‘What else has to happen?’: Tim Ryan’s speech chastising GOP for blocking Capitol riot commission goes viral

Ohio congressman attracts almost 3.9m views for ripping into opposition over 6 January investigation

A Democrat angrily chastised GOP members who tried blocking a bi-partisan commission to investigate January’s Capitol riot, and went viral for it.

Tim Ryan, a congressman for Ohio, ripped into 175 members of the GOP who voted against forming a investigatory commission on Wednesday, accusing the group of “incoherence”.

“I want to thank the gentleman from New York and the other Republicans who are supporting this and thank them for their bipartisanship," Mr Ryan said of 35 members of the GOP who voted with Democrats, “[but] of our friends on the other side of the aisle, holy cow.”

He continued: “Incoherence. No idea what you're talking about. We had people scaling the Capitol, hitting the Capitol police with led pipes across the head, and we can’t get bi-partisanship.”

The Democrat, his hands thrown into the air with rage, added: “What else has to happen in this country? This is a slap in the face to every rank-and-file cop in the United States.”

An infuriated Mr Ryan finished by accusing the GOP living in an alternative reality.

“If we’re going to take on China, rebuild the country, if we’re going to reverse climate change, we need two political parties in this country that are both living in reality and you ain’t one of them,” the congressman told the House, pointing his finger at GOP members.

It follows calls for an investigatory commission into the Capitol attack – carried out by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman for Georgia, challenged Democrats for not forming a commission to investigate “Antifa” and Black Lives Matter “riots”.

"What's going to happen with the 6 January commission is the media is going to use this to smear Trump supporters and president Trump for the next few years," said Ms Greene, a controversial member of the GOP and ally of Mr Trump.

Dozens of GOP critics on Twitter cheered on Mr Ryan, with a user writing; “Tim Ryan is all of US right now. Bring it on”.

“This had me dancing in my living room while watching C-Span, thank you Tim Ryan for channelling our collective rage over 6 January,” wrote another. “I stood up and clapped in my living room.”

The bill to form a commission into the Capitol riot is due to go in front of the Senate within days, but faces a divided upper chamber and opposition from the GOP.