At Board Meeting, Montco Commissioners Clash Over Capitol Riots

NORRISTOWN, PA — The day after rioters breached the U.S. Capitol building, the scheduled Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting did not pass without officials responding to the unrest that rocked the nation a day ago. Inevitably, the ensuing meeting was fraught with the issues of electoral uncertainty, racial justice, and unrest that have become emblematic of the past calendar year.

Commissioner Val Arkoosh began the meeting by echoing numerous other Pennsylvania Democrats who have placed blame for Wednesday's events on President Donald Trump.

"I joined with many others who have expressed outrage, dismay, and sadness at this insurrection, and at this seditious president who called it for it," Arkoosh said. "I commend Congress for finding the strength to reconvene last night and complete the people's business."

RELATED: Late-Night Chaos Erupts As Congress Debates PA Electoral Vote

Over objections from eight of Pennsylvania's nine Republican Congressmen, as well as similar objections lodged in Arizona, officials certified the Electoral College vote naming Joe Biden president in the overnight hours. Simmering tensions following the Pennsylvania objections and a speech from Rep. Conor Lamb nearly brought the chamber to blows.

Ever the foil to Democratic leadership in Montgomery County, Republican Commissioner Joe Gale responded to Arkoosh's opening words later in the meeting, when the floor was opened to him for comments. Gale, who came under fire for his comments about the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd, said the response to Wednesday's incident was a "purposeful and appalling" double-standard.

"I have consistently been a voice for law and order and spoken out against protests that devolve into riots, violence, and destruction," Gale said. "For doing this I have been smeared, censured, and physically targeted. Now politicians and the media are suddenly outraged after having spent the last year justifying, excusing, and often ignoring the unrest and the lawlessness that destroyed nearly every major city in the nation."

RELATED: 'Absolute Disgrace': Toomey, Other PA Reps Shelter Amid DC Riots

Arkoosh quickly quipped back, "Commissioner Gale, I have to clarify one part of your statement. You are a racist."

"You (published) racist statements that left the employees of our county government, and the 22 percent of your constituents who don't look like you, uncertain about where this county commission stood on matters of race," she added.

"That's a desperate attempt to peg me as a racist, which people know that I am not," Gale replied. "I had the courage to speak the truth."

They also sparred over the letterhead which Gale used for that letter; Arkoosh said it was county letterhead, Gale said it was his personal letterhead, but Arkoosh clarified that the issue had been his use of the county seal. The letterhead was a key point of the impeachment proceedings brought against Gale in the Pennsylvania state legislature, which never made it to the floor for discussion.

The tense exchanges came amidst a meeting that addressed several procedural issues of county business, including the transfer of funds to the county's restaurant grant program, and funding for programs that would help homeless residents amid the pandemic.