GOP Lawmaker Honors 'Hero' Jan. 6 Rioter With A Post-Prison Gift
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has praised a woman and left her with a gift after she pled guilty earlier this year to storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Dr. Simone Gold, an anti-vaccine advocate who reportedly ignored police and gave a speech to fellow rioters on Jan. 6, pleaded guilty in March to her role in the deadly attack.
Gold was sentenced to two months in prison, although she was released from a Miami federal facility two weeks before her sentence was up, according to MedPage Today.
Gold, who reportedly lives in Florida and isn’t a member of Gohmert’s congressional district in Texas, tweeted on Friday that she’d received a flag flown over the Capitol, the building she stormed on Jan. 6.
Gohmert shared Gold’s tweet and called her “a patriot and an American hero.”
.@drsimonegold is a patriot and an American hero. https://t.co/APiotH7ve5
— Louie Gohmert (@replouiegohmert) September 9, 2022
In a Friday statement, Gohmert claimed that Gold’s actions on Jan. 6 amounted to “peacefully walking into” the Capitol building. He said she was “the definition of what a political prisoner looks like.”
“God Bless Dr. Gold,” Gohmert wrote on his website. “History will not look kindly upon those who persecuted ― and prosecuted ― doctors who spoke out against the COVID lockdown, mask and vaccine mandates.”
Victor Ruiz, a former combat medic, tweeted that Gohmert’s presentation of the U.S. flag to Gold was a moment that “lit a fire inside of me.”
“To take an individual guilty of an assault on Democracy and give them the flag of the country they spit on? Louie Gohmert is a waste of oxygen,” Ruiz wrote.
As a Veteran and an American I have had moments that light a fire inside of me. This is one of them. To take an individual guilty of an assault on Democracy and give them the flag of the country they spit on? Louie Gohmert is a waste of oxygen. #VoteBlueNoMatterWhohttps://t.co/2XFKUJop0q
— Victor Ruiz ☮-The Voice Of Rican- (@portarican_RT) September 10, 2022
Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former spokesperson for the right-wing Breitbart News, tweeted that Gohmert’s gift of the flag amounted to “rewarding a domestic terrorist,” and called for Gohmert’s expulsion from Congress.
Louie Gohmert seen here rewarding a domestic terrorist. Imagine if a member of Congress gave an American flag that flew over the Capitol to one of the terrorists who helped plan 9/11. This is that. Gohmert should be expelled from Congress. https://t.co/B7hibtjJKe
— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) September 10, 2022
Gold is set for one year of supervised release and is ordered to pay $10,000 for damage done to the Capitol building, MedPage Today reported.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.