Republican New York Rep. Tom Reed said Tuesday that Republicans need to “isolate and purge” people who took part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol “from our Republican ranks.”
Reed appeared on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” and was asked by host Chuck Todd if the Republican Party could “move away from” President Donald Trump without losing the constituents in his district, “a majority” of whom Todd said voted for Trump.
“I absolutely do believe that Chuck, and we have had numerous conversations about it and let me be clear, I am a bipartisan member here in Congress,” Reed began. “I co-founded the Problem Solvers Caucus. I’m a Republican who’s a proud Republican. I was one of the first eight to endorse President Trump.”
Reed went on to say that he disagreed with Trumps “style” and the “rhetoric” he used Jan. 6, which allegedly incited the storming of the Capitol. He wrote an op-ed in the New York Times on Jan. 11 expressing his support for a censure resolution against Trump, but not for impeachment.
“I’m going to continue to listen to those 74 million voices that voted for him. But of the 74 million, the small percentage that stormed the Capitol, and engaged in that insurrection, that were Trump supporters, I will tell them there’s no place in the Republican Party for you, in my opinion,” Reed said. “That’s not the Republican Party I believe in. They need to be held to account and we need to isolate and purge them from our Republican ranks.”
Reed didn’t specify how those individuals would be removed from the party, or if he was also referring to any members of Congress who may have had a role in inciting the riot or assisting the rioters.
A group of House Democrats signed a letter Jan. 13 requesting an investigation into “suspicious behavior and access” at the Capitol that was allegedly given to groups of people the day before the riot. (RELATED: Rep. Lauren Boebert Slams Steve Cohen’s ‘Categorically False’ Claim She Gave Capitol Tour Before The Riot)
“To the remaining 70 plus million Republicans, there’s a home here. There’s a home here for what we believe in as Republicans,” Reed concluded.