ICYMI: On Week One of New Congress, Courage for America and House Accountability War Room Hold New MAGA Leadership Accountable

Efforts Highlighted by Press Including AP, Vox, The View, and others

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the first week of the 118th Congress, as House Republicans scrambled over the course of 4 days and 15 votes to determine who would become Speaker, Courage for America and the House Accountability War Room took decisive action to expose the MAGA takeover of the new House and call on incoming leadership to condemn political violence and violent right-wing rhetoric ahead of the anniversary of January 6th.

Actions from the groups included the distribution of a MAGA guidebook highlighting some of the most extreme members of the new House, a press conference in partnership with Common Defense featuring former MPD Officer Michael Fanone and members of Congress, and the delivery of a letter authored by Fanone calling on House GOP leaders to reject political violence.

The efforts were highlighted in news stories at the national and local level, including: 

A story in the Associated Press on the letter authored by Fanone and signed by over a thousand veterans, active duty service members, and military family members.

Dozens of military veterans on Wednesday hand-delivered letters to top Republicans in the U.S. House, calling on them to publicly condemn political violence as the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol approaches.

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone wrote the letter, which was signed by more than 1,000 military veterans, active duty members, law enforcement officers and military families. Fanone, who was beaten and tased during the attack on the Capitol, delivered a copy to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office. While the GOP leadership remains unsettled, the groups behind the effort consider the Georgia representative one of the de facto leaders of the new Republican majority in the House.

A story in Vox about the broader week of action, MAGA guidebook, and efforts to effectively message around the new House.

Though these groups aren’t all operating under the same umbrella organization, they share similar goals: set the narrative for how the House GOP will operate before they have the power to start their investigations, push their conservative agenda, and create new rules for Congress.

“One of the key goals here is to help educate the American people about how this House is run and controlled by MAGA extremists, which is becoming increasingly clear as we witness this speaker fight,” Zac Petkanas, a longtime Democratic strategist who has worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential and Harry Reid’s senate campaigns and is running the House Accountability War Room, told me.

Segments on ABC’s The View and MSNBC’s Morning Joe highlighting the press conference. Footage of the press conference was also picked up by over 65 local stations across the country.

Highlights across social platforms from the week of action include:

To learn more about the campaign, visit CourageforAmerica.org or contact [email protected]

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