Plan B Forum

The first hour of a GOP-led House committee's meeting
was a food fight over saying the Pledge of Allegiance

•  Republicans and Democrats fell into a heated debate over reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
•  The spat came as the House Judiciary Committee met to decide on rules for the panel.
•  The dust-up signals likely future fights on the high-profile congressional committee.

Before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee convened on Wednesday for a hearing on the US southern border, the panel's members fell into a lengthy and tense spat over whether to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of its meetings.

GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida had suggested a change to the committee's rules that would require each meeting to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance — an amendment that was swiftly criticized by his Democratic colleagues as unnecessary.

"I would oppose it simply on the grounds that, as members know, we pledge allegiance everyday on the floor," said Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel. "And I don't know why we should pledge allegiance twice in the same day to show how patriotic we are."

The exchange grew especially heated after Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island challenged Gaetz's amendment by proposing new language that would ban insurrectionists from leading the pledge in a swipe at fellow lawmakers; Gaetz was one of at least six GOP lawmakers who sought pardons from then-President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
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