(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D–N.Y., refused to answer questions from a CNN reporter as to why he changed his story after he pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court on charges that he illegally pulled a fire alarm in the House office building.
“Mr. Bowman, why did you plead guilty to knowingly pulling that fire alarm, when you said you didn’t know it? You initially told us that you didn’t know it was a fire alarm,” CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju asked Bowman, with the exchange later being posted on Twitter.
Bowman dismissed the question by saying that it became irrelevant.
“Why are you still talking about this, man? That’s behind me, that’s been adjudicated, that’s done, paid the fine, moved forward — and in three months it’ll be dismissed,” Bowman said.
Nevertheless, Raju pressed on the issue.
“But you weren’t straight about what happened initially,” he said.
Bowman replied by saying that he was “very straight… from the very beginning.”
After Raju caught Bowman in his lie by pointing out that he previously said that he “didn’t know,” Bowman looked back and forth at other reporters and then interrupted Raju once more in the middle of a question to abruptly leave and avoid the uncomfortable questions.
“Peace and love, y’all,” Bowman said, which prompted Raju to say that he was gaslighting him and the American people by not answering the questions.
Bowman was criminally charged with a misdemeanor for causing a false fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building ahead of a Sept. 30, 2023, vote by D.C. Assistant Attorney General Peter Saba, which resulted in Bowman pleading guilty to pulling a House fire alarm one day after voting against a resolution condemning Hamas.
Bowman later said that he did not mean to pull the fire alarm, claiming that he did that because he was in a rush to go to vote. At the time, the House was debating and voting on a stopgap bill to fund the government temporarily and avert a shutdown.
