to the painting being taken down for a second time, Clay and others were urging Capitol Police to press charges against a Republican congressman who last week removed a piece of artwork by one of his constituents that depicted police officers as pigs.
Clay and members of the Congressional Black Caucus re-installed the painting Tuesday morning after Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) took it down and returned it to Clay’s office after a discussion in a Republican conference meeting about the painting.
“I am very pleased that today, we have restored the winning painting to its assigned location. But this is really not about a student art competition anymore…it’s about defending the Constitution,” Clay said at the time in a statement emailed to TPM Tuesday.
“It is just pathetic that some Republican members and alt-right media types, who constantly refer to themselves as constitutional conservatives, don’t think that same document protects the fundamental free speech rights of my 18-year old constituent.”
The Missouri congressman told the Washington Post on Monday night he had spoken with the Capitol Police about pressing charges against Hunter.
“He had no right to take that picture down,” Clay said. “It’s thievery.”
Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, went further, telling the Post: “We want him to get whatever charge a private citizen would get if they walked into the Capitol and took down a painting.”
In a call with TPM Tuesday, Clay’s communications director, Steven Engelhardt, said that Clay “will be filing a police complaint” against Hunter.
The painting in question had been hanging in a prominent hallway in the Capitol Building alongside dozens of other winners of the Congressional Art Competition for months. It was only after conservative media outlets began writing about the work, which depicts police officers as animals pointing their guns at protestors in St. Louis, last week that it caught the attention of congressional Republicans.
Hunter seemed unfazed just before the painting was re-installed Tuesday morning.
“The Capitol Police aren’t going to arrest me for taking down a picture that portrays them as pigs,” he told “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.
Hunter said that, were the painting to be re-installed, he would ask House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to intervene.
“Paul has to do something about this,” Hunter said on “Fox & Friends.” “I can’t keep taking it down over and over. That becomes kind of a tit-for-tat thing. Art work like this needs to not be up.”
But, he continued later, “if they put it up, we’re probably going to keep taking it down.”
Keep in mind who Duncan Hunter is:
"U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter this week declared terrorists have been crossing the Rio Grande.
The California Republican, speaking to Greta Van Susteren on Fox News Oct. 7, 2014, said he’d learned from the U.S. Border Patrol that Islamic State fighters had been nabbed trying to enter the country from Mexico. “ISIS is coming across the southern border,” Hunter said, adding a moment later: “I know that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas.”
Border Patrol agents “caught them,” Hunter also said, but “you know there’s going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol.”
Our eyebrows were raised. We sought detail.
No federal or state confirmation
No state or federal law enforcement agency confirmed Hunter’s account when we inquired, and Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper declined to reveal the congressman’s sources.
Fox News, in its original Oct. 8, 2014, online news report on Hunter’s declaration, quoted the Department of Homeland Security disputing his account.
Homeland Security told PolitiFact Texas that no such apprehensions have occurred. An agency spokeswoman, Marsha Catron, emailed: “The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the Southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground. DHS continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest terrorist organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border.”"
And don’t sleep on this little tidbit:
"Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has already reimbursed his campaign account for $12,000 of expenses he identified as personal or mistaken, including video games, oral surgery, private school tuition, a garage door and unspecified items at a Coronado surf shop.
That may not be the end of it.
An ongoing review by The San Diego Union-Tribune shows thousands of dollars of expenses such as groceries and gas fill-ups that could well be legitimate campaign expenses — but also have a lot in common with the expenses of a typical suburban family.
Unlike with the earlier expenses, Hunter’s office has declined to explain or justify any of the costs publicly, so it’s hard to know the true nature of the spending. The campaign has a deadline of this coming Monday to respond to the Federal Election Commission’s initial inquiry about video game and school tuition expenses.
The review found a series of costs that are not typical of the campaign reports of Hunter’s colleagues in the San Diego congressional delegation.
There were 106 fill-ups at gas stations, totaling $5,660. There were 16 trips to Jack in the Box totaling $297.
No other member of the delegation showed any disbursement to a gas station or a fast-food joint.
Forty times, Hunter’s campaign made a trip to Albertson’s, Trader Joe’s or another grocery store, spending $6,819 total. The only other local member who spent campaign money at grocery stores was Susan Davis, D-San Diego, who made seven disbursements totaling $675.
The campaign also spent money at Disneyland — $229 at the Star Trader gift shop in Tomorrowland for “food/beverages.” A spokesman for the park told the Union-Tribune the only edible items the store sells are Pez candy and a Star Wars-themed Rice Krispy treat.
Perhaps the most troublesome payments were for utilities — $1,269 for San Diego Gas & Electric and $300 to the Padre Dam Municipal Water District. Hunter runs his campaign out of his Alpine home, and members of Congress are not supposed to pay utility bills for their residence, even if part of it is used for campaign purposes."
Snowflake Hunter needs a safe space and a box of tissues.
Shorter Douchebag (Idiot - R): I know the constitution and it allows me to be a racist thug.
“Paul has to do something about this," Hunter said on “Fox & Friends.” “I can’t keep taking it down over and over. That becomes kind of a tit-for-tat thing. Art work like this needs to not be up.”
But, he continued later, “if they put it up, we’re probably going to keep taking it down.”
I left San Diego a few years ago. The only thing I don’t miss about the place is having Baby Duncan as my “representative.”