Symone Sanders Asks Why Election-Denying Republicans Are Not Being ‘Expelled’ Like Confederates

MSNBC hosts Symone Sanders-Townsend and Joy Reid asked why more was not being done to remove election-denying Republicans from Congress following the January 6 committee announcing its criminal referrals for Donald Trump this week.

In coverage of the committee’s final hearing on Trump and the Capitol riot, Sanders brought up a segment from Reid’s show in which she highlighted the fact that multiple lawmakers supporting the confederacy were “expelled” from their positions following the Civil War.

“It’s quite concerning — you know, Joy, I was watching your show earlier today and you talked about how post-Civil War, the folks who sides with the Confederate members of Congress, they were taken care of, they were expelled,” she said.

Sanders asked why there is not some similar form of punishment for lawmakers like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who tried to “disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” though she said she feared nothing will happen to them in the end.

“In this Congress, there are multiple individuals that conspired, that were willing to move hell or high water to disrupt the peaceful transition of power and my fear, and frankly the fear of many Americans out there, is that nothing is going to happen to them,” she said.

Reid specifically called out Johnson, noting the Republican now has years to get up to whatever his preferred congressional “shenanigans” will be, and she deemed it a “huge problem” that some Republicans continue to serve in Congress even after the January 6 investigation. She also warned “some of them” will have “power” in the slim Republican majority in the House come next year.

“It’s actually a huge problem for our democracy that we still have what amount to insurrectionists serving in the House of Representatives, and they’ll have power, some of them,” she said.

Trump took to his Truth Social app this week following the announcement of the congressional committee and once again denied any wrongdoing. The committee’s multiple criminal referrals includes inciting, assisting or aiding/comforting an insurrection.

Watch above via MSNBC