Facebook appears to have permanently removed State Sen. Amanda Chase’s official state Senate page, according to email communications provided by the campaign.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts by her campaign to get her public page reinstated as recently as last week, Chase, R-Chesterfield, said Sunday that she is considering a national class action lawsuit against the social media giant on behalf of herself and others whose pages were restricted because of content related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Chase added that she feels “singled out” by Facebook for her conservative politics, and that Facebook’s ban on her Senate page also has harmed her campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. According to Chase, she had 144,000 followers on the public page, where she frequently posted live videos and photos from events. Her personal Facebook page and a private Facebook group for supporters of her gubernatorial campaign are still active, however.
Chase’s Facebook ban — which started as a temporary restriction on new posts and livestreams on the Senate page in early January — occurred at the same time that then-President Donald Trump’s public Facebook page was banned indefinitely. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that in Trump’s case Facebook made the decision for public safety reasons. The Facebook Oversight Board, a high-profile group determining content moderation decisions, is currently considering whether to overturn Trump’s ban and also plans to examine Facebook’s policies on elected officials.
The Virginia GOP has scheduled its nominating convention for governor and other statewide offices for May 8, and Chase campaign worker John Findlay, a former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, attempted last week to get Chase’s Facebook page reinstated before the convention. The social media giant first restricted Chase from streaming live video, posting or commenting on the page for 30 days in early January, and it took down two videos Chase posted from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during a pro-Trump rally that took place a few hours before the violent takeover of the Capitol.
On March 11, Findlay, whose wife is also part of Chase’s campaign staff, emailed Facebook employee Rachel Holland, who is responsible for U.S. politics and government outreach. Findlay’s email to Holland was conciliatory, writing that Chase was “more than willing to comply” with Facebook’s requests, including deleting posts and “avoiding forbidden content.” Findlay added that Chase “would like to do a great deal of advertising” on Facebook. He said in an interview Sunday that he considered the request “likely a longshot, but it was a distinct possibility,” noting that Chase and Trump are the only high-profile political figures whose pages have been removed by Facebook.
However, Facebook did not change its mind. Reiterating a Jan. 19 communication with Chase’s campaign, Holland wrote in a March 16 email that Chase’s Senate page “was correctly disabled upon incurring multiple violations of our Community Standards which resulted in content removal. … Due to the potential for real-world harm, we do not allow exceptions [to] this policy.”
Two months earlier, Holland had explained in an email to Chase’s campaign that Facebook restricts and disables pages that are tied to violent groups, including U.S.-based militias and QAnon followers, and limits other content that includes “praise and support of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, calls to bring weapons to locations across the U.S. — not just in Washington but anywhere in the U.S. — including protests, incitement or encouragement of the events at the Capitol, including videos and photos from the protestors.”
Chase said Sunday she’s strongly considering bringing a lawsuit against Facebook and believes she and other pro-Trump partisans are being punished for their political beliefs. “You don’t adopt un-American policies, Facebook,” Chase said. “This is all a target on conservative Republicans. This has lit a fire under me. I will put Facebook out of business.”
Findlay said Sunday that although Chase is interested in suing Facebook, he’s not confident that a lawsuit would be resolved in time for the May 8 convention. “I think she’s still the overwhelming favorite” in the Republican gubernatorial field, despite the ban, he added.
In a response to state Sen. Amanda Chase’s lawsuit claiming her civil rights were violated by her political censure last month, attorneys representing the Virginia State Senate and its clerk filed documents Monday seeking the suit’s dismissal under sovereign and legislative immunity protection of the defendants.
Chase’s attorney, Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach, filed suit on behalf of the Republican gubernatorial candidate Feb. 1 in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar from publishing last month’s censure resolution, passed 24-9, in the official journal of the Senate of Virginia.
Chase, R-Chesterfield County, argued that the resolution violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech and the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment, after she was censured for her speech and actions over the past two years, including participating in a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, hours before supporters of the former president violently breached the U.S. Capitol. The suit also seeks to force Schaar to expunge the record of an earlier version of the censure, which argued that Chase engaged in “fomenting insurrection.”
In Monday’s documents, Solicitor General Toby J. Heytens of the state attorney general’s office argues that the two named defendants — the Virginia Senate and Schaar — are immune from the suit, so the complaint should be dismissed. According to Heytens’ argument, the Senate and the clerk, because she was serving in her official capacity during the censure resolution, cannot be sued under sovereign immunity — a tenet of Virginia law that in essence protects the state from civil lawsuits.
Schaar also is protected by “absolute legislative immunity,” Heytens argues, because she was acting in her professional capacity as “an agent” of the state. Similarly, had Chase sued individual senators, the response says, they too would be protected by legislative immunity under Virginia law.
The motion says also that “the Senate acted entirely consistently with its own rules when considering and approving the resolution of censure.” Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion that both the state Senate and the House of Delegates “possesses broad power to discipline and, where it judges appropriate, expel member legislators.” Del. Lee Carter, D-Manassas, and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, asked the attorney general if the General Assembly could discipline lawmakers who had participated in the Jan. 6 takeover of the Capitol.
According to an order filed by Judge Robert E. Payne on Feb. 3, oral arguments will be held at the federal court in Richmond on March 19.
Chase also has sued the Republican Party of Virginia in the Richmond Circuit Court, seeking an injunction against its May 1 nominating convention to determine candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, which she claims is not fair to voters under current pandemic executive orders. A hearing is scheduled Friday, four days before Virginia’s political parties must submit their nominating method to the State Board of Elections on Feb. 23. The state Democratic Party has declared it will hold a primary election in June.
A week after being censured by the state Senate, Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, is suing the legislative body and its clerk for violating Chase’s civil rights, including her First Amendment right to freedom of speech, she announced Monday.
Virginia Beach attorney Tim Anderson said Monday he has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Chase in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar from publishing last week’s censure resolution in the official journal of the Senate of Virginia.
Chase, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, also seeks a declaratory judgment that the passed censure resolution — which focused on Chase’s speech and behavior over the past two years — is in violation of her right to free speech under the First Amendment. The suit also seeks to force Schaar to expunge the record of an earlier version of the censure, which argued that Chase engaged in “fomenting insurrection” by participating in a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, a few hours before Trump supporters participated in a violent insurrectionist breach of the U.S. Capitol. She left the area before the siege and had left Washington altogether by mid-afternoon.
In her statement Monday, Chase says that the censure resolution against her, which passed 24-9 last week, “was unlawful and contrary to the plaintiff’s constitutional rights,” including the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Chase contends she “is being singled out and selectively penalized for taking unpopular political positions that the majority of the members of the Virginia Senate disagree with.”
The suit also seeks a reinstatement of Chase’s seniority rank, which was removed after the resolution passed, although with little material effect because Chase had already been stripped of her committee assignments.
Last week, as the Senate was considering the censure — its first since 1987 — Chase said she would sue if it passed. Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun County, was chief sponsor of the resolution, which censured Chase for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator” for multiple controversies since 2019, including an argument with a Virginia Capitol police officer over parking, several social media posts that were broadly criticized for attacking Black people, rape victims and state Democrats, as well as other posts that shared disinformation about COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election, which Chase contended was “stolen” from former President Donald Trump.
Chase argued on the Senate floor that she was covered by the First Amendment for her statements and called the censure resolution, which was supported by three Republicans and all 21 Democrats, as a “politically motivated hit job” related to her campaign for governor.
Anderson, the attorney representing Chase, also represented Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, in his lawsuit late last year seeking physical space to meet with constituents during the 2021 General Assembly session, during which the Senate has been convening at the Science Museum of Virginia due to COVID concerns.
Schaar said she had no comment on the case Monday, and the Senate’s counsel has not yet been determined.
With the support of Republicans and Democrats, the Virginia State Senate on Wednesday censured Sen. Amanda Chase, R- Chesterfield County, for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator” based on a laundry list of controversies extending over the past two years.
In a 24-9 vote, with six Republicans abstaining, Chase became the first state senator to be censured in Virginia since 1987, when Norfolk Democratic Sen. Peter Balabas was sanctioned for not disclosing a conflict of interest.
The vote also placed Chase last in seniority, a move that is even more rare than censure, although it is unlikely to have much of a material effect on the senator, who has been stripped of all committee assignments over the past two years since leaving the Senate Republican Caucus.
Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, said, “Since taking her oath in 2016, Sen. Amanda Chase has over and over again engaged in behavior unbecoming of a senator. She propagated conspiracy theories; lied to her constituents, followers, and colleagues; praised those who espoused racist and anti-Semitic sentiments; and on many other occasions brought disrepute upon herself, and by extension, the Senate of Virginia. Sen. Amanda Chase’s conduct had to be held accountable, and that’s what we did today.”
The vote came after more than an hour of speeches against Chase — with some of the the most forceful delivered by Chase’s fellow Republicans.
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City, the leader of the Senate Republican Caucus, accused Chase of “absolute hypocrisy” and of violating “personal integrity,” based partly on Chase’s actions over the past few days as she has battled the censure motion.
Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City County
Despite Chase’s comment last week on the floor that she had not filed a resolution to censure Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for her attendance at a social justice protest last summer, Norment said he had found out that Chase had attempted to file the resolution twice but had not been allowed to do so because it would have exceeded the limit on the number of bills a senator can file during the short session.
“Violation of personal integrity is totally unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” said Norment, who voted to censure Chase.
“How dare you!” said an indignant Chase, addressing Norment. She then referred to years-old ethical controversies Norment was involved in, as well as criminal charges against Lucas — since dropped — that stemmed from a Portsmouth protest.
“The reason I left the caucus was because of your improprieties. Your affairs, your lies. … Your behavior, sir, does not become a sitting senator,” Chase said. “To the senator from Portsmouth, who was arrested on two felony counts this year, give me a break! You should be on the floor defending me. I was never even charged with a crime. I was never even arrested for a crime.”
Laundry list of controversies
On Tuesday, chief sponsor Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, added an eight-paragraph list of controversies to support the resolution’s charges. It started with Chase’s 2019 conflict with a state Capitol police officer over parking and also mentioned Chase’s anti-masking stance during the pandemic, as well as a series of comments and social media posts by Chase that have been broadly criticized for denigrating Black people, rape victims and state Democrats. The censure resolution also chastised Chase for “propagating unfounded claims” about the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump supporters. The censure resolution’s revised wording was accepted by a voice vote Tuesday, despite Chase’s objections that the First Amendment covers her right to make such statements, “inflammatory” or not.
Chase continued to deliver the same argument Wednesday, saying her conduct is protected by the Constitution and threatening to sue the state Senate if it went forward with the vote against her.
In an interview Tuesday night, Bell said he made the changes to address other senators’ freedom of speech concerns and expected to receive more votes on the reworded resolution, including some Republican support. Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond, said the Senate Democrats Caucus had a “knockdown, drag-out fight” over what warranted censure that resulted in the rewording of the measure. While he supported the censure resolution, Morrissey added that he believes some of the criticisms of Chase listed in the censure are “protected” speech, including Chase’s comment that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen.”
The first draft of the resolution, introduced on the first day of the General Assembly, sought Chase’s censure “for fomenting insurrection,” citing her speech and attendance at the Jan. 6 pro-Trump demonstration that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and her social media posts about it. However, the revised censure resolution dropped the “insurrection” accusation and instead sought to censure and place the gubernatorial hopeful last in seniority “for failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator.”
In comments Wednesday, Chase also called out other senators — including Sen. Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania County, and Morrissey — for actions she argued were not becoming of a senator.
Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun
“What a double standard,” Chase said with a raised voice. Addressing Morrissey, who has had multiple legal run-ins over the years, including serving three months in jail as a former state delegate for contributing to the delinquency of a minor (stemming from his relationship with a then-17-year-old girl who is now his wife), Chase said that she was always “kind” to Morrissey.
Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, interrupted Chase mid-sentence, saying that she was breaching decorum and called for a brief break. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, serving as president of the Senate, reminded the legislative body of its rules requiring that they observe decorum during debate “and to treat everyone with respect.”
Chase resumed with a more chastened tone, saying that she was disappointed in her colleagues who “never once” came to her privately to discuss their grievances as they occurred. She said that she prays and added that “my heart is right with the Lord.”
Chase then specifically denounced white supremacists among the people who breached the U.S. Capitol. “I don’t support any of those groups. I don’t support any groups that support hate,” Chase said. She also condemned everyone “who broke the law” during the siege and said they should be arrested.
It was a change in tone for Chase, who, after the Jan. 6 insurrection, used the the word “patriots” in regard to the rioters in a post on her official Facebook page and said that pro-Trump rioter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt had been “brutally murdered by Capitol Police.”
‘A call for help’
Before Wednesday’s censure vote, several Republican senators took to the floor and condemned their colleague but ultimately abstained from voting. Some said that although they didn’t support the resolution on freedom of speech or procedural grounds, they also didn’t want to show support for Chase by voting against censure.
“She has long ago exhausted any remaining reservoir of trust and credibility with most of her colleagues, if not all of her colleagues,” said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg. “And I am not sure, that at this point in time, she can claim a single member of the General Assembly — not just [in] the Senate, but the House of Delegates and the Senate — as an ally.”
Obenshain also decried the senator’s “narcissistic behavior” and “total unfamiliarity with truth,” while indicating that he would abstain from voting. Under different circumstances, Obenshain said, he likely would have voted against the resolution on First Amendment grounds but would not do so because he did not want to endorse Chase’s “antics.”
Sen. William M. Stanley Jr., R-Franklin County, decried Chase’s “sense of entitlement,” as well as “greed and ambition.” Although he did not support the resolution, he added, “I will not vote ‘no’ because it is a reward for bad behavior.”
Others said they hoped Chase would seek help, including Sen. Stephen Newman, R-Bedford County, who suggested that Chase’s behavior both inside and outside of the Senate “represents a call for help.” Newman objected to the process of the resolution, which was changed significantly on Tuesday in substitute text, but that the charges — focusing on Chase’s overall behavior during the past two years — should have all been debated in committee before coming to a final floor vote.
In a statement issued by the Senate Republican Caucus after the vote, party leaders said it was “disheartening” to spend time in the Senate on the censure instead of business affecting the state. “Sen. Chase’s selfishness and constant need for media attention, with which the Senate Republican Caucus is keenly familiar, brought us to the situation in which the Senate found itself today.” Although GOP senators voted differently — three supporting the resolution, nine voting against and six abstaining — “all … are united in their disappointment in Sen. Chase and their disdain for her actions,” the statement said.
‘Politically motivated hit job’
The censure resolution shifted focus Tuesday to Chase’s overall behavior over the past two years, instead of only on her conduct Jan. 6, when she spoke at a rally on the National Mall hours before the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, which led to five deaths. Chase left the area around the Capitol before the takeover and departed Washington, D.C., shortly after. But in a Facebook post that evening, she wrote, “These were not rioters and looters; these were Patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turn into a socialist country.”
In a news release from her campaign Wednesday, Chase threatened to sue the Senate if it moved forward with the censure, calling the entire process “a politically motivated hit job.”
She says she’s being targeted because she is “the Republican frontrunner in the race for governor” and has outraised former House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox, who entered the gubernatorial race in November. Chase was the first GOP hopeful to declare her candidacy, announcing in February 2020.
As of Dec. 31, 2020, Chase had raised $668,982 and Cox had raised $393,631, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, and her balance at the end of the year was $229,745, while Cox had $341,896 on hand. The field of five Republican candidates are competing for the nomination that will be decided by convention May 1.
On Jan. 22, in an effort to avoid censure, Chase made an apology to the Senate in a speech on the floor, saying, “If I have offended any one of you in this room because I am very passionate about the Constitution, I apologize.”
Bell had offered to strike the resolution if Chase made a full apology and condemned violent actors in the Capitol siege, but he and other Democrats felt Chase’s speech “fell far short” of what they required. In her speech, Chase continued to defend her conduct and also criticized a public radio journalist whom she said misattributed a quote to her.
Later Friday, as the resolution went forward, Chase returned to her defiant stance, tweeting that she would “wear [the censure] like a badge of honor.” On her Twitter account, she hurled criticism at Lucas for taking part in a social justice protest last June in which a Confederate statue was taken down by demonstrators hours after the president pro tempore had left the area; and Norment, who was embroiled in ethics controversies several years ago but was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after a federal investigation in 2015.
“Sen. Norment, it’s not good to throw rocks in glass houses,” Chase tweeted Tuesday night, adding that he, too, should be censured.
In her campaign’s announcement Wednesday, Chase said the censure was “nothing more than a failed attempt to tarnish my good name, reputation and solid conservative record. We are going to fight this unprecedented political hit job and prevail.”
A newly reworded resolution to censure state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, seeks to place the ardent Trump supporter and gubernatorial hopeful last in seniority “for failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator.” It no longer seeks censure “for fomenting insurrection,” as a previous version read.
The Senate resolution now includes a list of controversies surrounding Chase, including: her conflict with a state Capitol police officer in 2019; her anti-masking stance; statements seen as derogatory toward rape victims, Black people and state Democrats; and “propagating unfounded claims” about the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Chase spoke at the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C. that preceded the violent insurrection and left the National Mall in the early afternoon, before the breach of the Capitol building. In a social media post, she used the word “patriots” in regard to the rioters and said that pro-Trump rioter and charged that Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt “was brutally murdered by Capitol Police.”
“The inflammatory statements and actions of Senator Amanda F. Chase during her tenure in the Senate of Virginia have created and aggravated tensions, misled constituents and citizens, and obstructed the Senate’s business in service of the commonwealth,” the resolution now reads. “Such behavior … has caused a material effect upon the conduct of her office.”
In eight paragraphs, the resolution outlines Chase’s “pattern of unacceptable conduct,” including her criticism of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sen. Jennifer McClellan’s status as vice chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, saying she is “not for all Virginians.” The resolution also mentions Chase’s widely circulated quote, “I don’t do COVID,” implying that the coronavirus is a choice. And it calls Chase out for making “baseless claims of a ‘stolen’ [presidential] election,” without proof and contrary to state election certifications and nationwide court rulings against claims made by President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The censure resolution is likely to be voted on by the full state Senate on Wednesday or Thursday.
The bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun County, explained that he adjusted the wording after a discussion with Senate colleagues about their concerns that the original resolution may have treaded on Chase’s freedom of speech, as it criticized her for speaking at the Jan. 6 rally. He also said on the Senate floor Tuesday night that he was continuing to pursue the censure — which would be the first such measure in 35 years if passed — because Chase’s speech last week “fell far short” of an apology and full condemnation of violent actors at the U.S. Capitol. Bell and Chase had previously discussed a deal, in which if she gave an unconditional apology and clarified her comments about the Capitol breach, he would strike the resolution.
Bell added in an interview Tuesday that the changes are likely to gain the measure more votes, including from some Republican senators. Chase, who left the Senate Republican Caucus in 2019, has strained relations with her party. She was kicked out of the Chesterfield County Republican Party after butting heads with the county’s Republican sheriff and criticizing him on social media. In 2020, a Republican senator’s aide formed an anti-Chase political action committee, the Unfit Virginia PAC, to oppose her bid for this year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination.
Chase on Tuesday attempted to get the censure resolution discarded by arguing that the new wording was an attempt by Bell to “come up with another reason to try to embarrass me before the commonwealth of Virginia.” She added that all of her comments, “inflammatory” or not, are protected by the First Amendment and that the substituted resolution is not germane to her Senate duties.
In his role as Senate president, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax ruled that the censure’s new wording was germane and allowed the measure to go forward with the changes. Chase then asked to postpone the vote by one day, giving her more time to build her argument.
Kicking off a brief parliamentary discussion, Bell objected to the delay, as did Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City, who noted that Chase did not speak when the resolution was before the Senate Privileges & Elections committee last week. “I don’t think it disadvantages her that she can make the same spurious argument when we take the matter up,” Norment said.
Arguing in favor of the delay, however, was Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Henrico County, saying it was a typical Senate courtesy to allow a one-day delay at the request of a member.
“While I respect what was said on the floor today, on a personal level, my mother-in-law had open-heart surgery today,” Chase said, her voice choking. “I need to go check on my mother-in-law, and I will not be preparing statements for this tonight.”
Bell agreed to withdraw his objection, as did Norment, who said that he did so out of respect for Bell and “not attributable to tears.” Bell said later it was a “surprise” when Chase mentioned her mother-in-law. “She never mentioned that to me or to anyone else. I reversed, taking her at her word.”
Although Chase has been stripped of all committee assignments due to her departure from the GOP caucus, Bell said that being placed last in seniority would be “a major issue” for Chase “because it’s such a rare thing. What I hope changes is her behavior. The honor of the body is at stake.”
In a bid to avoid becoming the first state senator censured since 1986, state Sen. Amanda Chase on Friday apologized to her Senate colleagues, saying she was sorry “if I offended any one of you.”
Her words were not enough to avoid censure, the chief patron of the censure resolution said in an interview with Virginia Business on Friday afternoon, confirming he would not withdraw the measure. It’s likely to come up for a vote by the full Senate on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported Thursday night that Chase, R-Chesterfield County, and Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, chief patron of the censure resolution, had struck a deal that if she apologized and “clarified” her remarks about participants in the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, he would withdraw his resolution to censure her for “fomenting insurrection against the United States.”
In her speech on the floor of the Senate on Friday, Chase continued to defend her participation in a Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally at the National Mall that led to a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Chase posted on Facebook on Jan. 6 that pro-Trump rioter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt “was brutally murdered by Capitol Police today. . . . These were not rioters and looters; these were Patriots who love their country and do not want to see our great republic turn into a socialist country.”
Bell said he sponsored the measure because, as a retired military officer, “this was something that really hurt me to my core” and that he considers Chase’s words and actions as “aiding and comforting the enemy.” He spoke three times with Chase about the resolution — including once in person Thursday at the Science Museum of Virginia, where the Senate is convened, and on the phone Thursday night. He made it clear that if she gave an “unconditional” apology and condemned the people who committed violence and those who wore anti-Semitic and other offensive garments, he would strike the resolution to censure her.
“I believe in second chances,” Bell said, and he said that Chase had taken notes when they met in person and agreed to Bell’s terms. Thursday night, he contacted her because he had received an interview request from a journalist for comment on the situation and wanted to let her know that he had not talked to the press about their agreement. “It’s a disappointment,” Bell said, and added that he was “a bit surprised about how disjointed her comments became.”
Chase spoke about nine minutes Friday, addressing numerous topics, from the 2020 election to calling out a member of the media by name.
“I have not come in here storming the Senate of Virginia in any type of insurrection-type behavior,” said Chase, who is seeking the GOP’s 2021 gubernatorial nomination. “If I have offended any one of you in this room because I am very passionate about the Constitution, I apologize.”
She added that she had “openly condemned the actions of those at the Capitol,” but continued to say that her part in the day’s events involved no violence and that the people surrounding her in Washington, D.C., were “people I call patriots. These people love their country, just like I do.”
She said her goal of participating in President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 “Save America” rally was to “protect” the legitimacy of the presidential vote, which she has repeatedly claimed without evidence was “stolen” from Trump through voter fraud.
Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun
Chase also criticized a journalist from Roanoke public radio station WVTF, Michael Pope, whom she said misattributed a quote to her, in which she used the word “patriots” with regard to participants in the demonstration in a Facebook post. Chase said she never called the people involved in the breach “patriots,” only the ones who did not take part in violence. “We have to hold the media accountable. There are some reporters giving all of our reporters a bad name.”
However, fellow Republican Sen. David Suetterlein of Roanoke County defended Pope and said that Chase had used the word “patriots” to describe pro-Trump demonstrators in the Facebook post, which has now been removed, along with her official Senate Facebook page. “I think it’s unfair to malign the member of the press who simply quoted it,” Suetterlein said.
Chase also reversed herself Friday on comments about Democrats’ participation in Black Lives Matter protests last summer, saying, “Going forward, if you decide to participate in a rally or a protest and something happens, as it happened to the senator from Portsmouth, I didn’t file a censure for you, and I’d ask that you do the same for me.”
Chase promised last week to “start calling people out in this room,” indicating on social media that she would propose censure resolutions against any Democratic senators who participated in social justice protests last summer that led to property damage. Last week Chase also said she was planning to file a resolution to censure Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for taking part in a social justice demonstration in June 2020 during which a Confederate statue was taken down by protesters. On Twitter Wednesday, Chase said that the filing was “mysteriously being held up in the Senate Clerk’s office” and shared a resolution document calling for Lucas’ censure “for encouraging protesters to break the law and asking police to stand down while rioters broke the law and destroyed public property. … Senator L. Louise Lucas has clearly abused her position as a state senator.”
The resolution had not been assigned a number or appeared in the state’s Legislative Information System as of Friday, and Chase may already have reached her legislation limit, set before the 30-day session.
By Friday night, Chase had changed her conciliatory stance, tweeting: “If Virginia Senate Democrats censure me, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor and raise lots of money statewide to defeat Terry [McAuliffe]. To me; it’s a win win.” On Saturday, she tweeted, “Virginia Senate Democrats really didn’t want an apology; they wanted complete submission. And that’s not going to happen; not today; not tomorrow; not ever.” She also continued criticizing Lucas.
With multiple Democrats as co-sponsors, the censure resolution was passed on a party line vote Tuesday by the Democratic-controlled Privileges and Elections committee, moving it to a future vote on the Senate floor. If passed, it would be the first censure of a state senator since 1986.
In response to Chase’s participation at the rally came calls for her resignation by Virginia Senate Democrats and the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus voiced its support for the censure of Chase in a statement this week.
Bell said he considered filing a resolution to expel Chase from the Senate, the most serious penalty the body can enact, but he didn’t believe he had the two-thirds majority vote necessary to remove her from the seat in the Senate, which is divided 21-18 in favor of Democrats and has one vacancy due to the Jan. 1 death of Sen. Ben Chafin, R-Russell County. But also, Bell said Friday he believes “things should be done in steps,” and that’s what the party has done, starting with its call for Chase’s resignation on Jan. 6.
At this point of the session, Bell or any other member of the Senate would have to get unanimous consent to file a resolution past deadline, or two-thirds consent to change the rules — neither of which is likely in this case.
Sen. Mark J. Peake, R-Lynchburg, said earlier in the week that “in pursuit of her personal goals,” Chase likes to say, “Look at me, I fight the good old boys.” Although Chase said she was being punished for not paying Republican Senate caucus dues, others said that was false, as dues are optional and do not affect committee assignments. In 2019, Chase left the caucus when it re-elected Sen. Thomas Norment, R-James City County, as its leader — and that was why she lost seniority privileges and assignments, Suetterlein said earlier this week.
Chase’s statement Friday caps a period in which the senior Chesterfield County senator has often antagonized Democrats and Republicans by embracing and echoing Trump’s combative stances, including a refusal to wear a face mask when the state Senate meets and pushing the false narrative that Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
A resolution to censure state Sen. Amanda Chase moved forward Tuesday, and the embattled Republican from Chesterfield County also was stripped of her last committee assignment, although not without objections.
Chase left the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus in 2019 after Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, was re-elected as the Senate party leader. At the time, she said that Norment had allowed tax increases and expanded Medicaid and didn’t live up to Republican values. In 2020, Chase lost her seniority privileges and was stripped of three committee assignments, keeping only her assignment to the low-profile Local Government committee. Tuesday, Chase was the only “no” vote against approving the Senate committee assignments.
In a speech Tuesday, Chase claimed that she had lost her remaining committee assignment because she refused to pay $10,000 in annual caucus dues in 2020. “This is extortion,” she said, adding that her staff had been “bullied” as a result and that she had been “put over in the corner, like a scolded child.”
But Republican Sen. David Suetterlein of Botetourt County said Chase’s claim was not accurate. “One, I didn’t pay any caucus dues last year, and I don’t think anyone on the Republican side did,” Suetterlein said, noting that it didn’t matter with regard to committee assignments. Also, he pointed out, Chase herself “didn’t pay dues for multiple years” and had still maintained her committee assignments.
Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said he recalled the meeting in 2019 when Chase said she was leaving the caucus. “The senator from Hanover said, ‘Whoa, don’t do that. You lose seniority and placement on all committees,’ which was met with wide eyes.” Obenshain added that leaving the party caucus had long carried the penalty of losing clout, dating back to then-Sen. Russ Potts’ decision to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent gubernatorial candidate in 2005. There were no changes in policy following Chase’s decision.
Sen. Mark J. Peake, R-Lynchburg, said that actions have consequences, and that “in pursuit of her personal goals,” Chase enjoys saying, “Look at me, I fight the good old boys.”
Tuesday afternoon, Democratic Sen. John J. Bell of Loudoun County introduced SR 91, which seeks to censure Chase for her participation in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol grounds that became a violent takeover of the Capitol building. The resolution passed the Democratic-controlled Committee on Privileges and Elections on a party-line vote of 9 to 6, and will be taken up by the entire Senate next.
Bell said “it brings me no joy” to present the resolution, which, if passed, would be the first censure of a Virginia state senator since 1986. It carries no further penalties.
“Leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the senior senator from Chesterfield posted, ‘Make no mistake, we are at war,'” Bell said. “In the same post, she supported a call for martial law and falsely claimed the Democratic party hijacked our 2020 presidential election and committed treason. She went on to say, ‘Where the hell are the Republicans?’ I ask you, who is the war the senior senator refers to against? … I can only assume the war she refers to is against the United States.”
Chase herself did not make any remarks following the resolution; she asked committee chair Sen. Creigh Deeds via Zoom if the resolution vote could be delayed, as she was not prepared to speak. Deeds asked if Chase had been informed of the Tuesday vote, and Bell said he had spoken with her several days ago about it.
“There’s nothing to prevent her now from speaking to us,” added co-sponsor Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria. The vote went on, and Chase will have another opportunity to speak when the resolution reaches the Senate floor.
In a tweet Tuesday, Gov. Ralph Northam decried the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s denial of federal funding for the Virginia National Guard presence at the U.S. Capitol as a “slap in the face” by President Donald Trump.
“Virginia was there to defend the U.S. Capitol on January 6 — and we are committed to ensuring a peaceful transfer of power tomorrow. Now, the same president who incited this terrorism has denied us support in our efforts to stop it,” the governor tweeted. “A slap in the face.”
FEMA denied requests from Virginia and Maryland for an emergency declaration Monday, according to The Washington Post. The decision, which both states plan to appeal, would leave Virginia and Maryland state governments bearing most of the cost burden for deploying National Guard members and state and local police officers to help restore order at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and to maintain security around the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Northam spokesperson Alena Yarmosky said the state could lose up to 75% of federal reimbursement, adding that the state plans to appeal after Biden is inaugurated Wednesday at noon.
During the breach of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters, Northam sent Virginia National Guard members and about 200 Virginia State Police troopers to help regain control of the situation after U.S. Capitol Police were overwhelmed. Northam promised to keep Guard members in place through the inauguration of Biden. Currently about 2,400 Virginia National Guard members are stationed in Washington, D.C., as part of an unprecedented force of 25,000 guardsmen charged with maintaining security for Biden’s inauguration.
The FBI, following the events of Jan. 6, issued alerts of possible violent uprisings at the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings around Biden’s inauguration from right wing extremists who believe despite evidence and multiple court rulings that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The president was impeached on Jan. 13 for inciting the Capitol insurrection, making him the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. The U.S. Senate is expected to hold his post-presidency impeachment trial in coming weeks.
Virginia’s Capitol Square, which is closed through Thursday, saw about 100 gun-rights protesters gather nearby Monday, while others drove through the city as part of the Virginia Citizens Defense League’s “rolling caravan” to support the Second Amendment. Small bands of protesters from various groups, including the Original Black Panthers of Virginia and local members of the far right boogaloo boys and Proud Boys movements showed up for the protests. It was a far quieter demonstration than in 2020, when about 22,000 people — most of them armed — crowded into the downtown Richmond streets around the Capitol for a rally.
Protests at other state capitols last weekend were similarly subdued or nonexistent, although security and tensions remain high in Washington, D.C.
As state Democrats seek to censure her for participating in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally that preceded the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, said she planned to file a resolution Monday to censure Democratic colleague Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, for taking part in a social justice protest last summer in Portsmouth.
Chase, who is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, warned her colleagues last week on the Senate floor, “If you’re going to call me out, I’m going to start calling people out in this room.” Chase said Friday that she planned to file a censure resolution Monday against Lucas.
Chase also tweeted Friday that she planned “to call for censure of every last legislator who has arrested or participated in a rally that ended in destruction.”
“Amanda Chase is reacting to the filing of SR91 to censure her for helping incite the insurrection to overthrow the government,” Lucas said in a tweet Friday. “We can no longer allow her to spread conspiracy theories without consequences.”
A resolution sponsored by Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, calls on the state Senate to censure Chase for “fomenting insurrection against the United States” after she “addressed a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., to urge that action be taken to overturn the lawfully conducted 2020 presidential election.” Eleven other Democratic senators, including Lucas, are listed as co-sponsors. The resolution has been referred to the Senate Privileges and Elections committee, which meets Tuesday.
In her speech last week, Chase said it was “outrageous” and “hypocritical” that lawmakers who participated in social justice protests last summer after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis would seek to punish Chase for speaking at the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally. Chase added that she “will not be lectured about civility by the same politicians who remained silent while our cities and communities were burned and destroyed by domestic terrorist groups Antifa and BLM.”
According to videos she posted on her personal and Senate Facebook pages on Jan. 6, Chase had left the Capitol area before the breach, and departed Washington, D.C., altogether by mid-afternoon. She has defended her participation in the demonstration — which drew calls from Senate Democrats and others for her to resign. Chase said she “absolutely” won’t resign and has continued to argue without proof that she believes the presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump.
Chase said Friday she planned to file her own resolution to censure Lucas on Monday. As of noon, it had not yet appeared in Virginia’s Legislative Information System, although there is typically a delay between filing and publishing. Chase’s resolution is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Lucas, who has represented her district since 1992 and serves as Senate president pro tempore, was among 19 co-defendants charged last August with felonies related to a June 2020 protest that led to the toppling of a Confederate statue, charges that were later dropped. Lucas and other political figures, including the city’s vice mayor, a local school board member and the president of the Portsmouth NAACP, had spoken earlier in the day at the protest in Portsmouth but had left before the statue, erected to honor local Confederate soldiers, came down. One man was seriously injured when the statue fell but has recovered.
The timing of the warrants — months after the protest and the day before Lucas was set to join the Senate in Richmond for its special session in August — led to widespread criticism of Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene, who has since been fired and plans to sue the city.
The last time a Virginia state senator was censured was in 1986, when Norfolk Sen. Peter Balabas was censured for unethical conduct. Censuring does not include any other penalties, but it is the harshest sanction the body can use against one of its own, except for expulsion, which requires a two-thirds majority vote.
State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, faces censure after a Democratic colleague filed a resolution Thursday alleging that Chase “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. Constitution when she participated in the pro-Trump rally Jan. 6 that led to the violent takeover of the U.S. Capitol.
The resolution has been sent to the Democratic-controlled Senate Privileges and Elections committee, which meets Tuesday. A censure does not include any further penalties, but it is relatively rarely used by Virginia’s Senate and is its harshest sanction against one of its own, except for expulsion, which requires a two-thirds majority vote. The last time a member was censured was in 1986, when Norfolk Sen. Peter Balabas was censured for unethical conduct — casting votes in violation of conflict of interest rules.
Chase, who is seeking the GOP’s Virginia gubernatorial nomination this year, “addressed a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., to urge that action be taken to overturn the lawfully conducted 2020 presidential election,” says the resolution sponsored by Sen. John J. Bell, D-Loudoun, with support from co-sponsoring Democrats. The measure seeks to censure Chase for “fomenting insurrection against the United States.”
In the Senate’s noon session, Chase preemptively spoke against the proposed censure, saying it was “outrageous” and “hypocritical” that lawmakers who had participated in social justice protests last summer, which Chase characterized as violent, would consider punishing her for speaking at the Jan. 6 “Save America March” event that immediately preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Last week, Chase’s official state Senate page was restricted by Facebook, not allowing her to broadcast live video or advertise for 60 days, or to post or comment on the page for a week.
Senate Democrats also called for Chase to resign following the breach of the U.S. Capitol, which led to five deaths, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher. She refused, defending her presence at the demonstration.
“If you’re going to call me out, I’m going to start calling people out in this room,” Chase warned Thursday as she stood inside a Plexiglas cubicle because she refuses to wear a face mask.
Chase said that she “will not be lectured about civility by the same politicians who remained silent while our cities and communities were burned and destroyed by domestic terrorists groups Antifa and BLM.” The senator then invoked the BLM slogan “Say her name,” which gained popularity in protests after Louisville, Kentucky, police shot and killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency room technician, last year in her apartment. However, Chase used the phrase in reference to Ashli Babbitt, a white California woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol officer while participating in the Capitol riots.
Chase also used the opportunity to promote her gubernatorial run, claiming, “The people of America had no one to fight for them until Trump; the people of Virginia had no one to fight for them until me,” Chase said.
The senator from Chesterfield further argued that she and other Republicans felt Virginia’s election laws had been degraded “under the pretense of COVID” and blamed state Democrats for creating loopholes for potential voter fraud, including ending the photo ID requirement at polling places and allowing ballots to be dropped off at unattended boxes.
She added that overwhelming numbers of Republican voters believe the election was stolen in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, although no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been proven in Virginia or other states. “I had to be there [at the rally] to represent those of us who believe the election was stolen from we the people.”
She described attendees at the Jan. 6 rally as “patriots” and said that the events she attended were “peaceful.” She said she did not support or call for violence. “I think it’s wrong what happened, and I stand against the violence.” In videos she posted that day on social media, Chase apparently left the area around the Capitol before the breach occurred and left Washington, D.C., entirely by mid-afternoon on Jan. 6.
“Repeating lies and conspiracy theories does not make them true,” said Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, after Chase’s speech. “The reason some voters’ confidence has been impacted is because some so-called leaders use misinformation, fake news and lies. Leadership requires truth.”
Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment Jr., R-Virginia Beach, also criticized Chase for using her Senate privileges to promote her governor campaign.
“The point of personal privilege is not to be prostituted for an individual of personal, political promotion that has previously been broadcast on social media to encourage people to watch,” Norment said, referring to a tweet by Chase on Wednesday, which promised “surprises” at the Senate session and encouraged her followers to tune in.
“I’m not a good person to throw the hatchet down in the ground in front of me, and I suggest that when we talk about lectures, I really don’t want a lecture on what’s going on with national politics,” Norment said. “I am more concerned about what we’re going to do here the next 27 or 28 days.”
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