Oregon Republicans call for expulsion of GOP lawmaker filmed plotting ahead of Capitol breach

Just days before an angry horde of Trump supporters stormed the Oregon capitol building last year, where they physically accosted law enforcement in an armed standoff, Republican state Rep. Mike Nearman – the lawmaker accused last month of surreptitiously letting the protesters inside – put on a closed-door presentation for his constituents feeding them detailed instructions on how to breach the building. The presentation, recorded on December 16 in an hour-plus video released last week by Oregon Public Broadcasting, begins innocuously, with Nearman coaching his constituents on how to access the state's government website so they can "develop some kinds of tools as far as knowing what the legislature is doing and how to participate in what the legislature is doing." "We are talking about setting up Operation Hall Pass, which I don't know anything about; and if you accuse me of knowing something about it, I'll deny it," Nearman explained carefully. Oregon House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner, a Democrat, said that Nearman's actions "are a stain on this state."