On Friday, The Gateway Pundit reported earlier that the Rushingbrook Children’s Choir was stopped mid-performance while singing the National Anthem at the US Capitol because it is considered a “demonstration.”
The children, part of the esteemed Rushingbrook Children’s Choir, had traveled to Washington, D.C. from South Carolina last Friday, May 26th, for a scheduled Capitol tour and had received prior approval to sing a short set of patriotic songs inside the historic Statuary Hall.
“We set it up, email was approved in the Speaker’s office with three Congressional offices,” said Micah Rea, founder and principal of The Rea Group and organizer of the trip.
South Carolina’s representatives, Joe Wilson, and William Timmons, were involved in granting the choir approval to enter the Capitol and had given their support to the performance.
“We had Capitol Hill Police come up to us and Sergeant on Arm’s office and then also the Speaker’s office. And the Speaker’s office tells us via the phone, that the speaker’s office is okay with the singing. Go ahead with it,” Rea told one of the parents.
“And then I have a Capitol security guy telling me it’s okay, here’s my card. Go ahead and start singing. If anybody comes up to you, just let ’em know. Here’s my card,” Rea added.
However, as the choir’s angelic voices filled the grand hall while they sang The Star-Spangled Banner with pride, the man from Rep. Joe Wilson’s office intervened, as he was told by the Capitol police to “Go, shut them down.”
The Gateway Pundit reached out to Mr. David Rasbach, Rushingbrook Children’s Choir Director, and shared with us what exactly happened.
Here is an excerpt from our conversation:
David Rasbach: The man who tapped me on the shoulder was from Joe Wilson’s office. He’s the one the police lady told to go shut us down. He came and tapped me on the shoulder, and I stopped the choir.
I walked over with him to the Capitol Police, and there were three Capitol Police. One was female, two were male. And it was the female that spoke, the other two never spoke.
I said, what’s the problem? And she said we can’t let you continue. I said, why not? And she said, this is considered a demonstration, and we don’t allow demonstrations inside the Capitol.
I said, “This is not a demonstration. This is simply a group of children singing the National anthem.” And she said, “Well, that’s considered a demonstration. We can’t allow you to continue.” And I said you’re telling me that a group of children can’t sing the National Anthem in their own Capitol? And she said, “That’s right.”
And then she said something, it might offend or it might be offensive to some.
I told her that we had permissions from Timmon’s office and from Joe Wilson’s office and the Speaker of the House, and she said, no, that’s not right. She said something like, they didn’t give you the correct information.
So then I turned to the children. I went over to where they were standing still very politely, and I said, we’re not going to be able to finish singing today. And they started a couple of them started to say, Ahhhh. And I said, no, we’re not going to have that attitude. I want you to have joy. I want you to smile. I want you to walk with your head held high, and I want you to not complain as we go out. I want you to be an example of the believer because we’re all Christian people.
I turned back to the Capitol Police and I said that I understand authority, and I obey authority. And I said, in fact, we try to teach these young children to respect and obey authority. So we’ve stopped singing because you said to stop. But I said, “This is wrong.”
The policeman interrupted, and she said, no, you are not allowed to sing. This is a demonstration. And I interrupted her, and I said, no, this is not a demonstration. This is simply singing a group of children singing the National Anthem in their own Capitol. And I said, what kind of impression do you think this has made on their young mind when they think about the Capitol for the rest of their life? They’re going to remember being shut down and not allowed to sing!
I said this is not over. We’re going to leave peacefully, but this isn’t over. We’re going to write to our congressman and see if we can get this changed.
One parent said, can we go to the Capitol steps outside and sing? These children have come here to sing, and they need a good memory. And the parents were saying, yes, let’s do it so that they can have a memory of singing at the Capitol. We got on the steps. Micah positioned the kids so that you could see the dome in the background. And we sang the National Anthem and America the Beautiful and another song or two.
I don’t care to sue. There is a possibility that we could. I had some legal counsel saying that it’s possible that you could sue. You might win. You might lose. But what I care about, I don’t want to embarrass the Capitol Police just because they’re the Capitol Police. It’s just that this wasn’t right. And it isn’t right that it was called a demonstration. And it isn’t right to shut down a group of kids.
“I think they should invite us back at their expense and have let us sing.”
However, the Capitol Police claim that they did not stop the kids from singing the National Anthem, which is a lie. You can clearly see in the video they stopped the innocent kids from singing the National Anthem.
“Recently somebody posted a video of a children’s choir singing the Star-Spangled Banner in the U.S. Capitol Building and wrongfully claimed we stopped the performance because it ‘might offend someone,’” the Capitol Police told The Daily Signal in an email statement. The police said, “Here is the truth. Demonstrations and musical performances are not allowed in the U.S. Capitol.”
The police said when confronted, “Of course, because the singers in this situation were children, our officers were reasonable and allowed the children to finish their beautiful rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner,” the statement added. “The Congressional staff member who was accompanying the group knew the rules, yet lied to the officers multiple times about having permission from various offices. The staffer put both the choir and our officers, who were simply doing their jobs, in an awkward and embarrassing position.”
The claim that musical performances are not allowed in the US Capitol is not true. Choirs have been singing inside the US Capitol, here are some instances.
Video posted 2 months ago: