RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina House Democrats walked out of Monday night’s session before Republican Donnie Loftis was sworn in as the chamber’s newest member.
The Gaston County Republican Party selected Loftis, a 30-year Army veteran and former county commissioner, to complete the term of Rep. Dana Bumgardner, who died in October.
Democrats, in walking out, were objecting to Loftis because of his participation in protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — protests that devolved into a violent riot. Loftis posted on social media then that he “got gassed three times and was at the entrance when they breached the door.”
“My Oath of Enlistment has the phrase ‘both foreign and domestic.’ We didn’t think it would actually be domestic,” Loftis wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Loftis told Raleigh TV station WRAL in late October — after being selected for the House — that his involvement was strictly peaceful.
“I had absolutely zero involvement in the rioting and categorically condemn the storming of our Capitol building that day,” he told the station.
On Jan. 6, people shattered doors and windows, overran police trying to protect the Capitol and forced the evacuation of both chambers of Congress. Some chanted “Hang, Mike Pence,” a reference to the vice president who presided over the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory over Donald Trump.
Loftis, a Bronze Star recipient, declined requests for an interview from reporters after his swearing-in ceremony.
“I am honored to be serving District 109,” Loftis said before celebrating with friends and families.
Rep. Grier Martin, D-Wake, said he was one of the originators of the planned protest. Martin was not in the chamber Monday night for other reasons, but said there was “no way I was going to be in the room when that guy took an oath to join the House of Representatives.”
Martin, also an Army veteran, said “one’s service to one’s country when it was rendered is certainly worthy of respect, but when you betray your country, when you seek to undermine the democratic institutions that make it great, you’re turning your back on America.”
Martin said the right to protest is protected by the First Amendment, but “it certainly seems like he went beyond that.” Martin said calling elected representatives “domestic enemies, clearly frames his actions as being in the center of things.”
Democrats have called Loftis an “extremist” and a “COVID conspiracy theorist.” He resigned as chairman of the board of directors at CaroMont Health in May 2020 after sharing Facebook posts calling coronavirus stay-at-home orders “tyranny” and messages about COVID-19 conspiracy theories, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.
“It has been almost 11 months since violent rioters breached the halls of the United States Capitol in attempts to undermine our Democracy,” North Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman Bobbie Richardson said in a statement.
“Today marks a new low for General Assembly Republicans, because instead of condemning those actions and rejecting the rhetoric that incites violence, they are welcoming a Capitol insurrection participant with open arms.”
No votes were taken during Monday’s floor session.
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