Ahh, the full freak out.
Ten Tea Party protestors were arrested for trying to force their way in to Nancy Pelosi’s congressional office this afternoon. (To be clear, that’s the office that handles her constituent work as opposed to her leadership office which is actually where she works.) There was then another big uproar as the arrestees were led out of the building for transport. “This is America, this is not the Soviet Union,” said one protestor watching the arrestees.
We have video of the scene when the arrestees were being led out of the building.
Gov. Charlie Crist says he barely knows accused $100 million fraudster Scott Rothstein. The evidence seems to disagree.
We just got the first official briefing on the Fort Hood shooting. And according to the base official each of the shooters who have been identified (one shot and killed, two others in custody) were soldiers.
We’ve got a lot happening today — the Tea Party extravaganza on Capitol Hill, with protestors now roaming the halls, and this horrific mass shooting incident at Ford Hood, details of which are just emerging. But we also have more news on negotiations in the senate over the health care bill — and a group of Dem moderates possibly coalescing into their own faction.
Multiple news organizations are reporting that one of the suspected gunman, apparently the one who fired most of the shots, at Fort Hood is Major Malik Nadal Hasan, 39. He was shot dead during the shooting.
Late Update: The most recent statements seem to cast some doubt over whether there were multiple shooters or whether Hassan may have been the only assailant.
Latter Update: The fact that the primary assailant has an Arabic name and is presumably, though we don’t know this yet, of Muslim extraction if not a practicing Muslim, is going to be the focus of attention. That is an issue that speaks for itself. And I’m sure it will be the focus of much discussion over the coming days. But in some ways what’s more shocking to me is that the assailant was an Army Major. Whatever the motivation — ideological, religious, nationalist, mental instability, etc. I would far more expect something like this to done by a young soldier, perhaps an enlisted person. Needless to say this is no knock on enlisted personnel. But a lot of people cycle through the Army. Many have only been in service for a relatively short period of time. A major though is a lifer, usually I would think someone who’s been in for a couple decades or near to it more than a decade, who’s risen very high in the ranks.
Even Later Update: Late reports suggest that Hasan was an Army psychiatrist. That changes the picture somewhat. As TPM Reader BC points out, MDs can come into the Army as Captains. If popular culture is your reference, remember the doctors on MASH were Captains, even though they were drafted in for the Korean War. What that means is that Hasan might not have been in military all that long, which changes the picture somewhat.
Capitol Tea Party protestor Christi Becker on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): “She exudes truth. I completely trust her. I’m glad people are seeing that Michele Bachmann has backing and that so many people believe in her.”
See more scenes from the day in our Storming the Capitol/Capitol Tea Party Slideshow…
TPMDC’s Evan McMorris-Santoro spent the day among the Tea Party crowd at the Capitol. And Christina Bellantoni filed this report on what the Tea Partiers are saying about 2010 based on interviews she conducted with the protestors. Both are great reads. And I’d suggest reading both of them.
In many ways, though, what struck me most about today was what happened at the podium. Read More
Very weird turn of events. And we’re not quite sure what to make of it. But Army authorities have just announced that accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is in fact still alive, contrary to earlier reports that he’d been shot and killed by police.
Late Update: Another important new detail. The two other suspects who were taken into custody were released and apparently ruled out as accomplices. So it seems possible, perhaps likely, that Hassan acted alone.
President Obama will meet with newly-elected Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) tomorrow afternoon.
Surprise, surprise, seems like pro-life extremist Randall Terry was at the center of that incident at Speaker Pelosi’s office where a bunch of Tea Partiers got arrested. Somehow he didn’t get arrested though. Video after the jump … Read More