Two big things happened Monday, February 1 that are worth celebrating.
The first is that Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell (NM02) was formally condemned in a UNANIMOUS vote by the City of Las Cruces City Council. While the resolution carries no legal weight, the moral and symbolic weight of the largest city in Herrell’s district FORMALLY CONDEMNING her first action in congress cannot and will not be ignored. For the rest of her tenure and life she will have to acknowledge that a whole-ass city saw the seditious nature of her actions so far in congress and said no.
While initially against the resolution, Mayor Ken Miyagishima changed his mind prior to the final vote, and actually asked for an amendment to strengthen the third point of the resolution which read:
WHEREAS, our elected federal representatives have sworn an Oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, which requires that they respect the roles of the other branches of government and the autonomy of each state; and
But with the change, that clause also recognized that “the City” recognized that Herrell FAILED in her duty to uphold her oath.
The second thing to celebrate was that Representative Herrell’s good buddy Couy Griffin was NOT released from federal custody and remains jailed for his role in the failed sedition attempt of January 6. The words of the judge presiding in the case strike us as particularly relevant to both instances today:
The judge told Griffin, who attended the hearing virtually, that “words matter, facts matter.”