Bice draws constituents’ ire for January 6 anniversary statement

OKC CD-5 Congresswoman condemns violence but says she can "empathize" with those "frustrated"

OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Congresswoman Stephanie Bice (CD-5) representing Oklahoma City residents, attempted to break the silence of the previous day and anniversary of the January 6 insurrection but might have made matters worse for herself in the process.

Her official statement (included at the end) started by saying that the “breach of the U.S. Capitol building and subsequent violence that occurred undermine the very foundation of our democracy.”

Bice ended the statement saying, “I hope they are never again tested in this way.”

But, what she said in between was problematic for some of her constituents and others around the state.

“I empathize with those whose frustrations with the electoral process remain unresolved,” Bice said in part of her next paragraph. She went on to vaguely hint at what have become typical talking points of the bulk of the Republican Party criticizing the processes in some of the states where access to the ballot was expanded to mail-in and absentee ballots because of the pandemic.

Tests in the courts to these practices and arguments made for rejecting those states’ ballots were thrown out after the election by all of the courts hearing them, even some with judges appointed by former President Trump.

Bice was among the 147 Republicans in the U.S. House to vote against certifying the election of Joe Biden to the Presidency after the attempted insurrection.

Previously silent delegation

Bice’s statement followed two damning reports from Tulsa media outlets pointing out the silence of the entire five-member Oklahoma delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Tulsa World ran a report the evening before January 6 entitled: “One year later, Oklahoma delegation largely silent about Capitol attack.”

The article pointed out that the five members of the U.S. House and the two Senators – all Republicans who were present in the Capitol on January 6 – had resisted any efforts to get a statement or answer questions about the violent attempt to stop the process that day of counting and certifying the Electoral College votes that would show that Democrat Joe Biden had won the Presidential election.

The article noted that current studies show that a significant majority of Republican voters believe the lie that Joe Biden did not actually win the election but was put in place by voter fraud.

KWGS Public Radio in Tulsa also exposed the Oklahoma’s House delegation for remaining silent: “One year after the insurrection, Oklahoma’s House delegation isn’t answering questions about their vote to overturn the election.” Their reporter, Chris Polansky, wrote that the offices of each one had been contacted five times and had not responded.

Response

Bice put out the short statement on social media which drew quick, negative responses on Twitter from constituents in CD-5, the state, and even one who grew up here and now lives in another state:

Bice posted the same message on her official, moderated, Congressional Facebook page which had seven positive or neutral comments.

Entire statement

This is a screenshot of the entire statement from Bice who decided to break the previous uniform silence of the entire Oklahoma delegation both in the U.S. House and Senate:

Bice
Screenshot of Bice’s statement on January 6 anniversary of the Capitol riot/insurrection sent through email.
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Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.